AMD vs Intel - CPUs

Submitted by Jonathon Bingle on

The fight between AMD and Intel has been going on for a long time. Intel holds about 80%   the market share while AMD holds only 20%. The biggest model difference between Intel and AMD is how they are made. Intel owns its own chip fabrication plants, and AMD uses GlobalFoundries (GF). Since AMD has switched over to using GF to produce their chips, they have dropped their total debt from 5 billion to 2 billion.

AMD entered the graphics processor market around 2006, when they purchased ATI.  Graphics processors are becoming more and more important in keeping up with the needs of high end software, such as video rendering. The newest release from AMD, known as bulldozer has been a disappointment. Sure they have 8 cores. The bulldozer has over 2 million transistors making it consume two times more then its Intel counterpart. The bulldozer also delivers less processing speed than the old Phenom II core processors.

When it comes to all-in-one computers, it's slightly a different story. The breakthrough for this comes in AMD's Second generation A-Series processors (Trinity). This processor comes with Piledriver cores (build on Bulldozer). The Piledriver cores have faster integrated graphics, improved power management (extended battery life). When the Second gen A-Series first came out, it outperformed the old AMD processors, and was close enough to Intel that you probably wouldn't notice the difference.

If you want to find a good mobile CPU then your options are much bigger, there are many choices out there. Intel and AMD are the top two as far as desktop/notebook/laptop CPU go, but when you get into mobile there are many more players. If you wait a month or so there will be even more choices out there for you to choose from.

In the end AMD has always come in second place compared to Intel. If you want top of the line processing power, and can afford the price tag, then Intel is for you. AMD is far behind on their processing capabilities, and it seems they are going to stay that way. It will be up to you to choose what you are going to buy. If you want to keep your price low, then AMD is your choice. If money doesn't matter then go with Intel's newest series of I7, but remember that will limit the choices as far as mother boards go. Just like everything else in electronics, they are constantly changing, so if you wait for a little there will be more to choose from, and the old ones will be cheaper. I personally always wait at least a year from the time a new processor comes out so they can work the bugs out of it, and the price goes down a little.