AMD or Intel ? A few years ago, the answer would have been simple. Intel was the high performer that was on everyone’s mind, but it came with a higher price. However, if you didn’t care too much about battery life and was short on cash, AMD offered acceptable performance within a more modest price range.
In the past year, the market has changed significantly and AMD’s latest Ryzen platform is gaining more and more ground, especially with gaming enthusiasts. Both Intel’s 8th generation range and AMD Ryzen line-up are currently a decent offer and both can be a viable choice for the conscious buyer.
If you really need to dig a bit more into the difference, it would be safe to say that AMD and Intel usually have different goals in mind when designing their processors. Intel has always aimed to offer the best performance and battery saving technologies while asking a hefty price. AMD never managed to reach Intel’s battery saving capabilities, but it offers better integrated graphics and it comes at a lower price, while having similar performance.
Performance wise, AMD’s latest Ryzen processors are getting very close to Intel, closing the gap between the two. This trend is most likely to continue with the second generation of Ryzen processors, which we can expect in April 2018.
In practical terms?
To put things into perspective, an AMD Ryzen 5 2500U, which is bound to become a fairly common notebook processor, is almost as fast as the Intel Core i5 8250U and slower by about 15 % than a Core i7 8550U. However, in terms of price, laptops equipped with the Ryzen 5 2500U are usually $100 cheaper than similarly equipped Intel laptops. It’s also worth mentioning that laptops with Ryzen 7 processors are significantly faster than those with the Ryzen 5 series. Performance wise the Ryzen 7 sits between the Core i5 8250U and the Core i7 8550U, but is priced closer to the i5 8250U, making it a very competitive offer. Here is a direct comparison between Intel i5 8250U, Intel i7 8550U and AMD Ryzen 7 2700U:
In conclusion, instead of asking for “the latest Intel or AMD”, try to make a list of your needs first, analyze the possibilities, and narrow everything down to a few models. If that seems like a lot of work, just use our awesome website quiz!
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