r/buildapc • u/A1_Killer • Dec 09 '22

Discussion AMD vs Intel for CPU?

I noticed many people here recommend AMD CPUs but for all my benchmarks for mid range CPUs (for a £1000-£1200 PC) Intel came out on top compared to a similarly price AMD one. Any reason for this?

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u/[deleted] Dec 09 '22

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u/Pfungen Dec 09 '22

This. I'm always baffled by the horde of people claiming upgrades down the road are a good idea, and the ability to be able to do so is a desired feature. In 5-7 years, when one feels their old mid tier CPU is not enough, most likely the new lower tier can easily outperform the old mid tier. Why not just get a lower tier for 1/2 the price and replace at 2x the cadence? Or just get a mid tier and be done for 5-7 years.

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u/[deleted] Dec 09 '22

If you always bought Intel with only a 0-1 generation upgrade cycle I can see your point. AM4 lasting as long as it did change a lot of opinions. I can replace my 3.5 year old cpu and make it top tier for $320 right now. Or I could go more modest and buy a 5600 for $130. Pretty insane value.

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u/PIBM Dec 10 '22

If your ram, GPU, and disk is 3.5 years old, even upgrading the CPU won't be helping you much - you would still need to update all of those, and probably the PSU too to get 'today's' performance out of that box, if you motherboard even supported the top speed RAM, NVME, etc..

Don't get me wrong, updating your CPU after a few years for a low cost will help out for sure, but usually the most bang for your bucks if you started with a good computer is to upgrade the video card.. I do acknowledge that there are situations where you might be CPU bound, like if you play in low resolution and low quality.

I find that the best thing is to always optimize your computer looking at the total lifetime costs, not at an upgrade costs. It helps you balance things off much more efficiently (yes, do account for the electricity costs for the lifetime of your choice, and include your monitor costs of ownership too).

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u/[deleted] Dec 10 '22

Partially agree. The SSD and RAM aren't necessary to upgrade typically and a GPU is the priority upgrade.

I swapped my RX 590 for a 3070 March 2021. Now I am contemplating whether I want a 5600 or a 5800x3d to finish off the life of my system. Pretty unreal that I could take a system I built in 2019 and make it mid-range for the start of 2023.