AMD and Intel have battled for two decades, but in recent years the battle has become a bit one-sided. New Pentium and Core chips have slowly edged out AMD at a variety of price points. If you have a high budget, then Intel is obviously the way to go. This remains true until your budget falls low enough that the cheapest Core i5 quad is no longer an option for you. AMD just can’t compete with Intel’s best. Those on a budget should give AMD’s chips a look. They offer more cores and better integrated graphics for those who have less than $180 to spend on a processor. These traits can make up for AMD’s inferior per-core performance in certain workloads. For example, the A10-7870K tends to encode video faster than similarly priced Intel Core i3 chips. It also offers far superior graphics performance if a discrete video card is not a possibility. Intel chips are far more power efficient, so they tend to produce less noise and heat. Those traits can be important for a family PC, and if you’re looking at a laptop, Intel’s greater efficiency means better battery life. There may be light at the end of the tunnel for AMD fans. The company’s new Zen architecture is expected in early 2017, and the information we know so far seems promising. If you prefer to buy AMD, it’s worth waiting to see how Zen performs. So, the bottom line is this: Intel is generally superior. There are situations where AMD makes sense, but the company has been reduced to depending on niche scenarios. If you can’t make up your mind, go Intel. It’s likely the better choice for you.

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