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I'm always confused when I hear reviewers say that Intel is back on top. They beat AMD's benchmarks at ~double the power. I get it's winning, but it's not a fa

by awill 5y ago

I'm always confused when I hear reviewers say that Intel is back on top. They beat AMD's benchmarks at ~double the power. I get it's winning, but it's not a fair fight. I certainly don't want my computer to be 10% faster at double the wattage.

pradn 5y ago
For home use, that's fine. I don't worry about the power peak usage of my computer since it rarely gets to that level. For servers, that's a no-go.
- neogodless 5y ago
  I think there's another way to word this or spin this... For home use, it's going to depend on the consumer. Some people want a chip that's easy to power and cool, and still gets 80/90/95% of the performance. Some people want the absolute best performer (for their specific uses) with less regard to cooling and power.
  - pradn 5y ago
    I think peak performance, even if it gets thermo-throttled quickly, is important. Web site JS parsing during loading is like that, and that's an essential function of my computer these days. And perhaps for bursty sections of AAA games as well. But yes, it depends on the user.
wmf 5y ago
Alder Lake is efficient at the low end; the 12100 and 12400 are really good against AMD.
magila 5y ago
The whole "double the power of AMD" meme is an oversimplification at best. It's all based on a 12900K running a heavy multi-core load with an increased power limit. This is the ultimate "I don't care about power efficiency" setup so it's kind of silly to knock it for drawing lots of power. If you care about power efficiency you can drop the power limit and still be very competitive with AMD. The only reason you don't see Ryzen CPUs drawing the same power as a maxed out 12900K is because if you pumped that much power into a Ryzen CPU it would explode (at least without LN2 being involved).
acomjean 5y ago
Reviewers like a good comeback story. And intel is doing much better than it was doing before (I own machines with both types of CPUs). And intel did some different things with the new chips (2 different core types.), so interesting. AMD hadn't released there new chips when some of that stuff was written. but its actually a little bit exciting that competition has returned and I suspect it will be good for consumers as long as both chip makers have competitive products.

by awill 5y ago

pradn 5y ago

For home use, that's fine. I don't worry about the power peak usage of my computer since it rarely gets to that level. For servers, that's a no-go.

neogodless 5y ago
I think there's another way to word this or spin this... For home use, it's going to depend on the consumer. Some people want a chip that's easy to power and cool, and still gets 80/90/95% of the performance. Some people want the absolute best performer (for their specific uses) with less regard to cooling and power.
- pradn 5y ago
  I think peak performance, even if it gets thermo-throttled quickly, is important. Web site JS parsing during loading is like that, and that's an essential function of my computer these days. And perhaps for bursty sections of AAA games as well. But yes, it depends on the user.

wmf 5y ago

Alder Lake is efficient at the low end; the 12100 and 12400 are really good against AMD.

magila 5y ago

The whole "double the power of AMD" meme is an oversimplification at best. It's all based on a 12900K running a heavy multi-core load with an increased power limit. This is the ultimate "I don't care about power efficiency" setup so it's kind of silly to knock it for drawing lots of power. If you care about power efficiency you can drop the power limit and still be very competitive with AMD. The only reason you don't see Ryzen CPUs drawing the same power as a maxed out 12900K is because if you pumped that much power into a Ryzen CPU it would explode (at least without LN2 being involved).

acomjean 5y ago

Reviewers like a good comeback story. And intel is doing much better than it was doing before (I own machines with both types of CPUs). And intel did some different things with the new chips (2 different core types.), so interesting. AMD hadn't released there new chips when some of that stuff was written. but its actually a little bit exciting that competition has returned and I suspect it will be good for consumers as long as both chip makers have competitive products.