INTEL VS AMD: WHO DOES IT BETTER?
The primary question we face when buying or building a new computer is what processor should we choose, and more importantly which brand should we opt for? The rivalry between intel and AMD CPUs has been one of the greatest matters of debate for PC enthusiasts. Whether you should rely on the orthodox, time tested and widely used Intel processors or whether you should try your luck with the newly reformed, upgraded and redesigned AMD Ryzen processors. Well let’s dive deeper into the matter to find out which processor serves your purpose.
It can be a lot to take in so we’ll be breaking the entire discussion into following pattern first we’ll be discussing the history of both the brands and where both the brands are headed in the upcoming years followed by, comparing between some of the most popular processors each of them has to offer, we would also be discussing the market value and the popularity of both the brands and at last we would be focusing on suggesting the most suitable processor for you.
HISTORY:
Intel was established in the year 1968 which makes it one of the oldest silicon chip manufacturers in the market. The brand was a big hit from the start itself as the founders Robert Noyce, the inventor of silicon integrated circuits and Gordon Moore, yes the founder of Moore’s Law, were experienced middle aged technologists who had invested a humongous 2.5 million dollars into the company.
Intel’s first successful product was launched shortly after it was founded, the 1103 one kilobyte DRAM chip which was a huge success, intel then invested its time mainly designing memory components and RAMs for computers back then, its first processor the intel-4004 was introduced in the 1970s which was the worlds first single chip microprocessor, since then intel has always leading the technology curve by introducing some of the best and revolutionizing processors like the x86 series, the Pentium series and currently the Itanium ( i — series ). The latest processor offered by intel is the i9–9900k which uses the x86 architecture and intel advanced 14nm chipset. The brand is currently focusing on development of its very own cloud services and also is stepping in IoT with the cloud integration.
Now lets talk about its competitor, the Advanced Micro Devices Inc or commonly known as AMD was started in 1969 by Jerry Sanders as a start-up focused on development and marketing of microprocessors chips. Soon after the foundation the company came up with its first product the 4-bit shift register Am9300 in the year 1970. The company has many times observed to use some of the intel-based architecture for the designing of their very own processors. Apart from the manufacturing of the CPUs, AMD is also one of the leading producers of GPUs, motherboard chipsets for servers, workstations as well as for personal computers. The latest processor offered by the brand is ryzen 9 3900x which packs a 7nm chips and is one of its kind in the market
The first wave of AMD’s mainstream Ryzen chips was split across three families: Ryzen 7, Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 3. The Ryzen 3 was an entry-level alternative to the Intel i3, the Ryzen 5 was a mainstream counterpart to the Intel i5, and the Ryzen 7 was pitched in opposition to the performance offered by an Intel i7.Lets dive deeper into the subject and compare some of the best pieces of tech both companies have to offer
Comparing the bests head on:
- Intel Core i9–9900K vs AMD Ryzen 9 3950X:
For AMD, the Ryzen 9 3950X is the current king with 16 cores and 32 threads. Its cost is around $700. Meanwhile, Intel’s current top gamer chip, the Core i9–9900K, comes with eight cores and 16 threads. It’s clocked a little higher with a 5GHz single-core boost versus AMD’s 3950X at 4.7GHz. It is priced around $500. The i9 processor provides a maximum memory support of up to 128 GB of DDR4 while the Ryzen 9 also provides a maximum memory support of up to 128 GB of DDR4. If you’re the kind of high performance power user that AMD and Intel are looking to woo with the Ryzen 9 and Core i9 respectively, your preference is ultimately going to come down to whether you think the higher clock speeds available with Intel are worth the higher the thread count, cache size and memory support you’ll get AMD.
2. Intel Core i7–9700K vs AMD Ryzen 7 2700X:
AMD’s Ryzen 7 2700X costs around $330 while the Intel’s Core i7–9700K costs around $410. Coming to the specifications, they’re both very different. The Ryzen 7 2700X has Simultaneous Multithreading, to it has twice as many threads as it does cores (8/16) while the Core i7–9700K doesn’t have Intel’s own version — hyper-threading, so it has eight cores and eight threads — decided less horsepower for multi-threaded workloads. On the other hand, the Intel CPU has much higher frequencies. In fact, even its all-core boost of 4.6GHz is higher than the 4.3GHz maximum boost of the AMD CPU — something that could well help it in games and lightly-threaded benchmarks. When it comes to cache, the AMD CPU wins here with double the L2 cache and 33% more L3 cache.
3. Intel Core i5–9600K vs AMD Ryzen 5 2600X:
Intel’s Core i5–9600K and AMD’s Ryzen 5 2600X cost $274.99 and $199.99 respectively. The Core i5–9600K has a maximum boost of 4.6GHz, while the AMD Ryzen 5 2600X has just a 100MHz. Core i5–9600K has significantly lower amounts of cache and like the Core i7–9700K, it lacks hyper-threading, so only has six threads. There’s no clear winner here as the Intel CPU does have an advantage in some games, while the AMD CPU is far better value for content creation. For a pure gaming system that will be playing a range of games or regularly dealing with titles that are known to respond to faster CPUs, the Core i5–9600K makes a good case for itself.
Enough about the technical side of the debate and now let’s focus on the financial aspect as well and let’s check out how both the contenders are performing on the stock market followed by their future goals and strategies for the upcoming year 2020
Market Value of the Company and Popularity In market
Being the two Tech giants from a long time, both the companies are listed in the NASDAQ, United States. The share prices of both companies as per 4pm GMT-4 of 9th April 2020 was the following:
INTEL- 57.14 USD
AMD — 48.38 USD
Due to COVID-19 outbreak, both are struggling with their sales as it can be seen from the Share prices that have fallen lately after having a great sale till end of February. In fact, AMD share reached its 6 months highest of 58.90 USD on 19th February 2020, the case was not much different for the share of INTEL too as it had reached its 6 months highest of 68.47 USD.
Talking about the popularity in market and percentage that each company holds in today’s markets is been shown by a survey from the Source: Steam Hardware & Software Survey is
Intel’s share of PC processors was at 81.25% in March compared to AMD’s 18.75%, according to the survey.
Talking about the latest news about both the companies is as following:
Intel:
Intel Corp. could experience a huge early sales boost from companies outfitting stay-at-home workers with computers and a surge in cloud-services adoption, but the long-term picture for COVID-19 effects is not as clear.
Intel US: INTC started off 2020 with a reversal from a difficult year, reporting that it broke the $20 billion quarterly sales mark for the first time as its fastest-growing segment, data-centre chips, surged 19% to $7.2 billion. That time — when China was reporting 830 cases of COVID-19 with 26 deaths and the U.S. had just confirmed its second coronavirus case — seems a world away now after the coronavirus spread across the globe and sent most Americans into their homes to avoid contracting the virus.
Source: MarketWatch Published: April 10, 2020 at 7:27 a.m. ET.
AMD:
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) closed the most recent trading day at $48.38, moving -0.84% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500’s daily gain of 1.45%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1.22%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.78%.
Heading into today, shares of the chipmaker had gained 6.76% over the past month, outpacing the Computer and Technology sector’s loss of 5.61% and the S&P 500’s loss of 7.42% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from AMD as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.18, up 200% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $1.78 billion, up 39.87% from the year-ago period.
Source: Yahoo Finance Zacks Equity Research April 10, 2020.
Conclusion:
This part is really a difficult one as concluding a years long debate in just a few lines is not an easy task, but we have tried our best to summarize all the essential points which we have covered and passed a judgement based on the current scenario.
AMD’s Ryzen models — from the 3600 to the 3900X — offers value for money. What’s more, AMD is primed for upgrades, with the assurance that existing motherboards are compatible with any new chips until then. AMD used to be something of a laughingstock. Not anymore. Today, their combination of sheer value has smashed Intel’s value as a gaming CPU into the dust. They are powerful, cheap, and feature enough cores for anything you could care to do. If you’re building a new gaming PC, there is no alternative: the Ryzen is where it’s at.
Intel might ultimately have a slight edge when it comes to the most top-shelf product, but for anyone less than the few people; AMD seems to have an advantage for now. Intel has announced plans for future releases of their Tiger Lake and Comet Lake-S lines of processors for laptops and desktops, respectively. The new CPU line will most likely try to stay abreast of AMD’s Ryzen and Thread ripper products. However, it’s unlikely that Intel will be able to top AMD any time soon, as even Intel CFO George Davis has admitted that Team Blue won’t reach parity with AMD’s 7nm manufacturing process until 2021. Intel’s value is under severe attack by AMD, and that’s a fantastic thing. Competition is good for business, and we, as consumers, can get a far better deal.
As both the teams perform exceptionally well in different arenas, we would like to conclude by reiterating the importance of personal research (such as looking at the performance numbers of the chip you want to buy!) and knowing your own needs.
Hope the blog was insightful and has eased your burden of choosing between Intel and AMD, I would like to thank my entire team who supported me in this entire task.
Thank you
Aniket Ghorpade , Harjas Singh Gandhi and Shantanu Dhamdhere.
