There’s never been a better time to take stock of the seemingly age-old tussle for CPU supremacy: AMD vs. Intel, with the latter having freshly launched its new batch of 10th-Gen Comet Lake-S processors.
Rather than merely a logical refresh and innovation of existing chips, Intel seems intent on competing directly with the Zen 2 architecture Ryzen CPUs. Whether Intel has achieved this isn’t clear cut. The new Comet Lake-S processors aren’t revolutionary by any stretch of the imagination. It’s very much business as usual from the Intel camp: little to no headline-grabbing innovations, no risk-taking, and Intel’s almost signature bland, if comforting, predictability.
Despite Intel’s best efforts to coat Comet Lake-S in marketing lacquer touting the chips as the best thing since sliced bread, the reality is much less glamorous. The CPUs may be freshly minted, but AMD’s Zen 2 roster is likely to remain a prickly thorn in Intel’s haunch. In that spirit, here are five things AMD is doing better than Intel.
1. When It Comes To Price, AMD Reigns Supreme
This point needs little to no introduction: AMD products have historically been vastly cheaper than Intel’s. And while the Comet Lake-S certainly chops down on the traditional premium associated with Intel products, the benefits of this may only be short-lived.
A quick look at the specification and price sheet produced by Intel for the launch of the Comet Lake-S family makes this abundantly clear. A flagship Core i9-10900K priced at $488 is incredibly competitive for Intel, especially with its 10 core, 20 threads, 3.7 GHz base clock speed, up to 5.3 GHz boost, and a TDP of 125 W.
By comparison, AMD’s Ryzen 9 3900X launched last summer priced at $499 and packs 12 cores, 24 threads, 3.8 GHz base clock speed, 4.6 GHz boost, and 105 W TDP. While not entirely comparable, they will be competing for the same performance market space geared towards gamers and content creators.
At first glance, Intel seems to be creeping towards the price to performance value previously only found in AMD products. There’s a sense Intel assigned these prices to compete with direct competitor models from AMD.
Much the same is exhibited in the remainder of Intel’s Comet Lake-S lineup, with a steady step down to the entry-level Core i3-10100 priced at $122 for 4 cores, 8 threads, 3.6 GHz base clock speed, 4.3 GHz boost and 65 W TDP.
It’s difficult not to see the makings of a bargain in Intel’s new lineup, but “new” is the operative word here. Intel is aiming to match prices established close to a year ago by AMD. The older the product, the more likely a company is to lower its price (at least in AMD’s case), notably with the expected arrival of AMD’s next-gen Zen 3 chips by the end of 2020.
When these new CPUs launch, AMD will naturally cut the price of the Zen 2 Ryzen lineup, while Intel, if history is anything to go by, will stick staunchly to its pricing. This means AMD’s chips will once again regain the upper hand in price to performance value.
For those wanting to spend a little more, AMD Zen 3 will be a no brainer: the benefits provided by the new architecture should outweigh Comet Lake-S. Intel’s latest chips will be left in a kind of no man’s land where they don’t come out on top regardless of whether we are looking at price or performance.
2. Zen 3 and The Process Node Advantage
When it comes to process nodes, AMD is clearly far ahead of Intel. We have to simply look at the fact that the Comet Lake-S CPUs use the dated 14 nm process, which is near-enough a decade old at this point. AMD, on the other hand, has proudly flaunted its TSMC’s forge 7nm process in Ryzen and Radeon products for close to a year now.
Furthermore, Intel’s tumultuous relationship with the 10 nm is well documented, and the company says it doesn’t expect to incorporate 7nm chips until at least the end of next year. On the other hand, AMD is eyeing up Zen 4 5 nm chips for 2022. If early estimates of TSMC’s density improvement of 1.84x for its 5nm process turn out to be genuine, then the leap will position AMD even further ahead of Intel.
Alongside, AMD is already planning its next-generation leap in the form of the Zen 3 architecture. While still slated to use an improved 7 nm process node (a shift to extreme ultraviolet lithography), there are numerous advantages to be found elsewhere, namely an expected 20% increase in transistor density leading to a 10% drop in power consumption. In other words, higher clock speeds for lower power consumption.
Alongside, there are murmurs of an up to 10% increase in instructions-per-clock, larger cache size, and the introduction of a new simultaneous multithreading feature allowing a single core to use four threads (16 core, 64 thread CPU, anyone?). In practical terms, we could be looking at a decent increase in overall performance.
We can, of course, expect AMD’s historically more competitive pricing structure to hit Zen 3 products when they do land, which, as above, will trigger a price reduction for the current Zen 2 lines.
Short of AMD spilling the beans, we’re somewhat in the dark about the details, but we should know far more soon if rumors of a 2020 release are to be believed.
Intel, on the other hand, appears set to linger in 14nm limbo, for the time being, more than likely exacerbated by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on schedules, manufacturing, and distribution.
3. A Reputation Redressed
Long gone are the days when AMD was seen as a lesser underdog struggling on all fronts to compete with AMD. Nowadays, the AMD name is widely thrown almost ubiquitously from the data center market to gamers by way of mobile laptops.
AMD is behind the chips in both the current-gen PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as well as the upcoming next-gen PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. While certainly not a consideration for PC purists, the publicity afforded by the hype for these next-generation consoles helps instill those three letters – AMD – has a household name among gamers, console or otherwise.
Equally, from enthusiast builders to pre-built OEM offerings, AMD is now an option that isn’t just there, but one that is sought out. Top-end builds now widely feature AMD CPUs, while, in the past, anything other than Intel was near enough unheard of except for those on a budget, settling for second best.
With both performance and price, AMD is no longer looked upon as more than merely a viable alternative to Intel, but as a superior product in many respects.
Thanks to the expert guidance and pivotal vision of CEO Dr. Lisa Su, AMD has redressed its tattered reputation from a decade ago. And with that comes a certain soft power that AMD has harnessed perfectly in its ongoing head-to-head with Intel.
The rather underwhelming offering of Comet Lake-S CPUs will only back this up, as will the arrival of AMD’s Zen 3 products by the end of this year. The overall point is that AMD has successfully managed to turn around not only its fortunes but the public perception of its products.
4. Cross-Gen Compatibility
An interesting facet of Intel’s new Comet Lake-S range is the introduction of the brand spanking new 400-series chipsets. Now, a new chipset isn’t necessarily a bad thing; after all, innovation should, in theory, lead to a win for consumers.
The issue with the three new chipset variants – H410, B460, and Z490 – is that they bring with them a brand new socket, LGA 1200. A new socket means new motherboards and a significant blow to compatibility. There is some sense to this though; Intel is expected to use the Z490 chipset for its 11th-Gen Rocket Lake CPUs. So while compatibility may be lacking right now, this could change moving forward.
Nevertheless, Intel’s switcharoo means anyone with a build centered on one of Intel’s previous-gen chips can’t upgrade by picking up a 10th-gen CPU; they will need to lay out some serious cash for a new compatible motherboard. PC building isn’t cheap, to begin with, so having to swap out arguably two of the most expensive components will naturally deter quite a few, especially as the performance gains of the Comet Lake-S aren’t all that significant – reportedly no more than 15% in the best-case scenario.
The picture over at camp AMD is entirely different. The company’s most recent batch of high-end CPUs, the Ryzen 9 family, is compatible with chipsets that existed beforehand. The upgrade is, therefore, much more straightforward and only requires purchasing a new CPU as these new models still use the AM4 socket found on older motherboards.
In a market where consumers are forking out significant sums, any saving is sure to turn heads and will have builders seriously consider a jump to AMD for their next build for the compatibility of its CPU/socket/chipset arrangement.
Equally, AMD also caters to those wanting to jump to motherboards with more recent chipsets, for example, the AM4 socket X570, and the latest features such as PCIe 4.0 and that sweet 32 GB/s bandwidth on an x16 slot.
AMD covers both types of consumers – those eager to keep costs down and those ready to fork out for a new motherboard and CPU duo. Cross-gen compatibility undoubtedly stands as one of AMD’s strongest attributes right now.
Believe it or not, what would have passed off as the ramblings of a lunatic just a few years back, is now a reality. Well, at least according to AMD. During AMD Q1 2020 earnings call, CEO Lisa Su proudly revealed that the company’s Ryzen CPUs now account for more than 50% of global premium desktop processor sales.
To be more precise, Lisa revealed that both the Ryzen 3000-series and even the Ryzen 2000-series are incredibly popular among consumers, topping retailer best-seller lists around the world. This is interesting because while the merits of the Zen 2 Ryzen 3000-series chips are well documented and have certainly sent a clear message to Intel, the Ryzen 2000-series is luring in consumers despite its age. This suggests AMD’s appeal stretches across multiple generations.
Considering our previous point about the far better price to performance ratio offered by AMD, this should come as no surprise. The glut of deals of AMD products, which see some pretty ludicrously low prices, also helps in that respect.
While AMD will undoubtedly want to embellish the achievement and flaunt its comeback story as a marketing tool, the proof is in the pudding. Over on Amazon, nine out of the top ten selling CPUs are – you guessed it – AMD products. The story is much the same on other PC hardware retail sites.
Allied to this is the fact that according to a survey conducted by the European Hardware Association, nearly two-thirds of PC enthusiasts would now pick AMD over Intel. Backing this up is the latest market share report from CPUbenchmark showing AMD advancing rapidly to global market share parity with Intel regardless of CPU type. It’s not quite at 50%, but it’s on course to do so soon if the situation remains as it is. A boost from the Zen 3 architecture chips this year could see this happen sooner rather than later.
Final Word
The point here isn’t to throw shade on Intel. The company still has the crown when it comes to gaming performance and technology like Hyper-Threading. There’s a reason for Intel’s dominance over the past quarter decade. Equally, the Comet Lake-S CPUs aren’t bad products by any stretch of the imagination and should offer a decent generational jump for those whose allegiance is firmly rooted in the Intel camp.
Only, Intel’s dominance isn’t quite as clear cut as it used to be. Even using the word dominance feels out of place in the current AMD vs. Intel landscape. AMD gains are far too significant and impressive.
If you’re on the fence about which company to throw your money at for your next build, then these five points show that AMD has never been as viable an option as it is now.