Are amd ryzen cpus a lot better than intel these days? at the top end
Yes and no, depending on what you’re doing and how much money you have to spend.
Gaming Big budget, high refresh gaming with good monitor and good GPU?
Intel i5-10600k or i7-10700k.
Gaming Low Budget, average refresh gaming, entry level GPU?
Ryzen 3 3100 or Ryzen 3 3300x.
Gaming Average budget, average refresh gaming, average GPU?
Ryzen 5 3600 or Ryzen 7 3700x.
Production/Work Big budget, average refresh gaming, average GPU?
Ryzen 9 3900 or Ryzen 9 3950x.
That’s pretty much it.
1 Like
How’s the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
At gaming? Not perceptively better than the Ryzen 5 3600, still slower than the 3-year old i7-8700k or present day i5-10600k (or higher Intel model).
At everything else? It’s amazing.
so I assume Intel Core i9 9900K is better?
Yes, and cheaper than the 3900X at Micro Center.
1 Like
oh wow, that’s not bad.
https://www.microcenter.com/product/512483/intel-core-i9-9900k-coffee-lake-36ghz-eight-core-lga-1151-boxed-processor
In other news, my life sucks because the closest microcenter is a 6.5hr drive away.
Depends on your use but since this a forum for a game I assume you are talking about gaming. AMD offers you a lot for dollar but for gaming the performance diminishes once you get past the Ryzen 3600. At the “top end” Intel offers better gaming performance and you will have to pay extra for that performance.
Workstation like demands is a different story with the extra cores in Ryzen helping out.
I’m running the Ryzen 9 3900X right now. For all use-cases that don’t involve gaming, it maintains solid performance. So like, if I’m recording video or streaming I don’t see very much, if any, performance dips in the games that I play.
For gaming it holds up well in comparison with a last-gen i7-9700k. It isn’t going to be anything absolutely crazy, but paired well with a good graphics card it’s probably the best bang-for-buck.
Does anyone watch reviewtechusa?
He was saying in one of his latest videos that the new 3000 series will be pcie 4.0 compatible and that this would be bad for intel?
Can anyone elaborate on this?
(hope I explained that properly)
I’m looking at a new build and currently have a 10yr old AMD and board (only changed some fans and GPU’s in that time). I watched a review video and they said something like you can’t upgrade an Intel CPU without upgrading the mobo and vice versa? Is this true? I’ve tried searching online, but haven’t kept up with CPU and mobo reviews since Microcenter killed off their in-store magazine.
If so I’ll stick with AMD because I’m cheap and want the option to upgrade one or the other. I also don’t do a lot of FPS gaming and for WoW and other MMO’s I don’t see the highest speed as a necessity.
10 year old board, you’re gonna need a new everything, whichever CPU brand you go with.
I know. I’m not asking if I need a new mobo now since I can’t even use current generation RAM with it. I’m asking if I went with Intel would it limit my future with upgrading either the CPU or board as the video’s I watched suggested? So if I got a cheaper Intel CPU with an eye to upgrade in a year would I have to upgrade the board as well? If the board had issues for some reason and I replace, will I have to replace the Intel CPU or buy the same board?
I mean if you’ve waited 10 years to upgrade, are you REALLY going to upgrade again after a year this time?
Don’t plan your build around future upgrades in-socket, it’s rarely ever a meaningful decision point.
Ryzen 4000 is likely the final CPU on AM4, and Intel might have one more generation after 10th on the LGA1200, but unless you’re actually going to upgrade within one CPU generation (largely not worth it for gains) it’s not a huge thing.
AMD fanboys tend to really obsess about CPU upgrades on the same motherboard, but most users are like you, on the 5+ year plan, and this feature doesn’t matter.
Plan for what you need and can afford now, and then worry about “future” upgrades well…in the future.
2 Likes
No offense, but I think you are letting your disdain for “AMD fanboys” miss what I’m asking. It’s not just about upgrading. I have had systems where I couldn’t just replace one thing when there was a CPU/MB issue and I want to avoid that as well. I’m trying to ask a genuine question, but I should have known better.
Maybe I have the answer to my question based on your “AMD fanboys” comment. None of these companies pays me so I buy what makes sense based on multiple issues.
Then I don’t understand your question.
The ability to replace parts when they fail isn’t unique to AMD or Intel. In either case, if something fails, you replace it. It’s unlikely CPUs fail anyway. Motherboards are more likely to fail than the CPU, and finding old motherboards is hit or miss regardless of manufacturer. Otherwise, they all take the same standard components (RAM, GPU, Drives, etc.).
Also, I have an AMD Ryzen system and 3 out of 4 of my system’s GPUs are AMD.
I’m not incredibly biased in this argument.
As far as future upgrades, I’ve already made my opinion known. The ability to upgrade one CPU generation on the same motherboard, regardless of manufacturer, is largely overblown, and specifically in your case, with a 10 year upgrade cycle, is not something you should consider as a meaningful decision point.
In either case, whichever CPU you go with, you can upgrade your drives, GPU, and more RAM if needed.
How well each CPU plays with those upgrades is debatable, but at this point, Intel CPUs are more likely to perform better with upcoming GPUs than AMD.
I would wait for Ryzen 4th generation to make a determination, as it’s quite possible they will match or beat Intel at gaming, and could power more future GPUs.
EDIT: read some more of your post. I generally find it inadvisable to purchase “placeholder” cpus (like your cheap Intel CPU mention) because invariably you end up at a net financial loss (unless you can repurpose the old hardware vs. sell) and you also lose out on potential performance benefits you would have had if you got something better to begin with during that time.
What I mean is, never buy a worse cheaper product as a placeholder for a better product later. You waste money buying two CPUs and have bad performance while you wait.
1 Like
Also, Ryzen 4000 is AM4 EOL. So that’s the best you’ll ever get on AM4.
There may be one more CPU on LGA1200, but we don’t know.
In either case, I don’t expect there to be much of a difference in regards to “upgradability” between either manufacturer if you go with either of them once Ryzen 4000 launches.
This is also close to the EOL for DDR4. So any CPU upgrades beyond that will likely require a new motherboard for DDR5 + sockets anyway.
2 Likes
I think you’re a little off base here. Sal is on of the least biased posters on the forums here. One of the reasons that I hadn’t responded is that I was trying to understand your question - before the edit, I thought the same thing Sal thought and that you were asking if you needed to upgrade everything or if you could pop a new CPU into a 10 year old board (nothing wrong with the question, but it doesn’t seem that is what you were asking).
If you’re asking if you need to throw away the MB every time you change the CPU then the answer is no for both AMD and Intel. You can change out the parts with any other compatible parts (not just the exact same part, but any other compatible part). Eventually, newer parts will be incompatible older parts as the tech changes, but for current version AMD and current version Intel, this is not an issue.
I’m not a “Fan-gal” of either - I, like Sal, have both Intel and AMD rigs and go with what is best for any particular use case.
If we haven’t addressed your question, perhaps you can try stating it again. Hoping this helps…
–Me
3 Likes
Both the current Intel and AMD motherboard offerings should support one more generation of CPUs
2 Likes
Thanks 
Also another thing - regarding the comment about being told “intel can’t upgrade but AMD can” - is a very very bad generalization that “AMD fanboys” have been perpetuating all over the internet…and by your comments, it is evidence that it is detrimental.
OP (or 2P? idk second question guy) didn’t read any of what I said about AM4 and LGA1200.
Going strictly by the “AMD lets you upgrade” mantra without the minutiae really could get users stuck. You already came here presuming AMD can upgrade more than Intel.
But at this point in time, Both AM4 and LGA1200 have maybe one upgrade left in them (not counting Ryzen 4000, which is the final AM4 socket CPU from AMD). In either case, again, you are not going to get much of an “upgrade path” and even so, it’s not relevant to you, who upgrades every 10 years.
This is why AMD fanboys need to stop making blanket statements. Because, well, it depends. Especially when the question is asked.
1 Like