[Hardware] AMD vs Intel 2021: Who Makes the Best CPUs?

EVIL BABY. · February 18, 2021

If you're looking for the best gaming CPU or the best CPU for workstations, there are only two choices to pick from – AMD and Intel. That fact has spawned an almost religious following for both camps, and the resulting flamewars, that make it tricky to get unbiased advice about the best choice for your next processor. But in many cases, the answer is actually very clear. In fact, for most users, it's a blowout win in AMD's favor, as you can see in our CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy. That's an amazing reversal of fortunes for the chipmaker after it teetered on the edge of bankruptcy a mere four years ago, making its turnaround all the more impressive as it continues to upset the entrenched Intel after it enjoyed a decade of dominance.

This article covers the never-ending argument of AMD vs Intel desktop CPUs (we're not covering laptop or server chips) based on what you plan to do with your PC, pricing, performance, driver support, power consumption, and security, giving us a clear view of the state of the competition. We'll also discuss the lithographies and architectures that influence the moving goalposts. Overall, there's a clear winner, but which CPU brand you should buy depends mostly on what kind of features, price, and performance are important to you.

You can see how all of these processors stack up in our CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy, but the landscape has certainly changed in the wake of AMD's Ryzen 5000 launch. AMD's newest processors, the Ryzen 9 5950X and Ryzen 9 5900X, not to mention the Ryzen 5 5600X, have upset the entire mainstream desktop lineup. We've added in the new models and some commentary based on what we know about Zen 3 so far, but you can head to our expansive in-depth coverage of the Ryzen 5000 series, including pricing, benchmarks, and availability, for more info. Suffice it to say, the Ryzen 5000 series are the highest-performing chips on the market and beat Intel in every metric that matters, including gaming, application performance, power consumption, and thermals.

That could change soon, though. Intel revealed its Rocket Lake processors at CES 2021, claiming they retake the gaming performance crown and will come to market this quarter. Intel touts Rocket Lake's 19% IPC improvement and high clock speeds that stretch up to 5.3 GHz. Intel also has its Alder Lake chips coming to market later this year, which will completely redefine x86 desktop PC chips with a new hybrid architecture. We'll be sure to update once the chips hit our labs.

Unfortunately, sweeping shortages have kept the Ryzen 5000 chips out of the hands of enthusiasts, but the supply situation does appear to be slowly improving. Of course, you could get lucky and score a Ryzen 5000 chip during the rare moments of availability, but if you must purchase a chip today, many of the other chips outlined in the article below will likely be your only option until AMD can begin to satisfy the demand for its chips.

AMD vs Intel CPU Pricing and Value
Pricing is the most important consideration for almost everyone, and AMD is generally hard to beat in the value department, though we certainly can't say that for its XT series processors. The company's Ryzen 5000 series processors mark an across-the-board $50 price hike, but the faster chips earn their higher price tags. The company offers a plethora of advantages, like full overclockability on most models, not to mention complimentary software that includes the innovative Precision Boost Overdrive auto-overclocking feature.

You also benefit from the broad compatibility of motherboards with the AM4 CPU socket that supports both forward and backward compatibility, ensuring that not only do you get the most bang for your processor buck, but also your motherboard investment (there are caveats with the 5000 series). AMD also allows overclocking on all but its A-Series motherboards (see our article on how to overclock AMD Ryzen), which is another boon for users.

And, in this battle of AMD vs Intel CPUs, we haven't even discussed the actual silicon yet. AMD's modern processors tend to offer either more cores or threads and faster PCIe 4.0 connectivity at every single price point, which we'll cover below.

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The arrival of Intel's Comet Lake-S models has found the company adding more cores, threads, and features to its mainstream lineup, but without increased gen-on-gen pricing. That equates to a substantial reduction in price-per-core and price-per-thread metrics, but AMD has reduced pricing in response to keep Intel on its toes. As such, AMD still holds the price-per-thread advantage in many price ranges, and generally offers more performance in several types of workloads (which we'll cover below).

Intel includes bundled coolers with its non-overclocking SKUs (you have to pay more to overclock), but they are flimsy and 'good enough,' at best. We've even seen cases where Intel's stock coolers don't provide full performance at stock settings.

Intel also doesn't throw in a cooler at all for its pricey overclockable K-series SKUs (see our article on how to overclock an Intel CPU). Be sure to budget in a cooler (and a beefy one at that) if you plan on overclocking an Intel processor. Meanwhile, most of AMD's bundled coolers are suitable for at least moderate overclocking. Still, those only came as a standard add-in with the previous-gen Ryzen 3000 series, most of which haven't been supplanted with new Ryzen 5000 equivalents yet. Only one of the first four AMD Ryzen 5000 processors, the Ryzen 5 5600X, comes with a bundled cooler.

Intel did bulk up its bundled coolers for several Comet Lake-S models, but the aesthetic and slight thermal improvements aren't enough to match AMD's competent coolers that come with its Ryzen 3000 series, and they aren't available on all models.

Intel not only charges a premium for its overclockable K-Series chips, but you'll also need to shell out for a pricey Z-Series motherboard for the privilege of overclocking your processor—Intel doesn't allow overclocking on B- or H-series motherboards. Intel also has a long history of rapid socket transitions, meaning the odds of dropping a new chip into your existing motherboard, or taking the older processor over to a newer board, aren't as high. Plan for limited forward and backward compatibility on the Intel side. You'll also miss out on PCIe 4.0 connectivity—Intel remains mired on the PCIe 3.0 bus that offers half the transfer speed of AMD's PCIe 4.0 connection.

While AMD offers the most bang for your hard-earned dollar, as with any product, you can expect to pay a premium for the utmost performance, particularly the Ryzen 9 5950X. AMD's Ryzen 5000 series is also the end of the line for the tried-and-true AM4 socket, so you shouldn't expect those chips to work in future AMD platforms.

AMD's new Ryzen 5000 processors also come without bundled coolers for the Ryzen 9 and 7 families, but AMD says the increased performance offsets the lack of coolers and higher pricing. Our reviews back up that assertion - the Ryzen 5000 chips still offer a compelling blend of pricing and performance, provided you can find them at retail near their recommended pricing.

Win: AMD. When you're comparing Intel vs AMD CPUs, Team Red has a compelling value story across the full breadth of its product stack, especially when we take performance-per-dollar into account. However, if you're looking for integrated graphics paired with a processor with more than four cores, Intel is currently your only choice for chips at retail, though AMD does have its eight-core Renoir chips now shipping to OEMs and SIs for pre-built systems. Not that we'd recommend integrated graphics for most users, particularly if you're interested in gaming—check out our recent comparison of integrated graphics on AMD and Intel processors for more detail.

AMD vs Intel CPU Gaming Performance
In the AMD vs Intel CPU battle, AMD holds the lead in the critical price bands, particularly right in the middle and high-end of its stack, but our benchmarks show the Intel's gaming performance is no slouch, either. Below we have a wide selection of collective gaming performance measurements for the existing chips in the different price bands.

Our first two slides encapsulate performance with the new Comet Lake-S and Ryzen 5000 processors included, while the remainder of the test results gives historical context to other previous-gen processors. As you can see, AMD has completely redefined the gaming landscape with its Zen 3-powered Ryzen 5000 processors, which now hold the advantage in both 1080p and 1440p gaming. The Ryzen 9 5900X slots in as the fastest gaming chip on the market, price be damned, but the Ryzen 5 5600X offers nearly the same level of performance but at a more amenable $300 price point, making it our uncontested top pick for gaming.

Intel used to hold the ultimate in gaming performance with its most expensive desktop processor, the Core i9-10900K, and the Core i5-10600K wasn't far behind. Naturally, the Core i7-10700K slots in right between the two, and offers the lion's share of the 10900K's performance, but at a much lower price point and power consumption. You can see how these chips stack up in our CPU Benchmark Hierarchy, but be aware that these chips still fall behind AMD's potent Ryzen 5000 chips.

However, the performance delta between Intel and AMD's comparably-priced chips often isn't worth the premium, at least for the vast majority of enthusiasts. You'd be hard-pressed to notice the small differences in gaming performance at the top of the AMD vs Intel stack, but things are more complicated in the mid-range. Referring back to our previous category, pricing is the ultimate measuring stick, and AMD pulls off key wins in the mid-range where most of us shop, but Intel's Core i5-10600K serves up a compelling lead in its price bracket, making it an attractive gaming chip for around $260. If you step up to the $300 range, the Ryzen 5 5600X is now the uncontested mainstream gaming champion.

You'll need a fire-breathing high-end GPU and one of the best gaming monitors with a high refresh rate to get the most out of AMD's performance advantage, and you'll need to game at the mundane 1080p resolution, too. Kicking your resolution up to 1440p and beyond typically pushes the bottleneck back to the GPU, so you won't gain as much from your CPU's gaming prowess. However, a bit of extra CPU gaming performance could pay off if you plan on updating your graphics card with a newer generation while keeping the rest of your system intact.

We expect most builds in the mid-range to come with lesser GPUs, which generally serve as an equalizer in terms of CPU performance. It's also noteworthy that AMD often provides more cores and threads at any given price point, so there's less of a chance of erratic performance if you're running chat clients, web browsers, and other tasks in the background while gaming. If you're into game streaming, AMD is almost always the best choice due to its healthy ratio of cores and threads.

In terms of integrated graphics performance, there's no beating AMD. The company's current-gen Picasso APUs offer the best performance available from integrated graphics, and the Renoir series builds on that advantage. However, the Renoir chips are only available in pre-built systems from OEMs and SIs for now. That didn't stop us from getting our hands on a chip, and you can see the impressive performance in our Ryzen 7 Pro 4750G review. Intel has its Rocket Lake chips with the powerful new Xe graphics engine coming in early 2021, which might help level the integrated GPU playing field.

Winner: AMD wins this round of the Intel vs AMD CPU showdown, but only because we measure strictly by the absolute top performance possible. If you're a gaming fanatic that prizes every single last frame you can squeeze out, particularly if you're into overclocking, AMD is your answer on the high-end. That leading-edge performance will also pay off if you plan to upgrade your GPU soon. Just plan to pay for the privilege.

You'll find that AMD is also often the best option in the mid-range. Unless you're running a tricked-out rig with the fastest GPUs paired with low-resolution high-refresh monitors, you won't miss the slim gaming performance deltas to be had with AMD CPUs, though. At that point, either an AMD or Intel chip will provide a more than acceptable level of gaming performance. However, it's always good to have a little extra gas in the tank for future GPU upgrades, and AMD's Zen 3 chips hold the lead there, at least for now.

AMD vs Intel Productivity and Content Creation Performance

In the non-gaming performance battle of AMD vs Intel CPUs, the picture is a lot clearer. AMD's chips take the outright win in terms of the ultimate performance in threaded productivity and content creation applications, and the Ryzen 5000 processors have expanded that lead. AMD's copious slathering of cores, threads, and cache on its processors also equates to a big win in the performance-per-dollar category.

Intel's trouble moving forward to denser process nodes has left it behind in the core count race, and now AMD has offerings on both the HEDT and mainstream desktop that Intel simply can't match. Consider this: AMD has a 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X for the mainstream desktop that offers far more cores and threads than Intel's most powerful Core i9-10900K. Meanwhile, AMD's Ryzen Threadripper 3990X comes with an insane 64 cores and 128 threads for HEDT. That's a 3.5X advantage in core counts over Intel's halo HEDT models.

AMD's chips offer far more performance on both the mainstream desktop and HEDT platforms, so they are also more expensive than Intel's respective flagships. You don't need to drop major dollars to see the advantages of AMD's chips, though.

The Ryzen 5000 series processors have also taken the uncontested lead in single-threaded performance across the full spate of our benchmarks. That's incredibly impressive and equates to faster performance in all manner of workloads, particularly day-to-day applications that rely on snappy responsiveness from the processor.

Winner: AMD. For professionals on the hunt for performance in content creation and productivity applications, the winner of AMD vs Intel CPUs is a pretty one-sided affair. AMD's lack of integrated graphics on its 8-core and above CPUs (for now) means you'll have to stick with Intel if you want to build a rig without dedicated graphics. Still, most professionals will want a dedicated graphics card regardless.

AMD vs Intel Processor Specifications and Features
AMD has its Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5, Ryzen 7, Ryzen 9, and Threadripper lines, while Intel breaks its offerings up into the Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, Core i9, and Cascade Lake-X families. To compare Intel vs AMD CPUs based on specs and features, we could chart the entire product stacks, but we'll focus on the top chips in the respective families for the sake of brevity. Be aware that both companies have value options within each tier, but we can get a general sense of the current competitive landscape with these (relatively) shortlists. We're using both vendors recommended pricing and street pricing to give you a sense of the current state of the market.

The high end desktop (HEDT) is the land of creative prosumers with fire-breathing multi-core monsters for just about every need. Intel has long enjoyed the uncontested lead in this segment, but while AMD's first-gen Threadripper lineup disrupted the status quo, the Threadripper 3000 lineup destroyed it.

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[Hardware] AMD vs Intel 2021: Who Makes the Best CPUs?

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