There are many people out there that say AMD is better the Intel or vice versa, obviously each brand has their ups and downs. | What Im about to explain might be so mind blowing that it will cause world as we know it.........NOT!! (>_<) Ok I'l get serious here are some questions I hear from first time builders. |
1) I heard there are 8 core CPUs, does that mean its much more faster then any of quad core CPU when gaming?
AMDs got 6-8 cores on their CPUs and Intel only has 4 but that doesn't mean it is faster then quad core CPUs, no. You see games these days take advantage of mostly 2-3 cores when gaming, while 8 cores may sound nice its full potential is not gonna be taken advantage of just yet.
2) Does this mean I should get a Intel CPU instead?
Well that depends on what are you gonna be doing with that PC, are you gonna be gaming only? are you gonna edit some music/videos with it? Intels Quad-Core i7 CPUs have hyper-threading which really helps multitasking performance ie;edit music/videos.
While that sounds tempting its not all that necessarily needed if your gonna be gaming and if your patient enough for your music/videos to decode, i5 CPUs don't have hyper-threading, but that doesn't mean gaming performance will be different from an i7 by a mile.
With that said your probably wondering about the 6-8 core CPUs by AMD, well, while hyper-threading is pretty sweet an 8 core CPU can perform just as good for half the price ie; Intels i5-4670k and AMDs FX-8320.
Operating Systems such as Windows 8 takes advantage of AMDs 6-8 core CPUs thus its not wasted.
3) So what CPU should I get? the pros and cons of each CPU are really neck-a-neck?
While each CPU from both company have their Pros and Cons, it all really comes to how much your budget is and what you do with the PC.
If your on a budget and don't really use CPU heavy software then AMDs FX-8320 at the price of $130 offers a better price/performance ratio then Intels i5-4670k and i7-4770k but has a much higher power consumption.
If you want all the performance and if you want to keep your electric a little lower (lol) then I would go for Intels i5-4670k or i7-4770k which offers higher performance then both of the CPUs but at a premium price, all these CPUs are fully overclockable.
4) What about the APU and iGPU? what are those?
AMD manufactures CPUs integrated with GPUs, if you didn't know, APUs only support FM2 and FM2+ Motherboards.
Recently AMD has unveiled a new APU called Kaveri powered by their new Steamroller cores, which uses a FM2+ socket and has much more power then AMDs old Richland APUs ie; AMDs A-10 5800k and A-10 6800k.
AMD showcased the new APU at APU13 and showed that it is able to play Battlefield 4 at 30-40 fps 1080p at medium and 50-63 fps at 720p medium without a graphics card, the APU outperformed an i7-4770k+nVidia GT630 which ran at 15 un-enjoyable frames per second, this offers much more performance even without a discrete GPU.
Intel also has integrated GPUs called iGPUs for short, while there are powerful iGPUs in the i7-4770k and i5-4670k, they are no match for AMDs upcoming APUs, Kaveri in 2014 and Carizo, which will be an even more powerful APU to feature AMDs new Excavator cores in 2015, which will also support the FM2+ socket, talk about powerful SFF Rigs.
AMDs got 6-8 cores on their CPUs and Intel only has 4 but that doesn't mean it is faster then quad core CPUs, no. You see games these days take advantage of mostly 2-3 cores when gaming, while 8 cores may sound nice its full potential is not gonna be taken advantage of just yet.
2) Does this mean I should get a Intel CPU instead?
Well that depends on what are you gonna be doing with that PC, are you gonna be gaming only? are you gonna edit some music/videos with it? Intels Quad-Core i7 CPUs have hyper-threading which really helps multitasking performance ie;edit music/videos.
While that sounds tempting its not all that necessarily needed if your gonna be gaming and if your patient enough for your music/videos to decode, i5 CPUs don't have hyper-threading, but that doesn't mean gaming performance will be different from an i7 by a mile.
With that said your probably wondering about the 6-8 core CPUs by AMD, well, while hyper-threading is pretty sweet an 8 core CPU can perform just as good for half the price ie; Intels i5-4670k and AMDs FX-8320.
Operating Systems such as Windows 8 takes advantage of AMDs 6-8 core CPUs thus its not wasted.
3) So what CPU should I get? the pros and cons of each CPU are really neck-a-neck?
While each CPU from both company have their Pros and Cons, it all really comes to how much your budget is and what you do with the PC.
If your on a budget and don't really use CPU heavy software then AMDs FX-8320 at the price of $130 offers a better price/performance ratio then Intels i5-4670k and i7-4770k but has a much higher power consumption.
If you want all the performance and if you want to keep your electric a little lower (lol) then I would go for Intels i5-4670k or i7-4770k which offers higher performance then both of the CPUs but at a premium price, all these CPUs are fully overclockable.
4) What about the APU and iGPU? what are those?
AMD manufactures CPUs integrated with GPUs, if you didn't know, APUs only support FM2 and FM2+ Motherboards.
Recently AMD has unveiled a new APU called Kaveri powered by their new Steamroller cores, which uses a FM2+ socket and has much more power then AMDs old Richland APUs ie; AMDs A-10 5800k and A-10 6800k.
AMD showcased the new APU at APU13 and showed that it is able to play Battlefield 4 at 30-40 fps 1080p at medium and 50-63 fps at 720p medium without a graphics card, the APU outperformed an i7-4770k+nVidia GT630 which ran at 15 un-enjoyable frames per second, this offers much more performance even without a discrete GPU.
Intel also has integrated GPUs called iGPUs for short, while there are powerful iGPUs in the i7-4770k and i5-4670k, they are no match for AMDs upcoming APUs, Kaveri in 2014 and Carizo, which will be an even more powerful APU to feature AMDs new Excavator cores in 2015, which will also support the FM2+ socket, talk about powerful SFF Rigs.