AMD vs Intel: Which one is better?
If you want to buy the best CPU for your PC, you have to choose one of the two – AMD or Intel. Until a few years ago, Intel was consistently the way to go for most use cases and budgets. In the past few years, AMD has surprised us by quickly gaining momentum with its Ryzen processors and becoming the recommended CPU brand for almost all use cases. Regardless, AMD versus Intel is still not a fight that has a clear winner.
Intel is far from completely out of the game. While Intel is lagging behind the curve, it still has some solid CPU offerings that could make for a decent buy. As silicon scarcity hits the market, CPUs are in short supply, which means the race between AMD and Intel will get pretty close at times. Let’s take a closer look at how AMD and Intel differ and which one is the better choice for CPU buyers.
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AMD vs Intel – where they stand
AMD and Intel have a long history in the semiconductor market. Intel is a Goliath in space who has been a leader in CPUs since the IBM era. AMD was on the scene quite early as a licensed manufacturer for Intel and others. Later on, their own chips were made, which offered cheaper alternatives to Intel. AMD’s first big moment came when the first x86_64 chip was introduced in 2003, defeating Intel. It was this 64-bit movement that advanced AMD. In the 2000s it became an Intel alternative with better value for money.
AMD and Intel have a mutual license agreement under which Intel lets AMD make x86 CPUs and AMD lets Intel use its x86_64 instruction set. AMD has historically been the underdog in this race. It lagged behind Intel because, among other architectural improvements, it did not implement a suitable equivalent of hyperthreading. Because of this, Intel’s low-end offerings have often been able to beat AMD CPUs with much higher core counts. All of this happened until AMD introduced its Zen architecture with the first generation Ryzen CPUs in 2017.
While AMD has brought a ton of architectural improvements with each new generation of Ryzen, Intel has struggled to shorten its manufacturing process. After several generations with 10nm and 14nm processes, Intel is running out of tricks to achieve significant increases in performance with each new generation. AMD currently uses a 7nm process. This is because Intel has its own production foundries, while AMD uses third-party foundries, such as TSMC’s.
Intel, on the other hand, has years of experience and therefore offers great performance despite the much larger manufacturing process. It also offers a wider range of CPU offerings at almost any price and better availability for all offerings in times of silicon shortages.
What does AMD offer?
AMD has a rather slim line of CPUs. With the new Zen architecture, the offers have been significantly optimized. There are options for consumers in a range of prices, though not as many as offered by Intel.
Flagship / high-end CPUs
If you look at the high end of AMD CPUs, there are a few options depending on their purpose. If you’re looking for the best CPU for gaming, it doesn’t get much better than the Ryzen 9 5950X. Alternatively, we have the Ryzen 9 5900X and the Ryzen 7 5800X, if you don’t want to give it your all. If you want high-performance CPUs with integrated GPUs, AMD just released the Ryzen 7 5700G and Ryzen 7 5700GE. Older generation Ryzen flagships from the 3000 series and OEM-only 4000G series are great chips too.
However, if you are looking for the absolute best performance you can get from an AMD CPU, then you should take a look at the AMD Ryzen Threadripper series processors. The current flagship of the series is the Ryzen Threadripper 3990X – an absolute beast with 64 cores and 128 threads. The Threadripper series needs an update, however, and we expect the even more powerful fourth generation to drop this year.
CPU entries in the medium and budget range
While it can offer some serious performance at the top where AMD really shines, its great value for money is in the mid-range. There are several options available in the Ryzen lineup, including the latest generation Ryzen 5 5600X and older chips that range from the Ryzen 7 3800X for the high end to the Ryzen 3 3100 for budget builds.
With integrated GPUs, there are also enough options in the medium and budget segments. The Ryzen 5 5600G and Ryzen 3 5300G from the newly launched 5000-series APU lineup are great options for the price, as are the 4000-series OEM-only APUs. AMD fills the low-end with its Athlon gold and silver chips.
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Graphics cards
This is one area where AMD has a significant advantage over Intel, even though it doesn’t lead the segment. Since taking over ATI, AMD has had a solid presence in the graphics card sector. The latest Radeon RX6000 GPU series is a testament to AMD’s ability to perform in terms of architecture improvement. These GPUs come very close in terms of performance to NVIDIA offerings that are similarly priced. While ray tracing is still a weakness, AMD GPUs are great value for money.
EPYC server solutions and other products
AMD doesn’t go too far beyond the customer base, but it has enough enterprise solutions to contain the space. The most notable are the AMD EPYC series of server CPUs and the AMD Instinct MI series of accelerators. In addition, AMD markets some of its consumer-level enterprise solutions under the Pro name, most of which are processor equivalents for consumer processors integrated into OEM systems. We expect a lot more diversification now that AMD has acquired Xilinx – a big name in the FPGA and networking business. The race between AMD and Intel is getting closer!
See also: AMD vs Nvidia – Which is the Best Add-in GPU for You?
What does Intel offer?
Intel is a veteran in the CPU and therefore has a much more diverse offering. There is an Intel chip in almost every price range and often more than just one. It wasn’t and always isn’t the best value for money, but it does have some interesting CPUs.
Flagship / high-end CPUs
When it comes to the high end of Intel CPUs, we have three series depending on how high the high end is supposed to be. Right at the top are the CPUs of the Intel Core X series, the fully unlocked versions of the Core i9 flagship chips from Intel. The Intel Core i9-10900X is currently at the top of the product range.
The X series has not yet been treated in the 11th generation. However, the Core i9 and i7 series have new 11th generation CPUs. The current i9 flagship is the Core i9-11900K, which is in a 14 nm process. In the i7 range you have the hot off the press Core i7-11700K. The 11th generation i9 and i7 models each offer several variants to choose from, so that numerous options are available.
CPU entries in the medium and budget range
Intel’s medium and budget options also offer a wider range, starting with the Core i5 and i3. With the treatment of the 11th generation, there are several innovations in the already strong mid-range from Intel. The i5-11600K and i3-1115G4 lead the lineup. Many CPU SKUs in these areas, combined with greater availability than AMD’s offerings, offer some serious considerations for balanced rigs.
At the lower end, we have the Pentium series. Pentium Gold and Silver, both of which received 11th generation updates. These are supplemented by the chips of the Celeron G series, which ensure an extremely tight budget. Due to Intel’s numerous low-budget SKUs, unlike AMD’s handful, there are many options to choose from.
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Graphics cards
This is an interesting chapter for Intel. After years of notoriously poor integrated graphics solutions, Intel has now stepped into the GPU arena. Intel’s Iris Xe graphics are a bit of a daunting entry into the GPU space that makes very little of a serious competitor. For the time being it is only about OEM systems. If Intel manages to fix ongoing CPU manufacturing issues, chances are that Intel GPUs could gain some mainstream appeal as an extension.
Xeon server CPUs, embedded processors, memory, networking and more
If we haven’t noticed enough, Intel is a much, much bigger company than AMD. The range goes far beyond the general consumer CPU market. Initially, the historically most popular server CPUs in the industry are available under the Xeon brand. Intel also has Atom, a line of products that was previously designed for low-power systems and is now used at the lower end of its server and network solutions. Then there is the Movidius series geared towards AI, the embedded solutions and the NUCs, not to mention the storage and network solutions.
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AMD vs Intel – How To Go From Here And Which One To Buy
AMD versus Intel is a battle that is far from over. As we’ve seen in the past, AMD has a flip-flop pattern where after some industry successes, it loses its way for a few years. On the flip side, Intel has pretty much always held the fort, only recently showing weaknesses that are in line with AMD’s current market surge.
Intel has had problems with its manufacturing processes for a number of years, and those problems seem far from over. Currently, the 11th generation chipsets have seen a backport from the 10nm process that Intel had finally achieved. This limits Intel to anywhere between 10-14 nm while AMD continues to run the most efficient process they can find.
The takeover of Xilinx by AMD also offers the opportunity to go beyond the regular range of consumer CPUs. While it will take a long time to reach Intel’s size, it doesn’t seem like the colossal impossibility it was a few years ago.
If you can make your current purchasing decisions, your best choice is an AMD chip. AMD offers an excellent price-performance ratio in all offers. Intel’s latest 11th generation upgrades seem like a lukewarm attempt at best. Intel is now a choice for those on a budget that AMD can’t do well or for those who need to pick a CPU without looking for stocks.
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