AMD or Intel? It’s a question that comes up at every flagship launch… yet what if the flagship options are irrelevant to you, because you don’t want to spend a fortune on a CPU?
What if you just want to spend something more within a sensible budget, plug everything in, and get going? Well, the eternal debate can be invoked even at a lower price point! Let’s take a look at what both AMD and Intel have to offer around $200.
With the release of the highly-anticipated i9-9900k, gamers running Intel systems may still be wondering whether it’s worth upgrading to this pricey CPU, even over less-expensive options like the i7-9700k and the year-old i7-8700k. It can be tempting to default to the latest flagship model, but that may not be the best option for every builder.
Two new high-end, arguably-professional-grade Intel CPUs made their debut in late 2018: the i9-9900k and the i7-9800x, which come endowed with higher core counts, higher thread counts, and higher price tags than the previous generation of Intel CPUs.
They offer different features and are designed for compatibility with different chipsets. New Intel builders with hefty budgets and those looking to upgrade their high-end Intel workstation desktops will want to take a close look at these options.
It’s time for a big ol’ showdown as the shiny new flagship CPU of the Ryzen platform, the Ryzen 7 2700X, goes head-to-head with Intel’s high-end 8th-generation offering, the i7-8700K. We’ve got some big heavy hitters here, so let’s get into it!
Intel’s Coffee Lake CPU stack
Intel’s new Coffee Lake processors have been very competitive with AMD’s Ryzen, as we previously pointed out in our i7-8700K and i5-8600K comparisons against the competition.
Finally, we turn our attention to the 4-core 4-thread i3 line. In this article, I’ll be comparing what we know about the i3-8350K against AMD’s price equivalent, the Ryzen 5 1500X. Intel’s segmentation has gone quite out of hand though, and the 6-core 6-thread i5-8400 falls into the same price category, costing only around $10 more than the 8350K and 1500X.
So, how do these sub-$200 processors compare in gaming and some light productivity work?
AMD have a new player in the game…
With the AMD Press Event details now available to the world, with videos and articles confirming the many (oh so many!) performance and price leaks to be correct, we take a look at the first big leap forward from AMD in five years with the shiny new Ryzen 7 series. On March 2, the Ryzen 7 1800X, 1700X, and 1700 will challenge Intel’s 6- and 8-core CPU lineup at very competitive price points. Now we wonder: Is Intel worried?
[Edit: Since writing this article, Intel has announced price drops of their CPUs in response to Ryzen. So, in short: Yes, they are worried! Now read on to understand why.]