AMD vs Intel: Which is better?

In this battle of Red vs Blue, which CPU brand is better?

By Harris Morand

When building a gaming PC, performance can mean everything. New components are regularly coming out. And as more and more demanding games are coming out, the components are getting more and more advanced. 

With these advancements comes the demand for more and more power. After all, your average CPU from 2015 probably couldn’t easily handle a lot of demanding games on decent settings these days.

Furthermore, with cheap PC parts and/or outdated Graphics cards and CPUs (a CPU or Central Processing Unit, is like the brain of your device), your PC can even catch fire if it’s pushed too hard with games. As such, it’s a good practice to upgrade system components after a few years.

These upgrades, however, are not cheap. For a decently new CPU, it could charge you around $300-400. And if that cost seems low, the price can add up very quickly, especially if you are upgrading other parts of the system as well. 

After all, things like high refresh rates/ large curved monitors, keyboards, headsets, and mice can be very costly.

While overclocking can be a good solution in place of upgrading, it can be risky at times, and you may run the risk of destroying your PC’s hardware components.

However, if done right, the clock speed of your CPU or GPU can be boosted.

While upgrading your CPU, a question may come to mind; should I buy Intel or AMD?

Currently, the newest AMD CPU is the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 5995WX Pro. It features a whopping 64 cores and 128 threads. It is a beast, and even the newest games on the highest graphics settings are no match for it. 

To add, at least around 280 watts are needed to run the Threadripper Pro

However, the arguable overkill amount of cores and threads aren’t exactly made for gaming, but rather for more demanding tasks like supercomputing or dealing with large quantities of data. In addition, it will cost a whopping $6500. 

It is also very large, to the point where you will need a special kind of motherboard, just to even fit the Threadripper Pro. Most likely, the needed motherboard will have a high price to it’s name.

On the other end of things, the newest Intel CPU would be the Intel i9 13900KS. With a respectable 24 cores and 32 threads, it is a more affordable processor, with an average price of around $600. That being said though, $600 still isn’t cheap.

A 125W power would be needed (250W if overclocked).

“So, overall the Intel Core i9-13900K, and this is definitely the best choice for those looking for the best performance”, says Zdnet, an IT website. 

On top of this, budgets can also be a problem.

“Producers of computer parts are facing a shortage of components such as chips, motherboards, and memory cards due to the high demand from various industries”, states Tech4Gamers. “Prices for these things have increased. As a result, making them unaffordable for most people”.

It is speculated by many that PC part prices will not go down, at the very least until 2024.

Let’s face it. Not every gamer has an unlimited budget. After all, upgrading components every year can burn quite a hole in the wallet. 

Because of this, let’s move down to some more commonly used CPUs. 

According to many websites and forums, the Intel i5 is the best Intel CPU (it should also be noted that the i7 has been mentioned a few times). Specifically, according to Digital Trends, the Intel i5 13600K is the overall best processor. 

They state that it’s better, as it is cheaper than AMD’s competition, is compatible with many motherboards, and has multiple processing cores. Starting at a clock speed of 3.5 GHz, it can reach a top speed of 5.1 GHz, if successfully overclocked.

In addition, it also comes included with Intel UHD 770 graphics. This is a form of integrated graphics, where the graphics processing is done from the CPU, rather than the GPU (which would be called discrete graphics in this case). This does in fact mean that a computer does not need a graphics card, so long as the CPU has integrated graphics.

For reference, the i5 is the second lowest tier for intel processors. It succeeds the i3 (the lowest tier, but is surpassed by the i7 and i9 .

However, there is some competition on the AMD side.

According to TechRadar, the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is one of the greatest AMD CPUs. It was given the title, for reasons like a good price-to-performance ratio, energy efficient, and has a total 6 cores, and 12 threads. It also has a clock speed of around 4.7 GHz and can be boosted to 5.3 GHz if overclocked as well. 

If it is a matter of building a budget pc without discrete graphics, the Intel i5 13600k would be the better option here. However, this may not be true in the future, as prices will likely shift (potentially in AMD’s favor), and new processors will be made.

So while Intel may seem like the winner, it isn’t entirely.

According to TechMonitor.AI, for reasons like scalpers with the global chip shortage, a tech war with the US and China, and more, Intel is looked down upon. As such, some people avoid Intel chips.

But AMD isn’t entirely innocent as well.

There are many things AMD has been called out for, from ethical problems to bad management. However, AMD is very notorious for their product failure rates. 

More specifically, their CPUs had been called out on several websites and forums for being unreliable, unstable, and inferior to Intel. Also, both new and old AMD CPUs and GPUs have been infamous for overheating.

On the internet, however, there are some biases, ranging from both sides, in regard to Intel vs AMD. For the most part, however, most of the biases are against gamers who use AMD chips.

Despite this bias, popular technology retail sites, like Dell, try to keep a mix between Intel and AMD processors. Also, a mix between Nvidia and AMD graphics cards is also kept.

Regardless, the choice of whether you go with Intel or AMD is fine. Each side has its pros and setbacks, and even a few ethical issues. AMD may be more price and budget effective than Intel, but many say their stocks are dropping, contrary to Intel’s.

On a side note, it must also be mentioned that at times, there can be a noticeable performance difference between laptop and desktop processors, Intel or AMD. This even applies to graphics cards. 

This is why gaming laptops can easily overheat when gaming.

To conclude, in my opinion, Intel is better. Others may disagree, which I respect. Respectively, there is plenty of evidence out there why AMD is superior. 

Remember, AMD is also in the Graphics Card business. Being honest, having a Graphics card is quite a step above integrated graphics.

Though I do believe Intel may have won the battle against AMD, they have certainly not won the war.