- Jun 25, 2004
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The last year or two I haven't followed tech as closely as I have historically, which is not to say I haven't been following Ryzen's release and Intel's response at all.
I understand now isn't a great time for a PC refresh for a few reasons, including but not limited to: DDR4 prices are high; there are no lower-end chipsets which work with CFL CPUs; flash/SSD prices are high; GPU prices are high.
If I were to refresh my PC, I wouldn't be replacing my video card. I'd probably go with a 256GB or maybe 512GB NVMe SSD (960 EVO), but I might also just buy an mSATA to SATA adapter and reuse my current SSD for a while longer. RAM prices are discouraging, as is the motherboard situation.
For my specific use, I'd probably be aiming again for i5 / R5. My processing needs have declined (relatively) over the years, and mostly I'd consider upgrading just to have something new to play with. Power efficiency is important to me in an abstract way; I spent many hours playing with undervolting my CPU, but found that the increase in idle power consumption due to needing to disable certain C-states more than offset any savings I could get with reduced voltage, considering my machine is effectively "idle" most of the time. So, while I appreciate having the option to adjust multpliers and voltages, in practice my CPU has been left stock most of its life.
Looking at the i5 8400 vs R5 1600, by most metrics it looks like the i5 is a better deal. It even seems you can get them at MSRP now.
30% better gaming performance in a game that scales well with higher thread counts:
37% better minimum framerate in a game which scales well with performance per core:
Effectively tied in highly parallel tasks such as rendering:
The Intel chip idles at lower power:
The Intel chip draws 17% more power while gaming for 30%+ more performance:
Mind you this is a limited set of data, but most of the reviews I've read tell a similar story.
Normally I'd say that the lack of a chipset below Z370 would be an issue for Intel, since I don't particularly need overclocking or some of the features native to the higher chipsets, but AM4 is sorely lacking in ITX options, such that the cheapest B350 motherboard which has what I want would be within $10 of an equivalent Z370 board, and the CPUs are the same price.
So, what's the case for Ryzen? I don't mean this as a troll thread, I'm really just looking to get the best deal.
I understand now isn't a great time for a PC refresh for a few reasons, including but not limited to: DDR4 prices are high; there are no lower-end chipsets which work with CFL CPUs; flash/SSD prices are high; GPU prices are high.
If I were to refresh my PC, I wouldn't be replacing my video card. I'd probably go with a 256GB or maybe 512GB NVMe SSD (960 EVO), but I might also just buy an mSATA to SATA adapter and reuse my current SSD for a while longer. RAM prices are discouraging, as is the motherboard situation.
For my specific use, I'd probably be aiming again for i5 / R5. My processing needs have declined (relatively) over the years, and mostly I'd consider upgrading just to have something new to play with. Power efficiency is important to me in an abstract way; I spent many hours playing with undervolting my CPU, but found that the increase in idle power consumption due to needing to disable certain C-states more than offset any savings I could get with reduced voltage, considering my machine is effectively "idle" most of the time. So, while I appreciate having the option to adjust multpliers and voltages, in practice my CPU has been left stock most of its life.
Looking at the i5 8400 vs R5 1600, by most metrics it looks like the i5 is a better deal. It even seems you can get them at MSRP now.
30% better gaming performance in a game that scales well with higher thread counts:
37% better minimum framerate in a game which scales well with performance per core:
Effectively tied in highly parallel tasks such as rendering:
The Intel chip idles at lower power:
The Intel chip draws 17% more power while gaming for 30%+ more performance:
Mind you this is a limited set of data, but most of the reviews I've read tell a similar story.
Normally I'd say that the lack of a chipset below Z370 would be an issue for Intel, since I don't particularly need overclocking or some of the features native to the higher chipsets, but AM4 is sorely lacking in ITX options, such that the cheapest B350 motherboard which has what I want would be within $10 of an equivalent Z370 board, and the CPUs are the same price.
So, what's the case for Ryzen? I don't mean this as a troll thread, I'm really just looking to get the best deal.
I've read that 7 is hit a lot harder, but haven't seen any benchmarks, so could be BS. The most likely attack vector for unpatched vulnerabilities is probably sketchy javascript. Who knows if anybody will even bother with attacks considering the massive patching and mitigation campaign.
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