AMD far cheaper, what's the catch?

[TallMonkee]

I am a novice and something I have noticed whilst looking at different CPUs is that the Intel and AMD equivalents have a massive price difference, AMD CPUs being far cheaper than their Intel counterpart. They just seem too good to be true. Is there a catch to AMD CPUs?

 

[Deleted member 77746]

No catch that’s the way it is. If Intel changed their prices they may be able to actually get sales and compete but nope.

 

[233]

right now not at all, although for general purpose and mixed use AMD will batter intel at pretty much every pricepoint,

its only in certain niche applications that an intel cpu will be better performing and justify that increased cost. like a lot of thigns in life your payinf a huge chunk for the name

 

[malachi]

Nope, the price gap was bigger until Ryzen came out. Forcing Intel to reduce their prices.

 

[andy_mk3]

right now not at all, although for general purpose and mixed use AMD will batter intel at pretty much every pricepoint,

its only in certain niche applications that an intel cpu will be better performing and justify that increased cost. like a lot of thigns in life your payinf a huge chunk for the name

Like that +7% FPS gain running PUBG 1080p with SLI 2080's

 

[233]

Like that +7% FPS gain running PUBG 1080p with SLI 2080's

gaming is marginal if anything and varies game to game i would personally recommend amd for a general gaming rig over intel,

i'm talking more about niche uses where the extra frequency is a bigger benefit rather than pure ipc

 

[EsaT]

Is there a catch to AMD CPUs?

AMD giving also update path to actually improved architecture CPUs?
Instead of making third socket for Xth time rebranded same old security Swiss cheese like Intel...

Intel is simply running brand scam with Stockholm syndrome infected sheeples buying.

Even Intel's HEDT is struggling against AMD's desktop line.
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/68639/benchmarks-intel-want-see-3950x-stomps-i9-10980xe/index.html
https://www.techspot.com/review/1950-intel-core-cascade-lake-x-hedt/
And Threadripper just rips Intel apart with top model being 64 core/128 thread monster.
Similarly Intel has very little against AMD in server CPUs when looking just tech instead of brand.

 

[Tetras]

There's a few Intel CPUs that are sort of competitive price wise (like the 9400F, before the 1600 AF and Ryzen 2nd gen price cuts anyway), but most of them are still at or even above Ryzen 1st gen prices.

 

[sideways14a]

Er i would recomend AMD in almost every situation, there will be the odd intel win for some specific set of circumstance but by and large even when money is no object its AMD for cpus right now.

 

[Quartz]

Is there a catch to AMD CPUs?

Just one: if you're building a Hackintosh, some apps may not work because they rely on Intel-specific instructions.

 

[humbug]

No catch, just Intel tax.

 

[Panos]

Is there a catch to AMD CPUs?

None. It is as good as it seems.

 

[pingu666]

its probably worth going for higher end ram, ryzen3 really likes that stuff...

 

[Cold_And_Miserable]

I am a novice and something I have noticed whilst looking at different CPUs is that the Intel and AMD equivalents have a massive price difference, AMD CPUs being far cheaper than their Intel counterpart. They just seem too good to be true. Is there a catch to AMD CPUs?

No. Intel has been ripping off consumers for years. The 9900K costs Intel roughly $30 to make. That profit margin makes the 2080Ti look like a bargain.

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

As said
There isn't really a catch
Just after years and years of total dominance and being able to charge whatever they wanted
AMD caught Intel with their pants down
The fact amd can have 7nm cpus
And Intel can't manage it has Intel screwed pretty much
Plus amd using chiplet design while Intel stuck to 1 single large cpu chip
And amd motherboard/cpu tends to stick to the same socket for a few years means you have an upgrade path
That doesn't need buying a new motherboard for next cpu you want
Pretty much first time in 10+ years amd is the recommended cpu for most people
Which is great for consumers.
Yeah if you want few extra fps then intel
With 5ghz clock speed is a bit better
But if I already get 144fps for example
I don't care if Intel would get me 150fps
So it's just amds time in the sun
Long may it continue

 

[voidshatter]

I've found those traditional older versions of Linux distributions to be a bit more unstable on AMD CPUs, such like Ubuntu. It would generally require a rolling release OS to stay on the latest fixes to get stability, for example Windows 10 1903 for the scheduler update, or Arch Linux for the latest firmware and microcode.

 

[Panos]

I've found those traditional older versions of Linux distributions to be a bit more unstable on AMD CPUs, such like Ubuntu. It would generally require a rolling release OS to stay on the latest fixes to get stability, for example Windows 10 1903 for the scheduler update, or Arch Linux for the latest firmware and microcode.

Ofc older versions of linux pre-2017 would need up to date kernel to make them work. Ubuntu 19.x and 20.x has proven works amazingly well with Zen 2 also. Why someone would want to run 16.x or earlier? Same would apply for Intel if someone tries to run 7.04 on Skylake and derivatives.

 

[voidshatter]

Ofc older versions of linux pre-2017 would need up to date kernel to make them work. Ubuntu 19.x and 20.x has proven works amazingly well with Zen 2 also. Why someone would want to run 16.x or earlier? Same would apply for Intel if someone tries to run 7.04 on Skylake and derivatives.

Ubuntu 18.04 ships with HWE kernels. Even with kernel 5.x it still had issues. I switched to Manjaro stable 5.4 and it worked out of the box.

 

[EsaT]

What is the optimal motherboard for him, if I don’t plan to overclock?

Asrock B450 Pro4 is the starting shoe string budgetr level.
(and better than nearly every Asus B450)
MSI B450 Tomahawk is then at level which would do decently well with 12 cores, if just having some case cooling.

 

[Panos]

What is the optimal motherboard for him, if I don’t plan to overclock?

B450 Tomahawk MAX if wants to keep it cheap. Also no need to overclock the 3000 series, the internal AI is good enough. Just need to activate few things like preffered cores, XFR etc to get most out of the CPU.

I use 1usmus powerplan and getting 4575-4650 core boost on 2 cores while the rest 8 are between 4300-4450.