For those who’re on the lookout for the greatest CPUs for Gaming or the greatest workstation CPU, there are solely two decisions to select from – AMD and Intel. That reality has spawned an nearly spiritual following for each camps, and the ensuing AMD vs Intel flamewars, making it difficult to get unbiased recommendation about your best option in your subsequent processor. However in lots of circumstances, the reply is definitely very clear. In actual fact, for many customers, it is now a blowout win in Intel’s favor, as you possibly can see in our CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy. That is a quick reversal of fortunes for the chipmaker after its decade of dominance was utterly overturned by AMD’s Ryzen 5000 chips.
This text covers the endless argument of AMD vs Intel desktop CPUs (we’re not masking laptop computer or server chips). We decide the chips on seven standards based mostly on what you intend to do together with your PC, pricing, efficiency, driver assist, energy consumption, and safety, giving us a transparent view of the state of the competitors. We’ll additionally focus on the lithographies and architectures that affect the transferring goalposts. Total, there is a clear winner, however which CPU model you should purchase relies upon totally on what sort of options, value, and efficiency are vital to you.
For those who’re on the lookout for the quickest general chips available on the market, you must look to Intel’s potent new Alder Lake collection. Regardless that AMD clings to the excellence of getting the one quickest gaming chip out there, Intel’s Alder Lake chips take the gaming crown from AMD in all the most vital value bands. Alder Lake additionally rivals or beats AMD in all significant efficiency metrics, like single- and multi-threaded productiveness workloads. You may see the disruptive leads to our Intel Core i9-12900K and Core i5-12600K evaluation, and we have additionally added each our Home windows 10 and 11 testing to our CPU benchmark database. We have additionally thrown in outcomes with each DDR4 and DDR5 reminiscence for good measure.
Intel’s Alder Lake has utterly redefined x86 desktop PC chips with a brand new hybrid structure that delivers wonderful ranges of efficiency. To not be upstaged, AMD launched its Ryzen 7 5800X3D, a brand new CPU with 3D V-Cache. This chip takes the general management spot for gaming, if solely by a slight proportion, courtesy of as much as an almost-unthinkable 96MB of L3 cache bolted onto the souped-up processor.
You may see how all of those processors stack up in our AMD vs Intel CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy, however the panorama had modified within the wake of AMD’s latest processors, the Ryzen 9 5950X and Ryzen 9 5900X, to not point out the Ryzen 5 5600X. At their debut, the Ryzen 5000 collection had been the highest-performing chips available on the market and beat Intel in each metric that issues, together with gaming, utility efficiency, energy consumption, and thermals. Intel now has the sting with the Alder Lake chips. For more information, you possibly can head to our expansive in-depth protection of the Ryzen 5000 collection, together with pricing, benchmarks, and availability.
AMD additionally launched six different new Zen 3 chips to shore up its defenses towards Intel’s Alder Lake, however we have discovered that they do not affect the aggressive positioning a lot. AMD additionally has its Zen 4 chips coming earlier than the top of the yr. Which means the AMD vs Intel battle may shift in the direction of the tail finish of the yr, however that is the story of the tape for the present state of the market.
AMD vs. Intel: Which CPU is Greatest?
| Intel | AMD | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU Pricing and Worth | X | X |
| Gaming Efficiency | X | |
| Content material Creation/Productiveness | ✗ | |
| Specs | ✗ | |
| Overclocking | ✗ | |
| Energy Consumption | ✗ | |
| Drivers and Software program | ✗ | |
| Course of Node | ✗ | |
| Structure | X | ✗ |
| Safety | ✗ | |
| Winner: Intel – Complete | 7 | 5 |
Listed here are the outcomes of our evaluation and testing. Within the following sections, we’ll go over the in-depth particulars of how we got here to our conclusions for every class.
AMD’s relentless onslaught with its Zen-based processors has redefined our expectations for each the mainstream desktop and the HEDT markets, initially catching Intel flatfooted because it remained mired on the 14nm course of and Skylake architectures. The previous a number of years have seen AMD CPUs go from value-focused and energy hungry chips to leading-end designs that ship extra cores, extra efficiency, and decrease energy necessities.
Intel fought again by slowly including options and cores throughout its product stack, however that additionally resulted in damaging negative effects, like extra energy consumption and warmth era. That solely served to focus on the corporate’s struggles on the design and fabrication facet of its operation.
The AMD vs Intel CPU dialog has modified solely, although, as Intel has now undercut AMD’s price-to-performance ratio solely with the Alder Lake chips. Moreover, Alder Lake comes with probably the most disruptive change to Intel’s CPU general SoC design methodology, to not point out core architectures, that we have seen in a decade. In addition they include the brand new ‘Intel 7’ course of that has confirmed to be exceptionally aggressive. That shifted our rankings from a 7-to-4 benefit for AMD to a 7-to-5 benefit in Intel’s favor.
Intel even moved ahead to PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 applied sciences, leaving AMD’s PCIe 4.0 and DDR4 assist wanting fairly dated. DDR5 does add important price to motherboards, however Alder Lake additionally helps DDR4 reminiscence. Nonetheless, Intel nonetheless hasn’t eased its draconian segmentation insurance policies that restrict options, like overclockability, to expensive chips and motherboards. Intel’s tactic of compacting each penny out of each function had allowed AMD to supply a extra compelling worth story throughout the complete breadth of the buyer desktop CPU market.
Alder Lake’s low chip pricing and efficiency benefits now offset these upcharges, however Intel’s choice to solely convey its expensive Z-series motherboards to market at first does imply these decrease chip costs will nonetheless be hampered by a ‘motherboard tax’ — at the least till the cheaper B- and H- 600-series boards launch within the coming months.
Intel’s Alder Lake additionally holds the crown on overclockability. For those who spend the money on a Z690 motherboard, you will attain way more overclocking headroom than you will get with the Ryzen 5000 chips. You may see our head-to-head testing in our How one can Overclock Twelfth Gen Intel Alder Lake CPUs function.
Given AMD’s present mixture of value, efficiency, and worth, it must drop pricing on its Ryzen 5000 chips quickly with a view to stay aggressive. AMD has its new CPUs with 3D V-Cache headed to manufacturing later this yr, bringing as much as 15% extra gaming efficiency than the present Ryzen chips resulting from an almost-unthinkable 192MB of L3 cache bolted onto a souped-up Zen 3 processor. We’ll have to attend and see how that works out in the true world, although, however remember that AMD does have a response coming.
Nonetheless, Intel wins the CPU battle general proper now. An AMD processor may nonetheless be the higher alternative relying in your wants, like if you happen to prize the bottom energy consumption or less-expensive motherboards. For now, in order for you the very best in gaming or utility efficiency, overclocking or software program assist, or in order for you productiveness efficiency with out shopping for a discrete GPU, Group Blue deserves your hard-earned {dollars}.
AMD vs Intel CPU Pricing and Worth
Pricing is a very powerful consideration for nearly everybody, and AMD has usually been laborious to beat within the worth division. The corporate affords a plethora of benefits, like full overclockability on most fashions, to not point out complimentary software program that features the modern Precision Increase Overdrive auto-overclocking function. The corporate’s Ryzen 5000 collection processors mark an across-the-board $50 value hike, however the quicker chips earned their larger value tags. That calculus has modified now that Intel’s Alder Lake chips have retaken the efficiency crown and have brutally aggressive pricing — AMD might want to scale back its Ryzen 5000 pricing to stay aggressive.
You additionally profit from the broad compatibility of motherboards with the AM4 CPU socket that helps each ahead and backward compatibility, making certain that not solely do you get probably the most bang in your processor buck, but in addition your motherboard funding (there are caveats with the 5000 collection). Nonetheless, AMD’s long-lived assist for the AM4 socket now finds it trailing in connectivity choices whereas Intel’s chipsets have extra trendy facilities.
AMD additionally permits overclocking on all however its A-Collection motherboards (see our article on methods to overclock AMD Ryzen), which is a boon for fanatics. And, on this battle of AMD vs Intel CPUs, we have not even mentioned the precise silicon but.
| Processor Pricing by Household | AMD | Intel |
|---|---|---|
| Threadripper – Cascade Lake-X | $900- $3,750 | $800 – $1,000 ($2,999) |
| AMD Ryzen 9 – Intel Core i9 | $450 – $600 | $422 – $739 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 – Intel Core i7 | $294 -$449 | $298 – $409 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 – Intel Core i5 | $149 – $225 | $157 – $289 |
| AMD Ryzen 3 – Intel Core i3 | $95 – $120 | $97 – $154 |
The arrival of Intel’s Alder Lake-S fashions has discovered the corporate including extra cores, threads, and options to its mainstream lineup, however with out elevated gen-on-gen pricing for related fashions. That equated to a considerable discount in price-per-core and price-per-thread metrics, permitting it to steal the worth crown from AMD within the Core i3, i5, and i9 ranges. The addition of the hybrid x86 structure, which brings a mixture of high-performance and effectivity cores, has additionally wrung out extra efficiency. In the meantime, AMD nonetheless owns the HEDT section solely with its Threadripper processors.
Intel contains bundled coolers with its non-overclocking SKUs (it’s important to pay extra to overclock), however they’re flimsy and ‘adequate,’ at greatest. We have even seen circumstances the place Intel’s inventory coolers do not present full efficiency at inventory settings. Intel did barely bulk up its bundled coolers, however the aesthetic and slight thermal enhancements aren’t sufficient to match AMD’s competent coolers, and they don’t seem to be out there on all fashions.
Intel additionally does not throw in a cooler in any respect for its expensive overclockable Ok-series SKUs (see our article on methods to overclock an Intel CPU). So you’ll want to funds in a cooler (and a beefy one at that) if you happen to plan on overclocking an Intel processor. In the meantime, most of AMD’s bundled coolers are appropriate for at the least average overclocking. Nonetheless, these solely got here as a regular add-in with the previous-gen Ryzen 3000 collection, most of which have not been supplanted with new Ryzen 5000 equivalents but. Furthermore, solely three of the primary seven AMD Ryzen 5000 processors, the Ryzen 5 5600X, Ryzen 7 5700G, and Ryzen 5 5600G, include a bundled cooler.
Intel not solely fees a premium for its overclockable Ok-Collection chips, however you will additionally have to shell out for a dear Z-Collection motherboard for the privilege of overclocking your processor — Intel does not permit full overclocking on B- or H-series motherboards.
Intel has now enabled reminiscence overclocking on its B560 and H570 chipsets, which works with any chip suitable with the platform, that means all Tenth-Gen Comet Lake, Eleventh-Gen Rocket Lake, and Eleventh-Gen Comet Lake Refresh processors. Nonetheless, these modifications solely apply to 500-series fashions. Intel has but to launch the locked Alder Lake chips, however we count on it to increase the identical reminiscence overclocking options to the brand new household.
Intel additionally has an extended historical past of speedy socket transitions, that means the chances of dropping a brand new chip into your present motherboard, or taking the older processor over to a more recent board, aren’t as excessive. Intel’s Socket 1700 for Alder Lake will lengthen for at the least yet one more era, however plan for restricted ahead and backward compatibility on the Intel facet.
AMD’s Zen 3 chips are the top of the road for the tried-and-true AM4 socket, so that you should not count on these chips to work in future AMD platforms. Nonetheless, AMD has its new CPUs with 3D V-Cache headed to manufacturing later this yr. These chips will convey as much as 15% extra gaming efficiency courtesy of as much as an almost-unthinkable 192MB of L3 cache bolted onto a souped-up Zen 3 processor and can include the AM4 socket. Notably, Zen 4 processors will include a brand new socket.
Win: Tie.
While you’re evaluating Intel vs AMD CPUs, Group Purple has a compelling worth story throughout the complete breadth of its product stack, however Intel’s Alder Lake presently affords probably the most bang in your buck. Nonetheless, that’s solely after we take chip pricing into consideration. Intel’s choice to assist PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 with Alder Lake has resulted in elevated motherboard pricing, so these value variations can offset one another in sure value bands. Intel nonetheless holds the general price-to-performance benefit, although, even after we think about motherboard pricing. In fact, it’s also possible to go for DDR4 motherboards to keep away from the DDR5 tax.
For those who’re on the lookout for built-in graphics paired with a processor with greater than eight cores, Intel is presently your solely alternative for chips at retail. AMD does have its ‘Cezanne’ Ryzen 5 5600G and Ryzen 7 5700G APUs with built-in graphics. Nonetheless, these chips include pared-back CPU efficiency in alternate for beefy built-in graphics, that means they will not provide practically the identical degree of efficiency in CPU-centric duties.
Not that we might advocate built-in graphics for many customers, significantly if you happen to’re fascinated with gaming—take a look at our current comparability of built-in graphics on AMD and Intel processors for extra element.
AMD vs Intel CPU Gaming Efficiency
Within the AMD vs Intel CPU battle, Intel holds the lead in all crucial value bands. Under we’ve got a big selection of collective gaming efficiency measurements for the prevailing chips within the completely different value bands. As well as, we’ve got two collection of take a look at outcomes under that encapsulate efficiency in each Home windows 10 and Home windows 11 as a result of Intel’s Alder Lake affords extra efficiency in Home windows 10 than 11. Regardless, the Blue Group holds the lead in each working methods. You may see a way more holistic view in our CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy.
Our first 4 slides encapsulate Home windows 11 gaming efficiency with the brand new Alder Lake and Ryzen 5000 processors included, whereas the Home windows 10 slides present a bigger number of processors.
As you possibly can see, Intel’s Alder Lake chips are quicker than AMD’s Zen 3-powered Ryzen 5000 processors in all areas however one — the Ryzen 7 5800X3D that takes the general lead. Nonetheless, you will have to concentrate on the tradeoffs with this highly-specialized chip — the 3D V-Cache does not enhance efficiency in all video games, although we discovered that it impacted practically each single sport we examined. Moreover, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is optimized particularly for gaming, however as you will see under, it may’t maintain tempo with similarly-priced chips in productiveness functions.
The Core i9-12900K and Core i9-12900KS slot in as Intel’s quickest gaming chips, value be damned, however the Core i7-12700K delivers mainly the identical gaming efficiency for much much less money, making it the go-to alternative for efficiency addicts. For mainstream players, the Core i5-12600K affords the very best mix of value and efficiency that you’ll find available on the market, bar none.
The Ryzen 9 5900X slots in as AMD’s second-fastest quickest gaming chip, however not by a lot. The Ryzen 5 5600X affords practically the identical degree of efficiency at a friendlier $300 value level.
That stated, whereas the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is quicker than Intel’s Core i9-12900KS, even after overclocking, most customers can be hard-pressed to note the distinction between the 2 in real-world gaming periods until they’re doing a number of different duties on the similar time, like gaming.
We have now in-depth head-to-head comparisons for each Alder Lake and Intel’s previous-gen Rocket Lake towards Ryzen 5000 in every of the important thing value brackets within the following articles:
Nonetheless, keep in mind that the efficiency delta between Intel and AMD’s comparably-priced chips usually is not value paying an enormous premium, at the least for the overwhelming majority of fanatics. You would be hard-pressed to note the small variations in gaming efficiency on the high of the AMD vs Intel stack, however issues are extra sophisticated within the mid-range.
You may want a fire-breathing high-end GPU and one of many greatest gaming screens with a excessive refresh charge to get probably the most out of a small efficiency benefit, and you may have to sport on the mundane 1080p decision, too. Kicking your decision as much as 1440p and past sometimes pushes the bottleneck again to the GPU, so you will not achieve as a lot out of your CPU’s gaming prowess. Nonetheless, a bit of additional CPU gaming efficiency may repay if you happen to plan on updating your graphics card with a more recent era whereas holding the remainder of your system intact. We count on most builds within the mid-range to come back with lesser GPUs, which usually function an equalizer when it comes to CPU efficiency.
By way of built-in graphics efficiency, there is not any beating AMD. The corporate’s current-gen Cezanne APUs provide the very best efficiency out there from built-in graphics with the Ryzen 7 5700G and Ryzen 5 5600G. Hit these critiques for a devoted breakdown, or head to our CPU Benchmark hierarchy for much more element.
Winner: Intel
Intel’s Alder Lake chips have wrested the gaming crown from AMD within the crucial value bands. AMD has the general lead with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, however that chip comes with a string of caveats that you need to be conscious of if you happen to plan on the improve — the cache does not speed up all video games and it additionally does not affect efficiency in functions. That stated, taken as an entire, each corporations have extraordinarily aggressive chips within the respective value ranges — you will usually be hard-pressed to note a distinction between them in real-world gaming.
For those who’re a gaming fanatic that prizes each single final body you possibly can squeeze out within the broadest vary of titles, Intel’s Core i9-12900K is the reply on the high-end, and that can even repay if you happen to plan to improve your GPU quickly. For those who’re on the lookout for a lower-priced chip that provides the identical gaming efficiency however exchanges some heft in productiveness functions for a lower cost tag, the Core i7-12700K is your chip. For the overwhelming majority, the Core i5-12600K affords the very best mix of value and efficiency, making it the uncontested greatest CPU for gaming.
AMD vs Intel Productiveness and Content material Creation Efficiency
Within the non-gaming efficiency battle of AMD vs Intel CPUs, Intel’s Alder Lake chips have additionally made nice strides towards AMD’s most interesting and provide a superior price-to-performance ratio in a broad swath of workloads. That stated, AMD’s highest-end chip takes the outright win when it comes to the final word efficiency in threaded productiveness and content material creation functions in a couple of workloads. That comes courtesy of its copious slathering of cores, threads, and cache on its flagship Ryzen 9 5950X. Nonetheless, these wins come on the expense of a a lot larger value level, and it is not sufficient to justify the premium.
Alder Lake marks the debut of a combination of two sorts of cores for the mainstream desktop PC. The large efficiency cores (P-cores) are greatest for latency-sensitive work, giving Intel the uncontested lead in single-threaded functions. The effectivity cores (E-cores) step in so as to add some further heft in threaded and background functions, which pays massive dividends in heavily-threaded content material creation and productiveness functions. The E-cores have confirmed to be the unsung hero for Alder Lake in creativity and productiveness workloads, permitting Intel to take the lead from AMD in a very powerful pricing bands.
Stable efficiency in single-threaded work equates to quicker efficiency in all method of workloads, significantly day-to-day functions that depend on snappy responsiveness from the processor. The Alder Lake Core i9-12900K has taken the uncontested lead in single-threaded efficiency throughout the complete spate of our benchmarks, however that is Intel’s costliest mainstream CPU. For those who’re on the hunt for snappy single-threaded efficiency, the opposite Alder Lake processors additionally take comparatively massive leads over competing AMD processors. Which means Intel’s Alder Lake household holds the single-threaded efficiency crown.
Winner: Intel. For professionals on the hunt for efficiency in content material creation and productiveness functions, the winner of AMD vs Intel CPUs goes to Intel on the power of its x86 hybrid structure. This new design blends two sorts of cores to create a single powerhouse processor structure that is simply as agile in single-threaded work as it’s highly effective in threaded functions.
AMD vs Intel Processor Specs and Options
AMD has its Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5, Ryzen 7, Ryzen 9, and Threadripper traces, whereas Intel breaks its choices up into the Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, Core i9, and Cascade Lake-X households. To check Intel vs AMD CPUs based mostly on specs and options, we may chart your entire product stacks, however for the sake of brevity, we’ll concentrate on the highest chips within the respective households. Remember that each corporations have worth choices inside every tier, however we will get a basic sense of the present aggressive panorama with these (comparatively) quick lists. We’re utilizing each distributors’ advisable pricing and road pricing to present you a way of the present state of the market.
The excessive finish desktop (HEDT) is the land of inventive prosumers with fire-breathing multi-core monsters for nearly each want. Intel has lengthy loved the uncontested lead on this section, however whereas AMD’s first-gen Threadripper lineup disrupted the established order, the Threadripper 3000 lineup destroyed it.
| Excessive Finish Desktop (HEDT) | MSRP / Retail | Cores / Threads | Base / Increase GHz | L3 Cache | TDP | PCIe | Reminiscence |
| Threadripper 3990X | $3,990 / $3,750 | 64 / 128 | 2.9 / 4.3 | 256 | 280W | 72 Usable Gen4 | Quad DDR4-3200 |
| Intel W-3175X | $2,999 / N/A | 28 / 56 | 3.1 / 4.8 | 38.5 | 255W | 48 Gen3 | Six-Channel DDR4-2666 |
| Threadripper 3970X | $1,999 / $1,899 | 32 / 64 | 3.7 / 4.5 | *128 | 280W | 72 Usable Gen4 | Quad DDR4-3200 |
| Threadripper 3960X | $1,399 / $1,399 | 24 / 48 | 3.8 / 4.5 | *128 | 280W | 72 Usable Gen4 | Quad DDR4-3200 |
| Xeon W-3265 | $3,349 / N/A | 24 / 48 | 2.7 / 4.6 | 33 | 205W | 64 Gen3 | Six-Channel DDR4-2933 |
| Core i9-10980XE | $979 / $1,099 | 18 / 36 | 3.0 / 4.8 | 24.75 | 165W | 48 Gen3 | Quad DDR4-2933 |
Right here we will see that with regards to AMD vs Intel HEDT CPUs, AMD holds the uncontested lead with 64 cores and 128 threads in its flagship Threadripper 3990X, and the 32- and 24-core Threadripper 3970X and 3960X fashions cement the overwhelming lead over Intel’s chips.
Intel splits its highest-end lineup into two courses, with the Xeon W-3175X and W-3265 dropping into unique LGA3647 motherboards that carry eye-watering value tags to match the chips’ insane pricing. These aren’t actually enthusiast-class methods, although; consider these as extra for the skilled workstation market.
Intel’s HEDT lineup really begins with its 18-core Cascade Lake-X Core i9-10980XE that drops into present LGA2066 motherboards. The chip is highly effective given its value level, however Threadripper’s 3.5X benefit in core counts is not possible to beat, so Intel has mainly ceded the highest of the HEDT stack to AMD.
You may get extra cores, cache, and quicker PCIe 4.0 connectivity with AMD’s Threadripper lineup, however they do include larger value tags befitting such monstrous processors. Nonetheless, after we boil it all the way down to per-core pricing, or how a lot you pay for every CPU core, AMD does provide a compelling worth story.
| Value Avenue/MSRP | Design – Arch. | E/P – Core|Thread | P-Core Base/Increase (GHz) | E-Core Base/Increase (GHz) | TDP / PBP / MTP | Reminiscence Assist | L3 Cache | |
| Core i9-12900KS | $739 | Alder Lake | >8P + 8E | 16C / 24T | 3.4 / 5.5 | 2.5 / 4.0 | 150W / 241W | DDR4/5-3200/4800 | 30MB |
| Ryzen 9 5950X | $600 ($799) | Zen 3 – Vermeer | 16P | 32T | 3.4 / 4.9 | – | 105W | DDR4-3200 | 64MB (2×32) |
| Core i9-12900K / KF | $589 (Ok) – $564 (KF) | Alder Lake | 8P+8E | 16C/24T | 3.2 / 5.2 | 2.4 / 3.9 | 125W / 241W | DDR4/5-3200/4800 | 30MB |
| Ryzen 9 5900X | $450 ($549) | Zen 3 – Vermeer | 12P | 24T | 3.7 / 4.8 | – | 105W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB (1×32) |
| Ryzen 7 5800X3D | $449 | Zen 3 – Vermeer | 8P | 16T | 3.4 / 4.5 | – | 105W | DDR4-3200 | 96MB |
| Core i7-12700K / KF | $409 (Ok) – $384 (KF) | Alder Lake | 8P+4E | 12C/20T | 3.6 / 5.0 | 2.7 / 3.8 | 125W / 190W | DDR4/5-3200/4800 | 25MB |
| Ryzen 7 5800X | $350 ($449) | Zen 3 – Vermeer | 8P | 16T | 3.8 / 4.7 | – | 105W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB |
| Ryzen 7 5700X | $299 | Zen 3 – Vermeer | 8P | 16T | 3.4 / 4.6 | – | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB |
| Ryzen 7 5700G (APU) | $295 ($359) | Zen 3 – Cezanne | 8P | 16T | 3.8 / 4.6 | – | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB |
Within the battle of high-end AMD vs Intel CPUs, AMD’s Ryzen 9 and Ryzen 7 households sq. off towards Intel’s Core i9 and Core i7 lineup. Right here Intel holds loads of platform benefits, like assist for DDR5 and PCIe 5.0, whereas AMD tops out at PCIe 4.0 and DDR4.
The Core i9-12900K holds the throne as the very best all-around processor for gaming, single- and multi-threaded work, whereas the Ryzen 9 5950X takes a couple of scant leads in some sorts of multi-threaded work. Nonetheless, that comes at a giant tradeoff in efficiency within the different classes. Technically the 12900K falls into the identical value bracket because the Ryzen 9 5900X, however that is not a good combat — the 12900K wins arms down. You may see these three processors go face to face in our Core i9-12900K vs Ryzen 9 5950X and Ryzen 9 5900X faceoff.
The same story performs out within the decidedly extra mainstream Ryzen 7 and Core i7 markets. Actually, these are the chips nearly all of players can buy if they’ve sufficient money, although the Core i5 and Ryzen 5 fashions within the subsequent class are even higher for that activity. Right here Intel’s Core i7-12700K affords practically the identical gaming efficiency because the Core i9-12900K, albeit on the expense of some threaded horsepower in productiveness functions, however at a far lower cost level.
Certainly, the Core i7-12700K dominates its value level because it simply beats the price-comparable Ryzen 7 5800X and affords a much better mix of efficiency than the Ryzen 9 5900X. You may see these battles in additional element within the Core i7-12700K vs Ryzen 9 5900X and Ryzen 7 5800X faceoff.
| Value Avenue/MSRP | Design – Arch. | E/P – Core|Thread | P-Core Base/Increase (GHz) | E-Core Base/Increase (GHz) | TDP / PBP / MTP | Reminiscence Assist | L3 Cache | |
| Core i5-12600K / KF | $289 (Ok) – $264 (KF) | Alder Lake | 6P+4E | 10C/16T | 3.7 / 4.9 | 2.8 / 3.6 | 125W / 150W | DDR4/5-3200/4800 | 16MB |
| Ryzen 5 5600X | $225 ($299) | Zen 3 – Vermeer | 6P | 12T | 3.7 / 4.6 | – | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB |
| Ryzen 5 5600G (APU) | $220 ($259 ) | Zen 3 – Cezanne | 6P | 12T | 3.9 / 4.4 | – | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 16MB |
| Ryzen 5 5600 | $199 | Zen 3 – Vermeer | 6P|12T | 3.5 / 4.4 | – | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB |
| Core i5-12400 / F | $192 – $167 (F) | Alder Lake | 6P+0E | 6C/12T | 4.4 / 2.5 | – | 65W / 117W | DDR4/5-3200/4800 | 18MB |
| Ryzen 5 3600X | $250 ($240) | Zen 2 | 6P | 12T | 3.8 / 4.4 | – | 95W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB |
| Ryzen 5 3600 | $229 ($200) | Zen 2 | 6P | 12T | 3.6 / 4.2 | – | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB |
| Ryzen 5 5500 | $159 | Zen 3 – Cezanne | 6P | 12T | 3.6 / 4.2 | – | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 16MB |
| Ryzen 5 4600G (APU) | $154 | Zen 2 – Renoir | 6P | 12T | 3.7 / 4.2 | – | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 8MB |
| Value Avenue/MSRP | Design – Arch. | E/P – Core|Thread | P-Core Base/Increase (GHz) | TDP / PBP / MTP | Reminiscence Assist | L3 Cache | |
| Ryzen 5 5500 | $199 | Zen 3 – Cezanne | 6P | 12T | 3.6 / 4.2 | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 16MB |
| Ryzen 5 4600G (APU) | $154 | Zen 2 – Renoir | 6P | 12T | 3.7 / 4.2 | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 8MB |
| Core i3-12100 / F | $122 – $97 (F) | Alder Lake | 4P+0E | 4C/8T | 3.3 / 4.3 | 60W / 89W | DDR4/5-3200/4800 | 12MB |
| Ryzen 5 4500 | $129 | Zen 2 – Renoir | 6P | 12T | 3.6 / 4.1 | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 8MB |
| Ryzen 3 4100 | $99 | Zen 2 – Renoir | 4P | 8T | 3.8 / 4.0 | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 4MB |
Relating to AMD vs Intel mid-range and funds CPUs, the Core i5 and i3 households do battle with AMD’s Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 3 processors. This market section contains probably the most substantial portion of AMD and Intel’s gross sales, so pricing and worth listed here are paramount. Sadly, resulting from provide points, each AMD and Intel have largely uncared for this section of the market with their newest releases as they concentrate on extra worthwhile higher-end chips. Which means the Ryzen 5000 and Alder Lake households have restricted choices on the low finish.
AMD’s Ryzen 5 5600X was the mainstream gaming darling for over a yr, however the Core i5-12600K has completely unseated it with class-leading efficiency in all aspects, together with gaming, single- and multi-threaded functions. In actual fact, the Core i5-12600K is even a greater worth than the dearer Ryzen 7 5800X that resides in the next pricing tier. You may see that spectacular efficiency extra intently in our Core i5-12600K vs Ryzen 5 5600X and Ryzen 7 5800X faceoff.
AMD additionally leans on its prior-gen Zen 2 APUs, just like the Ryzen 5 4600G, to fend off Intel’s lower-end chips. For those who’re on the lookout for a sub-$200 chip for gaming, Intel wins by an enormous margin. That stated, AMD’s APUs include potent Vega graphics items that allow low-end gaming throughout a broad spate of titles. Intel’s chips cannot maintain a candle there—you will want a discrete GPU if you happen to plan to do any significant gaming.
Neither vendor affords built-in graphics items (iGPU) with their HEDT chips. Nonetheless, though Intel sells its graphics-less F-Collection chips for a reduction, it holds the benefit of getting a graphics possibility throughout the complete breadth of its mainstream product stack.
In distinction, AMD solely affords built-in graphics on its APU fashions, which implies you will want a discrete graphics card (GPU) for any retail chip that has greater than 4 cores (or prices greater than ~$150). That is a big drawback for many mainstream customers who aren’t fascinated with gaming and eliminates a giant chunk of the skilled/OEM markets. Intel’s iGPUs are largely ineffective for gaming however are helpful for show and QuickSync functions, whereas AMD’s iGPUs provide the very best gaming expertise, arms down. Nonetheless, AMD’s restricted choice cuts it out a good portion of the market.
Winner: Intel. While you examine AMD vs Intel CPU specs, you possibly can see that Intel affords choices with decrease pricing, extra efficiency, and a extra trendy platform that helps each DDR5 and PCIe 5.0. In the meantime, AMD’s growing old AM4 ecosystem has soldiered on for six lengthy years now, hamstringing the corporate’s capacity to maneuver ahead to quicker interfaces.
AMD vs Intel CPU Energy Consumption and Warmth
When evaluating AMD vs Intel CPU energy and warmth, the previous’s 7nm course of node makes an enormous distinction. Energy consumption comes as a byproduct of design decisions, like lithography and structure, which we’ll focus on under. Nonetheless, larger energy consumption usually correlates to extra warmth era, so you will want beefier coolers to offset the warmth output of greedier chips.
As we will see, the Alder Lake chips devour far much less energy than the Rocket Lake chips. Total, Intel has diminished its energy consumption from meme-worthy to a suitable degree. Apart from, Alder Lake is way quicker than the previous-gen chips, incomes it some forgiveness.
Intel had improved its 14nm processes to strengthen its power-to-performance ratio by greater than 70% within the 5 lengthy years it has been available on the market, however Intel’s later 14nm generations had been recognized for prime energy consumption and warmth than AMD’s Ryzen 5000. That is as a result of Intel has needed to flip the ability dial up additional with every era of chips to supply extra efficiency because it fended off the resurgent AMD.
That made Intel a infamous energy guzzler, however that has modified with Alder Lake. Paired with the x86 hybrid structure, the debut of the ‘Intel 7’ course of has introduced massive enhancements to Intel’s energy consumption and effectivity metrics.
Sure, the Intel Alder Lake chips nonetheless suck extra energy than AMD’s Ryzen 5000 collection chips, however pairing the Intel 7 course of with the hybrid structure brings massive enhancements, significantly in threaded work.
Nonetheless, in mixture, AMD’s 7nm chips both devour much less energy or present significantly better power-to-performance effectivity. Consequently, you will get extra work performed per watt of power consumed, which is a win-win, and AMD’s cooling necessities aren’t practically as overbearing.
In actual fact, the Ryzen 5000 collection chips are probably the most power-efficient desktop PC chips we have ever examined, with the Ryzen 5 5600X providing the very best effectivity.
Winner: AMD. In judging AMD vs Intel CPU efficiency per watt, It is not possible to overstate the significance of getting the densest course of node paired with an environment friendly microarchitecture, and TSMC’s 7nm and AMD’s Zen 3 are the profitable mixtures. The newest Ryzen processors devour much less energy on a performance-vs-power foundation, which equates to much less warmth era. That eases cooling necessities.
AMD vs Intel CPU Overclocking
There is not any debate once you examine Intel vs AMD CPU overclocking. Intel affords probably the most overclocking headroom, that means you possibly can achieve extra efficiency over the baseline pace with Intel chips than you possibly can with AMD’s Ryzen processors. Above you possibly can see that in chart kind, and here is that very same knowledge in desk kind, exhibiting that Intel’s Alder Lake affords way more overclocking headroom than Ryzen 5000:
| Tom’s {Hardware} – %age Change | 1080p Gaming | Single-Thread | Multi-Thread |
| Core i9-12900K DDR4/ DDR5 | +9.7% / +5.2% | +1.6% / +3.2% | +3.3% / +7% |
| Ryzen 9 5950X | +5% | -2.3% | +5.7% |
| Core i7-12700K DDR4/ DDR5 | +9.8% / +7.1% | +2.3% / +2.1% | +3.9% / +6.4% |
| Ryzen 9 5900X | +3.7% | -0.6% | +2.1% |
| Core i5-12600K DDR4/ DDR5 | +15.2% / +12.9% | +4% / +4.2% | +8.8% / +11.3% |
| Ryzen 5 5600X | +6.7% | +3.8% | +2.7% |
As talked about, you will need to pay a premium for Intel’s Ok-Collection chips and buy a dear Z-Collection motherboard, to not point out splurge on a succesful aftermarket cooler (ideally liquid), to unlock the very best of Intel’s overclocking prowess. Nonetheless, after you have the mandatory components, Intel’s chips are comparatively straightforward to push to their max, which frequently tops out at over 5 GHz on all cores with the Eleventh-Gen Rocket Lake and Twelfth-Gen Alder Lake processors.
Intel does not permit full overclocking on B- or H-series motherboards, nevertheless it has infused reminiscence overclocking into its B560 and H570 chipsets, and that works with any chip that’s suitable with the platform, that means all Tenth-Gen Comet Lake, Eleventh-Gen Rocket Lake, and Eleventh-Gen Comet Lake Refresh processors. Nonetheless, these modifications solely apply to 500-series fashions. That may present a giant enhance to locked chips, just like the Core i5-11400 we lately reviewed, and we count on these beneficial properties to hold over to Intel’s forthcoming lower-end Alder Lake chips.
AMD does not have as a lot room for guide tuning. In actual fact, the utmost achievable all-core overclocks usually fall a couple of hundred MHz beneath the chips’ most single-core enhance. Which means all-core overclocking can truly lead to shedding efficiency in lightly-threaded functions, albeit a minor quantity.
A part of this disparity stems from AMD’s tactic of binning its chips to permit some cores to spice up a lot larger than others. In tandem with AMD’s Precision Increase and modern thread-targeting method that pegs lightly-threaded workloads to the quickest cores, AMD exposes near-overlocked efficiency proper out of the field. That leads to much less overclocking headroom.
Nonetheless, AMD affords its Precision Increase Overdrive, a one-click auto-overclocking function that may wring some additional efficiency out of your chip based mostly on its capabilities, your motherboard’s energy supply subsystem, and your CPU cooling. AMD’s strategy offers the very best efficiency doable together with your alternative of elements and is mostly hassle-free. In both case, you continue to will not obtain the excessive frequencies you will see with Intel processors (5.0 GHz continues to be exceptional with an AMD chip with out liquid nitrogen cooling), however you do get a free efficiency enhance.
AMD has additionally vastly improved its reminiscence overclocking capabilities with the Ryzen 5000 collection, which comes as a byproduct of the improved material overclocking capabilities. That permits AMD reminiscence to clock larger than earlier than whereas nonetheless retaining the low-latency attributes that enhance gaming efficiency.
Winner: Intel. Relating to AMD vs Intel CPU overclocking, Group Blue has way more headroom and far larger attainable frequencies. Simply be ready to pay for the privilege – you will have to purchase a Ok-series processor. Intel has added reminiscence overclocking to the most recent B- and H-series motherboards, which is an enchancment.
AMD’s strategy is friendlier to entry-level customers, rewarding them with hassle-free overclocking based mostly on their system’s capabilities, however you do not achieve as a lot efficiency.
AMD vs Intel CPU Lithography
There are a couple of main underlying applied sciences that dictate the efficiency of any chip. Essentially the most elementary rule of processors nonetheless holds true: The densest course of nodes, supplied they’ve respectable energy, efficiency, and space (PPA) traits, will usually win the battle if paired with a stable microarchitecture. While you decide AMD vs Intel CPUs based mostly on these standards, AMD has the lead in lithography.
However whether or not or not AMD truly owns the method lead is a subject of debate: In contrast to Intel, AMD does not produce its processors. As a substitute, the corporate designs its processors after which contracts with exterior fabs that really produce the chips. Within the case of AMD’s current-gen Ryzen processors, the corporate makes use of a mixture of GlobalFoundries 12nm course of and TSMC’s 7nm node for its chips, with the latter being a very powerful.
TSMC’s 7nm node is utilized by the likes of Apple and Huawei, amongst many others, so it advantages from industry-wide funding and collaborative engineering. In distinction, Intel itself says its course of tech will not retake the management crown till it releases its ‘Intel 20A’ node (2024 timeframe).
The advantages of TSMC’s 7nm node imply AMD can construct cheaper, quicker, and denser chips with extra efficiency cores, and all inside a comparatively low energy consumption envelope.
Intel has seen a little bit of a resurgence with its new Alder Lake lineup. Intel etches these cores on its ‘Intel 7’ course of, lastly ending the distress of the 14nm node after six lengthy years that finally price the corporate its efficiency lead over AMD in desktop PCs. We beforehand knew this ‘Intel 7’ manufacturing tech as 10nm Enhanced SuperFin, however Intel lately renamed its course of nodes to match {industry} nomenclature. Technically, that is the second era of Intel’s 10nm course of, nevertheless it’s a primary for desktop PCs.
The brand new ‘Intel 7’ node brings the corporate into a lot nearer competitors with AMD on the method node entrance. Sure, Alder Lake nonetheless sucks extra energy than AMD’s Ryzen 5000 collection chips, however the arrival of the Intel 7 course of does mark a giant enchancment. Total, Intel has diminished its energy consumption from meme-worthy to a suitable degree. Alder Lake can also be a lot quicker than its predecessor, which lends itself to vastly improved energy effectivity metrics.
AMD’s solely concern is manufacturing capability: Whereas AMD has entry to 7nm manufacturing, the corporate cannot supply sufficient silicon from TSMC, at the least within the close to time period, to match the ability of Intel’s captive fabs. That leaves AMD uncovered to shortages and probably restricts market penetration, significantly in the course of the ongoing international chip shortages.
AMD’s CPUs and GPUs are sometimes nearly not possible to search out at retail, and even the corporate’s older fashions have fallen prey to the shortages. Moreover, the corporate has deserted the sub-$250 processor market. In the meantime, Intel hasn’t suffered such excessive manufacturing shortages.
Winner: AMD (TSMC). The ‘Intel 7’ course of does convey Group Blue again into nearer competitors with AMD than it has been during the last a number of years, however AMD nonetheless holds the general energy effectivity and transistor density crown because of the virtues of TSMC’s 7nm course of.
Intel vs AMD CPU Structure
When evaluating AMD vs Intel CPUs, we should think about that two design selections have a huge impact on efficiency, scalability, and performance-per-dollar: Interconnects and microarchitecture.
AMD’s Infinity Cloth permits the corporate to tie collectively a number of dies into one cohesive processor. Consider this as quite a few items of a puzzle that come collectively to kind one bigger image. The strategy permits the corporate to make use of many small dies as a substitute of 1 massive die, and this method improves yields and reduces price. It additionally grants a degree of scalability that Intel may not be capable to match with its new mesh interconnect inside its HEDT chips, and it undoubtedly takes the lead over Intel’s growing old ring bus in its desktop processors.
AMD first paired that benefit with its Zen microarchitecture, designed from the bottom up for scalability, yielding an explosive 52% improve in directions per clock (IPC) throughput over AMD’s previous-gen ‘Bulldozer’ chips. The Zen 2 microarchitecture one other 15% enchancment to IPC. Paired with the 7nm course of, AMD lunged ahead one other (as much as) 31% in per-core efficiency (a combination of frequency and IPC). Zen 3 brings one other 19% soar in IPC, giving AMD its largest single step ahead within the post-Bulldozer period.
The transfer to the Zen 2 structure introduced AMD’s processors to near-parity with Intel’s most interesting when it comes to per-core efficiency. That is largely as a result of Intel is caught on 14nm, and its architectures are designed particularly for the nodes they’re constructed on. Which means promising new Intel microarchitectures can solely trip on smaller processes, like 10nm, leaving the corporate woefully unprepared for its extended points productizing 10nm merchandise.
Zen 3 gave AMD a large lead in per-core efficiency, an extremely vital metric that quantifies the pace of a very powerful constructing block in a chip design. Intel’s Rocket Lake chips take enormous steps ahead in per-core efficiency, leaving each corporations on a comparatively even enjoying subject when it comes to per-core efficiency.
Intel’s Twelfth-Gen Alder Lake chips convey the corporate’s hybrid x86 structure, which mixes a mixture of bigger high-performance cores paired with smaller high-efficiency cores, to desktop x86 PCs for the primary time. The Golden Cove structure powers Alder Lake’s ‘massive’ high-performance cores, whereas the ‘little’ Atom effectivity cores include the Gracemont structure. Intel etches the cores on its ‘Intel 7‘ course of, marking the corporate’s first really new node for the desktop since 14nm debuted six lengthy years in the past.
Intel’s new Thread Director is the sleeper tech that allows the large efficiency beneficial properties we have seen with Alder Lake. Nonetheless, resulting from Alder’s use of each quicker and slower cores which are optimized for various voltage/frequency profiles, unlocking the utmost efficiency and effectivity requires the working system and functions to have an consciousness of the chip topology to make sure workloads (threads) land within the appropriate core based mostly on the kind of utility.
Total, the Alder Lake structure has confirmed to be a giant win for Intel, with class-leading efficiency in gaming, to not point out in each single- and multi-threaded workloads in customary functions. Nonetheless, whereas the hybrid x86 structure hails from an identical ethos as the massive.LITTLE designs pioneered by Arm, it does not have the identical tuning for energy effectivity. As a substitute, Intel unabashedly tunes its design for efficiency at any price, so AMD nonetheless holds the ability effectivity crown in most sorts of workloads.
Winner: Tie. In judging AMD vs Intel CPU structure, it is clear that the competitors is now far nearer than it has been over the previous few years. AMD’s Zen 3 structure is a marvel that enables for enhanced scalability, and because of the efficiency-minded design paired with the TSMC 7 node, it delivers superior energy consumption metrics. Then again, Intel’s Alder Lake structure can also be a marvel in its personal proper, bringing the primary pairing of small environment friendly cores with massive efficiency cores to x86 desktop PCs for the primary time. That lends it the efficiency benefit, nevertheless it nonetheless trails in energy effectivity metrics, leading to a tie on this class.
AMD vs Intel CPU Drivers and Software program
Once we take a look at AMD vs Intel CPU software program assist, Group Blue has a stronger popularity. AMD has suffered loads of points with its CPU and chipset drivers, a pure byproduct of its restricted sources in comparison with its much-larger rivals. Intel is not with out its missteps on the driving force entrance, however its popularity for stability helped earn it the highest spot within the processor market, significantly with OEMs.
By way of its established merchandise, Intel’s graphics drivers have change into significantly better recently as the corporate ramps as much as convey its devoted Xe Graphics playing cards to market. Day-zero sport drivers have change into the norm for the chip producer.
You is perhaps just a little extra cautious when approaching Intel’s extra unique options, although. Up to now, the corporate has developed modern new merchandise which were relegated to the dustbin of historical past resulting from pricing and market forces, and long-term assist for these merchandise may not all the time be clear-cut.
AMD nonetheless has its work minimize out for it. The corporate has had a number of points with BIOS releases that failed to show its chips’ full efficiency, although AMD has largely solved these points after an extended string of updates. As a facet impact of being the smaller challenger, AMD additionally faces a frightening problem in offsetting the {industry}’s incessant optimization for Intel’s architectures above all others.
Upsetting the semiconductor {industry} is difficult, significantly once you’re preventing an entrenched and much-larger rival, and generally issues get damaged once you’re redefining an {industry}. In AMD’s case, these damaged issues include working methods and functions that weren’t tuned to extract the complete efficiency of its fledgling first-gen Zen structure, not to mention the core-heavy designs of Zen 3.
Intel additionally continues to face challenges, although. The corporate’s Alder Lake structure is the primary hybrid x86 design and makes use of massive efficiency cores (P-cores) and small effectivity cores (E-cores) for various kinds of duties. Putting the right workloads on the right cores requires a brand new Intel Thread Director expertise, however that is solely supported in Home windows 11. Which means some applications would possibly want additional handholding to extract the very best efficiency in Home windows 10.
Winner: Intel wins the battle of AMD vs Intel CPU drivers and software program. Over the past yr, Intel has addressed its laggardly driver updates for its built-in graphics, and the corporate has a military of software program builders at its disposal that assist guarantee its merchandise get comparatively well timed assist with the newest software program. AMD has made wonderful progress convincing the developer ecosystem to optimize for its new Zen architectures. Nonetheless, there’s nonetheless loads of work to be performed as the corporate strikes ahead.
AMD vs Intel CPU Safety
The previous few years have discovered safety researchers poking and prodding on the speculative execution engine that is one of many key performance-boosting options behind all trendy chips. The ensuing analysis has spawned an nearly endless onslaught of latest vulnerabilities that threaten the protection of your system and personal knowledge. Sadly, these kinds of vulnerabilities are extremely harmful as a result of they’re undetectable—these techniques steal knowledge by utilizing the processor precisely because it was designed; thus, they’re undetectable by any recognized anti-virus program.
The rash of fixes required to plug these holes additionally continues to develop, and plenty of of them lead to diminished efficiency. That is significantly painful for Intel as a result of it suffers from extra of those vulnerabilities than different distributors. The corporate has developed in-silicon mitigations with newer processors that may scale back or remove the efficiency overhead, however some older processors are topic to drastic reductions in efficiency.
Intel has now suffered a brand new spherical of Spectre v2-variant assaults, too, that has diminished its efficiency additional. These new Spectre Department Historical past Injection (BHI) vulnerabilities can lead to substantial efficiency losses that modify by workload.
AMD is not resistant to vulnerabilities, although. It is laborious to determine if the initially restricted discoveries in AMD processors had been resulting from a security-first strategy to hardened processor design, or if researchers and attackers merely targeted on Intel’s processors resulting from their commanding market share: Attackers nearly all the time concentrate on the broadest cross-section doable. We see an identical pattern with malware being designed for Home windows methods, by far the predominant desktop OS, rather more continuously than MacOS, although that does seem like altering.
In the middle of the analysis into the brand new class of Spectre vulnerabilities, Intel truly found that AMD’s present Spectre mitigation is damaged, which has resulted in AMD utilizing a distinct, slower strategy to addressing the problem.
Nonetheless, AMD has additionally had a number of different new vulnerability disclosures within the current previous, together with a Meltdown-esque variant that requires software program re-coding. Like Intel, AMD has made a couple of focused in-silicon fixes for its Ryzen 5000 processors, thus decreasing its publicity to the vulnerabilities.
Winner: AMD. The AMD vs Intel CPU safety debate continues to evolve as researchers and nefarious actors alike flip extra of a watch in the direction of AMD’s newer architectures. As issues stand, Intel nonetheless suffers from extra recognized vulnerabilities than AMD, and the affect of the Spectre mitigations on previous-gen Intel processors results in bigger efficiency losses (at occasions equal to some generational beneficial properties value of enchancment) than the fixes we have seen from AMD, granting Group Purple the win.