Credit: Photo 169531891 © Petrsvoboda91 | Dreamstime.com
Which CPU should you buy right now?
AMD deserves a great deal of credit for coming back from nowhere to match Intel and produce some interesting technology but its claims of matching Intel for dramatically less money are somewhat misguided. If we’re talking general day-to-day usage, Intel’s platform is often still faster and cheaper.
Credit: Intel Most buyers will be better off buying a processor like the Intel Core i7-10700 (Amazon) even if it costs a little bit more than its closest Ryzen counterpart (Amazon) and, as far as most general-usage tasks go, it performs better. It also doesn’t require having your PC set up for Maximum Performance - which is not healthy for power bills.
However, the math here changes dramatically if you regularly need your PC to perform any of the following tasks:
3D Rendering or video encoding
Playing a game where performance is boosted by multiple cores
Enthusiast-grade overclocking
Streaming your games online without using a separate computer
In these instances, Ryzen will be worth paying the premium for as it won’t just enhance your enjoyment but save you a lot of time - and potentially money as well. You can find the full Ryzen range on Amazon here.
[Related: Gigabyte Aorus GA-AX370-Gaming 5 AMD Ryzen motherboard review]
Credit: AMD [Related: RyzenMaster and HPET can make your Ryzen computer run slower]
This article was originally published on 3rd March 2017 by Nick Ross. It was updated on the 15th February 2021 by Fergus Halliday.
