This article will give you an insight on the latest Intel and AMD processors, followed by a comparison between the two.
Ever since computation came into existence, the war of creating the best processor exists. There have been two major contenders for the title: Intel and AMD.
The fight for being the best has always brought out the best technology from these two manufacturing giants. The cut-throat competition is going to continue. Let’s look at some of the launches of Intel and AMD for the year 2017.
The year 2017 saw AMD moving ahead of the Intel in terms of the processor performance. It took AMD almost a decade to grab a position ahead of Intel. It was finally achieved and thanks to AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper processors.
These processors overtook Intel in-terms of its gaming and processing speeds. Intel initially responded to this by altering certain features of the Skylake series. Later Intel came up with the i9 ‘XE’ (Extreme Edition). Although the XE series processors are not cheap to buy, they offer the highest level of performance.
Intel’s 2017 Launches
i9-7980XE
- Number of cores -18
- Number of threads – 36
- Max turbo frequency – 4.20 GHz
- Cache- 24.75 MB
- TDP – 165 W
i9-7940X
- Number of cores -14
- Number of threads – 28
- Max turbo frequency – 4.30 GHz
- Cache -19.25 MB
- TDP – 165 W
i9-7900X
- Number of cores – 10
- Number of threads – 20
- Max turbo frequency – 4.30 GHz
- Cache – 13.75 MB
- TDP -140 W
i7-8700
- Number of cores – 6
- Number of threads -12
- Max turbo frequency – 4.60GHz
- Cache -12MB
- TDP – 65 W
i7-8700K
- Number of cores – 6
- Number of threads -12
- Max turbo frequency – 4.70GHz
- Cache – 12MB
- TDP – 9 W
AMD’s 2017 Launches
Ryzen Threadripper 1950X
- Number of cores – 16
- Base clock speed – 3.4 GHz
- Max turbo core speed – 4 GHz
- TDP – 180 W
- “Zen” core architecture
FX-8370
- Number of cores – 8
- Base clock speed – 4 GHz
- Max turbo core speed – 4.3 GHz
- TDP – 125 W
- “Bulldozer” architecture
7th Gen Athlon X4-970
- Number of core – 4
- Base clock speed – 3.8GHz
- Max turbo core speed – 4 GHz
- TDP – 65 W
Intel Vs. AMD Comparison
While choosing a processor for your computer, all you need to keep in mind is its application. According to the application you can determine the speed, flexibility, graphics, and also the price . Let us look at some of the parameters.
Performance
If you want the best processing performance you should opt for Intel chips. The processors of Intel have low TDP rating as compared to AMD. This implies that it draws less heat, and thus consumes less power. This is because of its hyper threading technology. AMD Ryzen has implemented Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) in its processors with TDP rating as 180W, but still Intel i9 7980XE with 165W TDP rating overpowers AMD in performance. Since AMD has more cores in a single unit it may tend to get heated up, impeding the performance of the CPU.
Gaming
For gaming purposes you need to buy a dedicated graphics card.
Both Intel and AMD have on-chip graphics cards available for some of their processors. These on-chip cards are suitable for mid-level gaming and AMD has an edge over Intel in this. If you are a hardcore gamer then you must go for a dedicated graphics card. With the better performance in the restricted threading and Frames Per Second, Intel has a small edge over AMD in high level games.
Clock speed
It is one important parameter to be considered while comparing processors. Processors are locked at a particular clock speed, but there is always scope for improvement. Increasing clock speed can boost the performance of the processor. Both Intel and AMD support overclocking. With Intel you need to go for ‘K’ or ‘X’ series, whereas with AMD you need to look for Ryzen. Overclocking requires a good cooling system. The i7- 8700 K is capable of handling the 4.7 GHz turbo frequency in comparison to the 4.2 GHz of Ryzen7 1800X.
Design and Support
The compatibility with different hardware is another factor that needs to be considered. AMD lacks this. Intel has an upper hand in compatibility with other hardware. But in the design of the hardware AMD chip are more sensible.
Price
It is one of the major factors while choosing the right processor.
AMD chips are generally cheaper as compared to their Intel counterparts. The price of Intel’s latest i9 7980 Extreme Edition processor is expected to be around USD 2000, whereas that of Ryzen Threadripper 1950X is expected to be around USD 1000.
In a nutshell we can say that both the companies are having a cut throat competition with each other. The technological gap between the Intel and AMD is diminishing as time is moving ahead. However, the competition is not going to end so soon.