AMD vs. Intel: A Battle of CPU Titans

When it comes to choosing a processor for your next PC build, you have two choices - AMD VS Intel. The debate has become more and more intense with each passing generation. Both companies have taken great strides in power and efficiency, with each one-upping the other seemingly every year. In this blog, I'll dive into the key aspects of both AMD Ryzen and Intel processors, examining their strengths, weaknesses, and overall value proposition, to help you make an informed decision.

Performance - Inverting the Pyramid

Historically, AMD has struggled to keep up with Intel, with Intel having vastly superior budget and research potential. Perhaps Intel has spent the past few years resting on its laurels or, perhaps more cynically, they have got so used to dominating the market they have made several complacent years' worth of marginal improvements, taking advantage of consumers who are happy to pay whatever in order to keep up to date with the top of the range - meanwhile, AMD have been scrambling and have gone through two major product redesigns, going from the K10 Phenom and Athlon processors, through the major flop that was Bulldozer (FX Series) and landing, finally, on the big-hitter Ryzen family, which has taken Intel to right to the verge and forced some drastic moves from Team Blue.

Intel processors have always been known for their extremely strong single-threaded performance, which is in part due to their ability to run at higher clock speeds, and AMD have typically had strong multi-threaded performance thanks to simply cramming in more physical cores, but recent generations have shaken the charts somewhat, with both companies trading blows in multiple CPU performance battlegrounds, so the picture is rarely so clear any more.

In their latest generation, AMD have taken the crown of the ultimate gaming CPU with the Ryzen 7000 X3D series - X3D meaning it utilises a 3D V-Cache which, long story short, provides a tremendous advantage in gaming performance and which Intel have had no response to as things stand. This does come with a trade-off of higher pricing, meaning AMD's traditional undercut of Intel's prices is not quite so cut and dry any more. You may spend more to get an AMD setup, which I'll detail more later.

Intel's i9 processors still ultimately take the win in overall performance, as the high core count, extremely strong multi-threaded performance and high clock speeds make it a real weapon for productivity and content creation uses. Intel have also had to aggressively slash prices thanks to AMD significantly undercutting every generation prior to the current one, before finally coming out with a processor to top the charts - Intel could even be seen as the underdog, now! This means that, bizarelly, Intel may be a better value buy at the moment, but there are several reasons for this which, again, we'll cover in a later section.

Winner - Draw

Efficiency, Power Consumption and Heat

Things get interesting here, and it's reflected partly in what's included in the box. Remember when CPU coolers used to come bundled with the processor, and they were at least semi-capable of keeping the thing cool? AMD even introduced the Wraith coolers which absolutely shamed Intel's extremely basic aluminium bundled cooler, but even these are rarely included in the box any more.

This really comes down to the increasing power demand of new CPUs. It seems counter-intuitive, given the current economic situation, to be increasing power consuption exponentially with every generation for the sake of higher performance, but that's where we are.

Intel are the worst offenders for this. To make up for a sudden and unexpected chasm in architecture advancements (AMD Zen 4 architecture has moved to 5nm process node, while Intel is still currently on 7nm, which it has been since 2018), Intel has cranked voltage and clock speed and vastly increased the TDP of their chips. The i9 13900K has a turbo TDP of 253W, which is absolutely bonkers! Granted, it will very rarely hit that but under sustained load it will consistently reach just under 200W, which is still a level of power consumption that severely limits your choices when considering a cooler because there are precious few coolers on the market that are capable of keeping this thing below that 95 degree limit where it starts to throttle, and you can most definitely say goodbye to using that chip in a small form factor build where cooling is even the slightest bit compromised.

AMD don't get away with this entirely either, mind! While in no way to the same level as Intel, the power consumption of Zen 4 has jumped significantly from Zen 3, I assume partly because this generation is running at much higher clock speeds than ever before. The equivalent Ryzen 9 7950X will also consistently hit almost 170W under sustained load, a slightly more reasonable number than the i9 13900K, but in gaming it's a very different story, and that's because of the magical Ryzen 7 7800X3D. This chip matches or exceeds the i9 13900K in gaming, but manages to do this with twice the efficiency - the X3D doesn't get anywhere near its 120W TDP and generally stays well below 90W.

Winner - AMD

Pricing and Value

The value argument has shifted drastically with this latest generation. Throughout the range, most AMD and Intel CPUs match or are within a few percent in terms of performance, and at similar prices.

AMD, typically, has been the side to undercut the opposition and force Intel to slash prices to maintain competitiveness, but this past year or two Intel has found itself at a pure performance disadvantage so they have had to change the game.

AMD's value proposition is not helped by the fact that Zen 4 is on an entirely new process node architecture and, at the same time, has shifted from a PGA to LGA socket type, which means previous generation motherboards are not compatible whatsoever, which is not what we've been used to seeing for the past few generations. The shift to an entirely new socket is an expensive one, and also comes with support exclusively for DDR5 memory, which is significantly more expensive than DDR4 which, notably, Intel still supports with Raptor Lake (13th gen) CPUs. All this means that the entry cost for Zen 4 is high - much higher than we've become accustomed to with AMD and, for the first time in a long time, higher than Intel.

Winner - Intel

Budget CPUs

In the mid-range and budget section, this conversation takes a slightly different route again. The most popular choices in the midrange are the Ryzen 5 and Intel i5 processors, so let's compare those. The Intel i5 13600K was a strong choice in the midrange on release for its performance matching that of the Ryzen 5 7600X and undercutting the price, but this has changed again since AMD slashed the price of the 7600X to under £250. At that price it's unbeatable.

In terms of power consumption, the Ryzen 5 is significantly more efficient, while the i5 13600K is still at meme-worthy levels, consuming up to the same amount under load as a Ryzen 9 7950X. That is actually tragic.

The argument again comes back to the overall value and entry cost. Despite its lower price, it will cost considerably more to get a Ryzen 5 7600X working, because of the price of AM5 motherboards and DDR5 memory, whereas with the i5 13600K there is the potential that you could keep your current motherboard and DDR4 memory, depending on what you already have of course. That could be make or break for many, and so in this case I have to give the nod to Intel - yes, you will need the cooling system from the Hadron Collider to keep it under control, but you sacrifice little on raw performance and can potentially save some cash. The caveat, if you're building a SFF PC, for the love of God get the Ryzen.

Winner - Intel

Who Is the Top Dog?

It's more even than I can remember it being for a while, with prices looking pretty wild either side of the fence. It's a strange situation.

Overall, according to this blog, Intel takes the crown this year, but I am not sure how this is going to pan out for next generation. Reportedly, Intel is moving onto 5nm architecture with its next generation CPUs, so expect to see some huge efficiency and/or clock speed gains there (6GHz anyone?) and I would expect the entry price for Zen 4 to come down quite significantly with more budget boards becoming available and some movement on the used market.

Perhaps it's better to hold out...