Is AMD a Good Option in 2018??
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
1,515 words · ~7 min read
0:00
In April of last year, AMD went from always a generation or three behind to blindsiding Intel with their shockingly competitive first-gen Ryzen processors based on their all-new Zen architecture.
0:15
Fast forward a year, and second-gen Ryzen with Zen Plus has been around for a few months now, with no response from the blue team... yet.
0:25
But in spite of all of this, among many enthusiasts, there's still this attitude that persists that goes,
0:33
well, if you're not poor people, then you should just get Intel.
0:38
So we decided to challenge that perception, and we've got some interesting findings to share with you today.
0:46
After, we tell you about GlassWire.
0:48
GlassWire is a firewall that displays your PC and Android devices' incoming and outgoing network connections in real-time.
0:56
Use offer code Linus and get 25% off GlassWire 2.0 through the link below.
1:02
We know that some of you are just gonna skip to the conclusion anyway, so we're gonna make your life easier.
1:15
The short answer is, yes.
1:18
AMD is a viable alternative to Intel, but the long answer has a few...
1:24
butts in it.
1:25
Now, initially, we had wanted to do an in-depth exploration into things like cache hierarchies and
1:32
IMC peculiarities, plus, you know,
1:34
did-you-knows like Infinity Fabric connecting the dies inside of Ryzen running at half of the memory clock.
1:42
But I mean, let's face it, if you guys cared about that kind of stuff, you'd be watching Gamers Nexus.
1:46
So we're gonna focus on the results.
1:49
Frames per second in games, render times in professional applications, and a side dish of power consumption and storage.
1:57
Before we even get there, though, we need to talk about price.
2:01
When we built up and priced out our two competing tests,
2:04
Benches it became obvious why some people see AMD as the the poor man's choice.
2:11
Between Intel's higher CPU price, and lack of a decent included cooler on their k-series chips, our AMD platform was over
2:19
$60 cheaper.
2:21
Finally, you guys probably noticed that we're running at different memory speeds.
2:26
Intel's IMC actually does tend to handle high frequency kits better than AMD's, but their spec is
2:34
actually
2:34
more conservative.
2:36
And we're leaving overclocking out of this comparison today.
2:39
So this is bone stock apples
2:41
versus officially supported apples.
2:44
First up then is our gaming benchmarks.
2:47
In a huge surprise to only the small group of AMD fanboys
2:51
who insist on remaining willfully ignorant for some reason,
2:56
in the overwhelming majority of cases,
2:58
Intel's 8700K defeats the Ryzen 7 2700X.
3:03
And in some cases, like in GTA 5, by a substantial margin,
3:08
I mean, I'm talking 20 to 30% greater performance
3:13
depending on the resolution.
3:15
And that 4K result really stands out.
3:17
I mean, that is a resolution that should be GPU bound
3:22
on pretty much any modern processor.
3:24
If our recent video about system bottlenecks
3:27
is anything to go by.
3:29
With that in mind, you can put down your pitchforks,
3:32
hashtag AMDRAID.
3:33
And I'm gonna go ahead and get into the red team
3:36
because we are going to point out
3:38
that not once did we encounter a situation
3:40
where our gaming experience
3:42
at the same graphical settings, of course,
3:44
went from playable on the 8700K to unplayable on Ryzen.
3:50
It just doesn't change that the 8700K is better for gaming.
3:56
Full stop.
3:57
And that's even before you get into anomalies like CSGO.
4:02
For the record,
4:03
enabling gaming mode via AMD's Ryzen Master software
4:06
actually dropped the FPS across the board
4:10
with like two exceptions and requires a restart
4:13
in between modes.
4:13
So we're not huge fans of it.
4:17
Our Ryzen 7 2700X did win
4:19
in some of the synthetic gaming benchmarks though,
4:21
thanks to its two extra cores,
4:23
which doesn't indicate anything about real games,
4:25
but does foreshadow our productivity results.
4:29
Out of the 11 tests we ran, AMD is offering outright,
4:33
one nine, sometimes putting significant distance
4:37
between itself and the blue team.
4:39
I mean, 7-zip was 50% faster,
4:42
which it should be noted does affect aspects
4:45
of your system's performance
4:47
beyond just unzipping the files
4:49
you download from the internet.
4:50
ASUS real bench encoding was 32% faster
4:54
while multi-threaded Cinebench was 28% faster.
4:59
I mean, Intel did remind AMD
5:00
who the single threaded boss was by beating
5:03
it by 15% in single threaded Cinebench,
5:07
but that was its only win with our last result,
5:11
the real bench image editing test,
5:13
almost as close as the results of the last scrapyard wars.
5:16
So basically a tie depending on who you ask,
5:20
but there's more to life than CPU performance.
5:23
Let's take a look at some of the quality of life differences.
5:27
One thing that we noticed was that game load times
5:30
were affected when we moved between platforms.
5:33
Even with the exact same drive,
5:36
we found a variance of up to 15% each way
5:40
with Intel on average ending up about 5% faster than AMD.
5:45
And like the differences in gaming benchmarks,
5:47
this isn't something that you would immediately notice
5:50
in a Pepsi challenge taste test, but it is there.
5:55
Power consumption was also about 10 Watts higher at idle
5:58
and 20 Watts higher under load on the AMD platform.
6:02
Finally,
6:03
we wanted to touch on the accelerated storage options
6:06
that each platform features,
6:07
because we really feel that this is an excellent way
6:10
to get better than hard drive performance
6:13
while not giving up on capacity.
6:15
Now we did a more in-depth piece on this a little while ago,
6:18
but in summary, Intel has obtained caching,
6:21
which we have seen work wonders on game load times.
6:25
And then from our testing,
6:26
AMD's store MI is more cumbersome to use
6:30
with some unpleasant limitations.
6:33
Well, the big winner, if you watch that video,
6:35
which you probably should,
6:36
was actually a third-party software called Primo Cash.
6:40
So there you have it.
6:42
AMD is a less expensive solution compared to Intel,
6:47
and it mostly loses in gaming.
6:48
So you know what?
6:49
The trolling from the gaming crowd
6:51
about AMD being a second rate solution,
6:55
that does have some merit to it, unfortunately.
6:57
But the easy comeback is,
7:00
well, it's great that your machine games faster,
7:02
but I've got real work to do.
7:03
And if that is actually true of you,
7:06
then AMD is a great choice.
7:08
I mean, really the only thing that could disqualify
7:12
either of them at this point is platform stability.
7:15
And Ryzen has matured a lot since its initial launch,
7:19
to the point where as long as you don't need store MI,
7:22
the final answer comes down to what your mix is.
7:25
And as usual, it depends.
7:29
Are you a 60% productivity person who games on the side?
7:33
Go Ryzen.
7:34
And don't look back.
7:36
You saved a buck, but you still got a great system.
7:38
What's wrong with that?
7:40
Meanwhile, are you the gamer who froze together
7:43
the occasional headshot compilation video?
7:46
Well, you might wanna consider paying the Intel tax.
7:49
With new graphics cards comes more FPS
7:52
that can be unlocked with a faster gaming CPU.
7:57
Speaking of faster,
7:59
I'm gonna get to this sponsor spot right away.
8:02
We all have our everyday grooming routines,
8:03
showering, brushing your teeth, and yes,
8:06
of course, shaving.
8:08
And not just your face.
8:10
Shut up, friend.
8:11
One of my signature moves is pre-soaking my toothbrush
8:14
so that I can get a lot more mileage out of them
8:16
before they start to feel too stiff.
8:18
But no matter what your routine is,
8:20
Dollar Shave Club, yes, that one, has everything you need.
8:23
Toothpaste, body wash, razors, et cetera,
8:25
to help you look, feel, and smell your best.
8:28
And Dollar Shave Club is basically giving away
8:31
their daily essential starter set
8:32
to new members for just five bucks.
8:34
It's got trial-sized versions, and it's free.
8:35
And it's got trial-sized versions
8:36
of their most popular products,
8:38
including their Shave Butter, their Body Wash,
8:40
and their One Wipe Charlies.
8:42
And it even includes their Executive Razor,
8:44
which has a premium weighty handle
8:46
and a full cassette of cartridges.
8:48
After the first box, replacement cartridges are sent
8:50
for just a few bucks a month.
8:52
So don't wait.
8:53
Check it out at the link in the video description.
8:55
That's dollarshaveclub.com slash Linus.
8:59
So thanks for watching, guys.
9:00
If you just liked this video, hit that button.
9:02
But if you liked it, hit like, get subscribed.
9:04
Maybe consider checking out where to buy the,
9:06
ah, no, I got it, I got it,
9:10
the stuff we featured at the link in the video description.
9:13
Also linked down there is our merch store,
9:14
which has cool shirts like this one,
9:15
and our community forum, which you should totally join.
9:18
Fun fact, bet you didn't know this.
9:19
Oh, wait, no, nevermind.
9:21
It's pretty obvious, forget it.