Intel vs AMD – Which CPU is Better?

No matter if you’re building your computer or if you plan to buy Pre-built, you have a choice to make: you have to choose between one of the two options – will you be using an Intel or AMD CPU.

If you’re not familiar with the terminology, CPU is a Central Processing Unit and is a heart of the computer. It deals with all of the computations and calculations; it’s speed, and the width of the Magistral on the motherboard directly correlates to how fast your PC will be.

Just like graphic card arena is a massive duel between Nvidia and AMD, the CPU arena is a contest between Intel and AMD. The differences are something only in the price tag, sometimes the models of the same price class differentiate wildly in performance between the two, so it’s always a matter of keeping track of who is better at the moment.

You’re here with a question “which CPU should I buy in 2016”, so let’s see what’s on the menu.

I will sort this decision out by two parameters.

Price

This is where the decision is made for most users. Please be aware that price doesn’t account only for the CPU itself – you have to buy the motherboard that supports this CPU, and there are price differences between AMD and Intel motherboards. I will talk about this as well.

If you’re looking at the market tag up to $100, AMD offers Dual and Quad Core CPUs, while Intel is entrenched in the Dual Core sector.

The difference is not as profound as you might expect – while the logic states more cores equals more power, the sheer number of cores makes AMD processors heat up more, which reduces their effectiveness.

Intel uses a different approach – hyper threading technology keeps the cores from going idle, meaning they get more bang out of their cores. Modern games like having more cores, while “serious” programs prefer efficiency.
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At the lower price tag, AMD takes the win, but things go differently in the higher price segment.

When it comes to the processors of over $150-$200, Intel is much more efficient; their quad systems can keep up with AMD quad/octa core systems with some additional tuning.

Performance

When it comes to raw power, Intel seems a better choice at lower and middle class of processors, but there’s one thing you need to consider – overclocking. Overclocking is a process that sets processor to work at a higher frequency with a slightly higher power consumption.

Intel locks down their lower class processors, which prevents you from getting more power out of them. You can overclock Intel processors from the i5-6600k model – K models have unlocked overclocking capabilities.

AMD knows their users want power for low cost, so they leave the CPU’s open for additional tinkering even at lower speed categories.

Conclusion

If you are making a budget PC build, for social media, Netflix, movies and some light/casual gaming, you can go with an AMD as a more affordable option that is similar in power.

However, mid and high tier processors coming from AMD in the last 2-3 years just can’t keep up with the sheer power of Intel cores. They may be more expensive, but they don’t use as much power, they don’t heat up as much, their stability is far greater and the motherboards they work on having much better features. AMD is a valid rival for Intel in low-cost and mobile processors market, but any serious gaming or work requires you to go Intel.

Another thing to point out is that both Intel and AMD will introduce brand new generation of CPU units at the end of 2016, Broadwell-E, Kaby Lake-S and Apollo Lake for Intel and Zen FX generation for AMD. This may change the game around come the end of the year and the beginning of the next year, so keep an eye on that.