First of all, you should ask hardware questions in a hardware community, not a software engineering one...
Well, here is my take on the whole Intel vs AMD discussion:
Intel and AMD, when comparing the latest models, are quite equal. Most of the time, AMD gets you the better deal for low to mid-range models, while Intel provides high-performance stuff at a premium.
However, AMD released the Ryzen CPUs not too long ago, which directly target the top-range for a very affordable price. You can say, it's AMD's way to get back on the market (they were nearly dead for the past few years). So, you might want to take a look at AMD's Ryzen models to strike a good perf/money deal; such a deal might not come around again for some time, but who knows. Also, AMD is getting back on its feet, so you might want to consider supporting AMD for a better competition (which is a win for consumers!). As a side-note: Since the release of AMD Ryzen, Intel was forced to drop its prices by 50%(!) to stay competitive. That alone is worth all the AMD support :)
AMD is raw-power focused and bets on the mass of cores. You can get an AMD 16-core CPU cheaply. Currently, applications are mainly optimized for four cores, because that's what most of the people have. Imho, in the near future (3-5 years), that will change, though. What that means is, that if your applications only run on one core, Intel CPUs will outperform AMD ones any day with the currently available processors. However, if your applications can make use of more than four cores, AMD beats Intel by a great margin :)
The power focus also has another downsides for AMD CPUs. They provide you with lots of cores and lots of processing capacity, however with energy efficiency as an after-thought. Energy consumption and heat dissipation improved with Ryzen, so it's only a small margin compared to Intel, however, Intel is the winner if you want an energy-efficient, cool (silent) computer.
Additionally to the CPU power, you will have to consider the CPU environment. Every CPU needs a motherboard and RAM. If you buy a new CPU, it is very likely that you will need a new motherboard. Since there are lots of manufacturers, the boards are very comparable in features. However, all in all, AMD boards are a lot cheaper.
What does all of that mean on an application level?
For a low-power, silent build, Intel is the winner and you might want to consider an Intel i3 with passive cooling. If you don't care for an extra 10-15W TDP, and want more power for a cheaper price than the i3, Ryzen 3 is the way to go! Such a low-power build is useful for a home computer used for simple things, like web browsing, or as a home application server (home automatization, NAS, etc.) (some Benchmark)
If you run (old) applications, which only use few cores (1-4), I recommend going with an Intel i5. It's cheap, efficient and strong enough. Possible example applications include games (you don't need an i7, really!). However, you might want to keep in mind, that future applications tend to scale better on more cores, so if you want a future-proof build which still rocks your applications in 3-5+ years, you might want to consider buying a Ryzen 5. (some Benchmark)
Last but not least, if you mainly run applications with lots of parallel processing (compiling code, for example), you should definitely go for a Ryzen 5 or Ryzen 7, since it's a beast which beats Intel in price and performance. (some Benchmark)
Personally, I still use an Intel i5 Ivy Bridge (3570K; OC to 4.2GHz) from April 2012. At the time, AMD was falling back. Because of that, over the past 5 years, Intel didn't ever release a real upgrade over the Sandy-architecture, so I never upgraded. I use my computer for gaming (I can run current games, at max graphics on FullHD with 60FPS) and programming (web and Rust). Also, I use Gentoo Linux, which makes me compile everything myself (GCC 6). I think, performance could be better, but I am still rather happy with the performance (compared to an Intel i7 Skylake I have at work; not much difference perceptible!). However, I already need to run my CPU at an increased voltage level on default turbo speed to be stable, and my motherboard (an AsRock P67 Fatal!ty Performance with unofficial BIOS version 2.25a) starts to act up, and ports don't work anymore. So I have been thinking about buying new stuff myself. I might buy new hardware this month (depending on various things), and I will most likely go for an AMD Ryzen 7 1700X and OC it.
Just somehow found my way back here. Just wanted to let you know:
I did not buy new parts, yet, but because of other reasons than bad hardware 😕
I still consider Ryzen as the better choice over Core because of the above reasons. The AMD Ryzen 3000 series will probably mob the floor with Intel's Core processors in all regards, so if you want a new processor, waiting for the Ryzen 3000 series might be a good idea right now.
Marco Alka
Software Engineer, Technical Consultant & Mentor
First of all, you should ask hardware questions in a hardware community, not a software engineering one...
Well, here is my take on the whole Intel vs AMD discussion:
Intel and AMD, when comparing the latest models, are quite equal. Most of the time, AMD gets you the better deal for low to mid-range models, while Intel provides high-performance stuff at a premium.
However, AMD released the Ryzen CPUs not too long ago, which directly target the top-range for a very affordable price. You can say, it's AMD's way to get back on the market (they were nearly dead for the past few years). So, you might want to take a look at AMD's Ryzen models to strike a good perf/money deal; such a deal might not come around again for some time, but who knows. Also, AMD is getting back on its feet, so you might want to consider supporting AMD for a better competition (which is a win for consumers!). As a side-note: Since the release of AMD Ryzen, Intel was forced to drop its prices by 50%(!) to stay competitive. That alone is worth all the AMD support :)
AMD is raw-power focused and bets on the mass of cores. You can get an AMD 16-core CPU cheaply. Currently, applications are mainly optimized for four cores, because that's what most of the people have. Imho, in the near future (3-5 years), that will change, though. What that means is, that if your applications only run on one core, Intel CPUs will outperform AMD ones any day with the currently available processors. However, if your applications can make use of more than four cores, AMD beats Intel by a great margin :)
The power focus also has another downsides for AMD CPUs. They provide you with lots of cores and lots of processing capacity, however with energy efficiency as an after-thought. Energy consumption and heat dissipation improved with Ryzen, so it's only a small margin compared to Intel, however, Intel is the winner if you want an energy-efficient, cool (silent) computer.
Additionally to the CPU power, you will have to consider the CPU environment. Every CPU needs a motherboard and RAM. If you buy a new CPU, it is very likely that you will need a new motherboard. Since there are lots of manufacturers, the boards are very comparable in features. However, all in all, AMD boards are a lot cheaper.
What does all of that mean on an application level?
Personally, I still use an Intel i5 Ivy Bridge (3570K; OC to 4.2GHz) from April 2012. At the time, AMD was falling back. Because of that, over the past 5 years, Intel didn't ever release a real upgrade over the Sandy-architecture, so I never upgraded. I use my computer for gaming (I can run current games, at max graphics on FullHD with 60FPS) and programming (web and Rust). Also, I use Gentoo Linux, which makes me compile everything myself (GCC 6). I think, performance could be better, but I am still rather happy with the performance (compared to an Intel i7 Skylake I have at work; not much difference perceptible!). However, I already need to run my CPU at an increased voltage level on default turbo speed to be stable, and my motherboard (an AsRock P67 Fatal!ty Performance with unofficial BIOS version 2.25a) starts to act up, and ports don't work anymore. So I have been thinking about buying new stuff myself. I might buy new hardware this month (depending on various things), and I will most likely go for an AMD Ryzen 7 1700X and OC it.