Intel vs AMD

[DoverDemon]

Lately i've been hearing about Intel being better for gaming, but AMD has the budget.

Can anyone just explain the pros and cons between the two?

[MegaDave91]

Go with what your budget allows.

[Bluethulhu]

Honestly it's pretty hard to compare two behemoth companies as a whole. Intel CPUs are generally more expensive, and from a technical standpoint, are better for gaming. AMD CPUs however are generally cheaper and worse from gaming. If you don't skimp on your CPU, either one will be fine. It all boils down to your usage scenario. On a budget and just gaming? AMD. Workstation PC with extremely high/no budget? Intel.

[cjeffcoatjr]

AMD is usually better for both

[Mecami]

Yes Intel has the higher end processors, but many of them are very expensive. Up to a certain point AMD processors can no longer really compete with Intel's processors, at least not performance-wise. But that doesn't mean that AMD processors suck. An 8350 is still an absolutely capable processor, that can compete with the gaming oriented core processors from Intel. If it comes down to budget, yes AMD is starting to shine.

[Joshyy]

In rendering a good OC on a 8350 will bring it to the same level as a 3960x also overclocked.

 

In Gaming AMD comes *close* to Intels 4770k in most games (Margain of error), Minus skyrim, which even an Intel I3 beats the FX-8350, for some unknown reason.

 

Generally the rule of thumb is, if it uses less than 4 cores Intel would probably be faster (But more expensive), however, if it uses more than 4-6 cores (Compression, Rendering etc) AMD would normally be faster. 

[piplupgao]

Generaly if your budget is under $1000 AMD will be better

[Recon-UK]

You will encounter problems on FX series CPU's if a game is only made to use up to 4 cores.

Emulation will also be vastly superior on intel CPU's simply due to IPC, here is proof:

http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-CPU-Benchmark-designed-for-PCSX2-based-on-FFX-2

 

Other than that, the FX 8 series do match the Core i5's.

[Recon-UK]

Usually it's good enough to go with AMD and spend the extra cash on a better GPU. A lot of people are too obsessed with the CPU being the main power house. It's not. Of course, you'll need a proper CPU to handle that high end GPU, but way too often it's all fanboy masturbation about something that barely has any impact in most games. 

This, plus the FX's do really well in content creation.

[Buxty]

Fooshi has a really good point about the graphics being the main part to spend money on when it comes to gaming. It is worth nothing that although Intel does pretty much wipe the floor which most of what AMD offers, it is worth more to consider price to performance.

 

I myself use a AMD FX Bulldozer and know friends with i5's and there really isn't a big difference between the two, if there is i can't imagine its more than a few FPS at a push. If you have the budget to get a Intel CPU and a strong GPU aswell then go for it, you won't match the performance and i find used Intel gear holding their value on ebay all the time.

[MzCatieB]

Budget and intention.

-general use, AMD APU

-JUST gaming, go Amd FX 6core +

if you plan to do anything a little more over gaming

-Intel i5+

[TheBLOODYTOXIC]

There is not just one cake in the dessert table, there are pies, bana bread cakes, Low sugar cakes, extra sugar cakes etc 

 

You even know exactly for what things are you going use your pc?

 

Intel: Gaming i5-4670k

 

AMD: Gaming FX-8350

 

Will have the SAME performance there is not going to be HUGE different 3-5fps

 

Pros:

 

AMD:

Lately you can get a cheaper Mobo for AMD's.

Since the FX-8350 is Eight Core you will have a little more room for multitasking (streaming and playing) remember 3-9 fps of difference

 

Intel: Integrated Graphics which in this case doesn't matter

 

 

Cons:

 

AMD::You will have to buy a discrete Graphics Card but since you are going to use your computer for gaming does'nt matter

Intel: Expensive Mobos

 

 

For not doing a longer reply i just recommend watch comparisons and being from a non-fanboy stand-point

 

 

if you are going to do video editing, heavy things, etc (gaming is not a heavy cpu related thing) go for the $1000 intel cpu better know as Extreme Edition

[TechFan@ic]

For an in-depth comparison of Intel's & AMD's latest CPU architectures you can check out this thread : http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/48571-intel-amd-architectural-discussion-how-far-ahead-intel-really-is/

Very generally speaking AMD gives you more cores and more total performance throughput in most price points compared to Intel, while Intel gives you less cores and less total performance throughput but more performance per core and higher efficiency in most price segments.

A very rough estimate of performance puts AMD's modern six core CPUs on par with Intel's latest quad core i5 CPUs,

And eight core AMD CPUs on par with Intel's hyper-threaded quadcore i7 CPUs.

 

FX 6300 @ 3.5Ghz vs i5 4430 constant turbo on all 4 cores @ 3.0Ghz.
FX 6350 @ 3.9Ghz vs i5 4570 constant turbo on all 4 cores @ 3.4Ghz

 

Also generally speaking most games especially older ones can fully utilize up to 4 cores so in these games an Intel quadcore will outperform an AMD quadcore because of the better per core performance.
However most recent games and all future console ports will use 6 cores as standard and up to 8 cores with AMD's Mantle API.
So these games can take advantage of most or even all of the performance throughput that the AMD processors offer and thus going with an AMD six or eight core CPU makes sense.

[PillowSmoke]

AMD:

 

Good performance in multi-threaded programs/games.

Good if you're on a tight budget.

Great bang for the buck.

 

Intel:

 

Superb performance in terms of single threaded programs/games.

slighty better performance, only if you have a considerable amount of money to blow and will cost considerably more.

uses less power compared to amd chips.

 

Conclusion: Either company is good. If you do not have much money to spend on your build then I would go with AMD something in their FX line should be good. While on the other hand if your budget allows you to spend a large amount of money on the processor then in that case you should get a Intel processor. But do keep in mind that you are paying more money then the amount of performance you are getting out of the chip. 

 

Edit: Intel for insane work with many programs and stuff get either a I5 4570k or a I7 4770k. For Intel get either a 8350 or a 8320. And remember all of these processor are unlocked editions so I would recommend that you also pick up a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO/Plus to better cool these chips, while at the same time you came squeeze some extra performance out of them with the use of OC!