Desktop AMD vs Intel CPU?

Quattro Pete

Quattro Pete

Joined
Oct 30, 2002
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There was an older thread on AMD vs Intel CPUs in laptops. My question is regarding desktops. Looking at some new machines in around $500 range, I see several offerings, some with AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and some with Intel i5-10400F CPU. Taking a peek at various benchmarks, it seems that particular AMD CPU offers quite a bit more performance. Are there any downsides that one should be aware of? Compatibility issues? Heat issues? Etc.

This would be a Win 10 environment, used mainly for photo editing and maybe video encoding. No gaming, so I'm not much concerned with the graphics card included in any of these. CPU speed and RAM is what counts most.
 
Ryzen is hands down the better laptop chip right now BUT you should shoot for a 4000 series chip like the 4750U or 4650U. Intel and AMD are pretty much neck and neck in the desktop segment however Ryzen 5000 series are hard to get because of their wild popularity. Intel will use a little more power and produce a little more heat, plus their motherboards tend to be more expensive. Try to hunt down a system with the Ryzen 4750G. 8 Cores 16 threads and integrated graphics that don't suck.
 
One thing to consider is AMD CPU's were less affected by some of the discovered security issues compared to Intel.
There seems to be more security flaws with Intel CPU's than AMD.

The one thing I've noticed with an AMD desktop I had once eons ago that while it was slower than a Intel Q6600 CPU desktop I replaced it with, the AMD desktop never had any weird hiccups like the intel desktop occasionally did.
 
This is Costco BTW, I don't love the odd 12GB of RAM configuration but could be easily made into 16GB for $30 more
Screenshot_223.png
 
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That 12GB config must be a typo since on Lenovo's website it's specd at 16GB. Hadn't seen that amount of ram since the intel X58 triple channel ram years.
 
Tomioka said:
That 12GB config must be a typo since on Lenovo's website it's specd at 16GB. Hadn't seen that amount of ram since the intel X58 triple channel ram years.
Click to expand...
It's probably accurate since they have other desktops that are 12GB RAM as well. It's a 8GB and 4GB stick. Probably landed on that after some market research but didn't want to splurge on 16GB.

99% of the time I would advise to build a PC but parts/cost/and availability right now are horrendous so these pre-built systems make a lot of sense.
 
jayjr1105 said:
It's probably accurate since they have other desktops that are 12GB RAM as well. It's a 8GB and 4GB stick. Probably landed on that after some market research but didn't want to splurge on 16GB.
Click to expand...

Figured so. Electronics sold at Costco are specced differently/different SKU's than other big box retailers.
 
Just stick a new Motherboard in your old box. I did mine for $209.00 plus the cost of an M2.0 drive. That's the bottleneck anyway when it comes to performance.
I used the Gigabyte board with their "extra tough" capacitors. If you don't want to go crazy on the graphics, you may not even need to change the power supply. I didn't and everything runs fine.
 
I will agree with going AMD at the moment. No compatibility issues unless you decide to run a hypervisor or VMWare on it in the future.
 
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Almost pulled the trigger on a HP Pavilion, it was on slick deals for $549 with a Ryzen 7 CPU.

This is 8 cores.

Would be pretty neat to run some virtual appliances and a home lab.

I think the new AMD Ryzen CPU's and the Threadripper is offering mind bending performance.

Intel is a premium product but you pay more for it.
 
Like noted above, an SSD is going to get you the best bang for the buck. Night and day difference imo over standard hard drives.
 
AMD at the moment for desktop. Intel still rules the server market and I think it won't change anytime soon - EPYC alone cannot win the battle.
I went from a Phenom II X4 to a 2700X I got on a sale last year and it was like driving a Ferrari after a Ford Taurus.
 
alarmguy said:
If your looking for speed, wouldn’t having an SSD be at the top of your list as well?
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I don't have any data to support this but I think SSD is the most important feature if you want speed. If you're not doing anything serious, CPU and RAM don't matter as much as SSD vs HDD and the video card.
 
Leo99 said:
I don't have any data to support this but I think SSD is the most important feature if you want speed.
Click to expand...
I consider SSD to be pretty much standard on a new PC these days. I wouldn't consider one without it.

If you're not doing anything serious, CPU and RAM don't matter as much as SSD vs HDD and the video card.
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As I mentioned earlier, I am going to be doing "serious" stuff - photo editing requires CPU power and lots of RAM. Video encoding is also very CPU hungry if you don't want this process to take days to complete.

My current PC (laptop) has had an SSD in it for 5+ years, and it's been a great upgrade, but its CPU and limited 8 GB of RAM struggles with the aforementioned tasks. It's now 8 years old, so I am starting to look at potential replacements.
 
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