{"id":123942,"date":"2022-03-03T17:37:30","date_gmt":"2022-03-03T15:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=123942"},"modified":"2022-03-03T17:37:30","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T15:37:30","slug":"ryzen-zen-3-vs-intel-alder-lake-ultimate-cpu-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/hardware\/123942-ryzen-zen-3-vs-intel-alder-lake-ultimate-cpu-showdown","title":{"rendered":"Ryzen Zen 3 vs. Intel Alder Lake – Ultimate CPU showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

When building a new PC, it can be challenging to decide whether to go for an Intel or an AMD CPU.<\/p>\n

This is mainly due to AMD’s recent efforts to overtake Intel as the leading CPU manufacturer by releasing its highly competitive Ryzen 5000 series Zen 3 processors.<\/p>\n

Intel is not backing down, however, as it has responded with its 12th-generation Alder Lake processors.<\/p>\n

Here’s a breakdown of the different essential factors to consider when deciding on which CPU to put in your PC build.<\/p>\n

Cost<\/h3>\n

When it comes down to cost, AMD’s Zen 3 chips are all cheaper than Intel’s Alder Lake equivalents – except in the case of the Ryzen 9 5950X.<\/p>\n

In reality, the cost of running a 12th-gen Intel CPU at its full potential will be even higher than what’s represented in the table since you’ll have to splurge extra cash on a premium Z-Series motherboard, aftermarket CPU cooler, and DDR5 RAM you want to use the processor’s DDR5 compatibility and its ability to overclock.<\/p>\n

Of course, it is still possible to run a 12th-gen processor on an older motherboard, but this will exclude you from accessing the full suite of new features that it offers.<\/p>\n

Here’s a table summarising the costs of AMD Zen 3 and Intel Alder Lake processors, with all of it sourced from Wootware:<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Cost comparison<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
AMD<\/strong><\/td>\nPrice<\/strong><\/td>\nIntel<\/strong><\/td>\nPrice<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ryzen 9 5950X<\/td>\nR11,999<\/td>\nIntel Core i9-12900KF<\/td>\nR10,999<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ryzen 7 5800X<\/td>\nR6,999<\/td>\nIntel Core i7 12700K<\/td>\nR8,499<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ryzen 5 5600X<\/td>\nR4,799<\/td>\nIntel Core i5-12600K<\/td>\nR5,999<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Performance<\/h3>\n

Intel’s Alder Lake processors beat AMD’s Ryzen Zen 3 processors with ease in terms of raw gaming performance.<\/p>\n

When tested using the same PC build, the top-of-the-line Core i9-12900K beats an overclocked Ryzen 9 5950X by an average of 25 frames per second across various modern games.<\/p>\n

\"Intel<\/a>

AMD vs. Intel average FPS across a suite of games in 1080p running an Nvidia RTX 3090 (Credit: Tom’s Hardware)<\/p><\/div>\n

Overclocking<\/h3>\n

Intel wins this round if you look purely at how much you can overclock the processor’s base speeds.<\/p>\n

However, if you plan to overclock your Intel CPU, you will first need to ensure that you have bought a K-Series variant of the CPU and a Z-series motherboard.<\/p>\n

When it comes to AMD’s Zen 3 CPUs, you can overclock any CPU and won’t have to worry about whether you’ve bought the correct CPU and motherboard model.<\/p>\n

Power consumption and heat<\/h3>\n

AMD’s Zen 3 processors take the win here as they consume less power and run cooler than Intel’s Alder Lake equivalents.<\/p>\n

Additionally, if you run an Alder Lake CPU, you will need a beefy aftermarket CPU cooler since these chips run so hot.<\/p>\n

It should be noted, however, that Intel’s Alder Lake processors have much-improved performance per watt than the company’s last-gen Rocket Lake CPUs.<\/p>\n

\"AMD<\/a>

Intel’s Alder Lake CPUs consume much more power and consequently produce more heat. (Credit: Tom’s Hardware)<\/p><\/div>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n

Ultimately, your CPU choice will depend on many different factors, like your needs, budget, and the other components in your build.<\/p>\n

If you want the absolute best performance and latest features no matter the cost, Intel’s 12th-gen Alder Lake CPU is the way to go.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, if you are on a budget and want the best performance for your money, then you’d be better off going for a Ryzen Zen 3 CPU.<\/p>\n

\n

Read: AMD’s RDNA 2 is a big step up for laptop gaming<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AMD or Intel – here’s which CPU you should choose for your next PC build.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":249,"featured_media":123962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[25862,1051,12465,1727,25863],"class_list":["post-123942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hardware","tag-alder-lake","tag-amd","tag-cpu","tag-intel","tag-zen-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/249"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}