In the world of computing, there’s always been a pretty big war between Team Red and Team Blue. Until recent years, you’d have been forgiven for saying that Intel was better for gamers; after all, pre-Ryzen 5000 series, it was. Games simply ran better on older Intel CPUs, and AMD’s multithreading-focused FX CPUs didn’t really offer much in terms of tangible performance benefits. Even early Ryzen processors often fell behind their Intel counterparts in games, despite offering comparable IPC in other tasks.
Now, in 2024, times have changed. AMD’s Ryzen CPUs are some of the best for gamers, and here are some of the most important reasons why.
1. Stability
While I wouldn’t typically tar either team’s CPUs with the label of “unstable,” Intel’s most recent Core i9 13th Gen and 14th Gen CPUs have been demonstrated to have multiple problems. While Intel mostly blames motherboard makers, that doesn’t matter to the end-user who picks up a new PC with an i9 CPU. Intel has the power to prevent motherboard OEMs from making the changes that have exacerbated the problem, but then that would mean a reduction in benchmark scores from reviewers and enthusiasts alike.
Because of that, it’s hard to say that Intel’s CPU offerings are stable; especially in the high-end market. AMD had some hardware limitations relating to memory speeds and DDR5, limiting performance to roughly 6,000MT/s with their Ryzen 7000 CPUs, but your applications didn’t straight-up crash or your PC blue screen for no apparent reason when running at default speeds.
2. Upgradability
If you have an AMD CPU, the longevity of AMD’s AM4 socket probably partially factored into your decision. A friend of mine was recently upgrading her AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and was happy to be able to stay on the AM4 socket and upgrade to an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D. She primarily plays Valorant and streams, and if it weren’t for the CPU socket her motherboard had, she’d probably also have needed to upgrade her motherboard and RAM, too.
Anecdotally, I know plenty of gamers who went with AM4 because of the longevity of the socket, and years ago I was one of them when I built a PC with an AMD Ryzen 7 1700. I kept that AM4 board going for a number of years with two sets of upgrades, and I know people now who are building PCs with AM5 sockets based on how long and how much AMD supported AM4.
Platform longevity is a massive win for money-conscious gamers, and it’s an advantage that’s hard to overstate the importance of when comparing AMD and Intel.
3. Cost
AMD CPUs are generally renowned for offering a favorable price-to-performance ratio. Its CPUs, often matching or surpassing the performance of Intel counterparts, are often priced lower by up to several hundred dollars. This competitive pricing allows AMD buyers to achieve excellent in-game performance without overstretching their budgets.
AMD manages to deliver exceptional value past the initial purchase, too, with regular updates and optimizations that maintain and enhance CPU performance over time. A more recent example is the AMD Ryzen 7000 series, which has been praised for its impressive performance metrics and lower price point compared to similar Intel models.
AMD undoubtedly has an aggressive pricing strategy, which not only benefits consumers by making high-performance computing more accessible but also fosters healthy market competition, driving innovation and lowering prices industry-wide.
4. Power efficiency and thermals
Energy costs are rising, and with that, many people don’t want to have to worry about how much power the CPU in their PC is drawing. After all, an Intel Core i9-14900K can draw well over 250W at max power, and with overclocking, it can pull even more. In the AMD camp, it’s nowhere near as bad thanks to its superior fabrication node. The AMD Ryzen 7 7950X3D has a TDP of 120W and a max power draw of somewhere around 160W.
That’s a pretty big difference, and the other side of the coin is that more power means more heat, making Intel CPUs harder to cool, too. Making them harder to cool means more energy spent cooling them and louder fans as a result, and also means your PC is more likely to thermal throttle and reduce your frames. AMD is the better choice here for both of those reasons, and the latter especially will mean that you have better game performance overall if your PC is being kept cooler.
5. 3D V-Cache
Before discussing 3D V-Cache, it’s essential to understand the role of basic cache memory in computing. Historically, computers relied on hard drives for extensive storage and RAM for fast access to limited data. As CPUs advanced rapidly in the 1990s, surpassing RAM speeds, performance bottlenecks emerged. The introduction of cache memory addressed this issue. Cache, smaller yet faster than RAM, is integrated directly into the CPU, creating a memory hierarchy that prioritizes speed and efficiency. This hierarchy places cache at the top, followed by RAM, and then storage solutions like hard drives and SSDs at the bottom. Cache has since evolved, developing multiple levels to optimize performance and capacity for different processors, including GPUs.
3D V-Cache is a specialized chip that consists entirely of cache, specifically designed for compatibility with AMD’s Ryzen 5000 and Ryzen 7000 series CPUs. Each 3D V-Cache chiplet boasts 64MB of L3 cache, doubling the capacity of a single Zen compute chiplet. Despite being a separate component, AMD integrates these chiplets directly above the compute chiplets—where the CPU cores and existing cache reside—using a vertical stacking approach, which is the basis for the “3D V-Cache” name.
All of this is to say that some games majorly benefit in multiple ways when tested on AMD chipsets with 3D V-Cache, and if you play those games, then an AMD CPU is the best option for you. Titles include Counter-Strike and Valorant, but there are quite a few others, too.
6. Better integrated graphics
AMD’s Ryzen 7 8000G desktop processors claim to have the fastest integrated graphics in the world, and our testing data so far shows that definitely does seem to be the case. You can enjoy all the latest games in Full HD with reasonable visual settings, and our testing found that games like Elden Ring and Grand Theft Auto V were perfectly playable on the AMD Ryzen 8700G’s integrated graphics.
Intel has good integrated graphics nowadays mind you as well, but AMD simply does it better. There’s a reason all of the gaming handhelds that are good (looking at you, MSI Claw) use AMD APUs, and it’s because AMD’s integrated graphics are great. If you’re the average gamer who may want to save some money or may upgrade to a dedicated GPU in the future, AMD’s integrated graphics will get you by in the meantime.
Both platforms have their benefits, and I say this as an Intel user
I actually use an Intel Core i9-14900K in my PC, and the last PC I built used an Intel Core i7-12700KF. However, the value proposition that AMD makes to gamers across a wide variety of budgets makes it difficult to say that Intel is truly better for the average gamer. The Intel Core i9-14900KS will outperform an AMD Ryzen 7 7950X3D in a lot of productivity tasks, but for a gamer, things are very, very different.
When building a PC, you’ll need to do a lot of reading based on the things that you need for your PC and what you care the most about, but it’s hard to go wrong when choosing the top-of-the-line of either company. I’m an Intel user and I do a lot of productivity tasks, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t see the performance some gamers get in other CPUs without the instability issues I’ve faced and didn’t get jealous.
