Question Intel and AMD system stability poll

[Hulk]

I realize this is a potentially explosive poll/subject so I have made the choices as fair as possible. I'm curious as to the build preferences and experiences of members of this forum.

To further clarify the last choice I'm asking if the choice of the build (AMD or Intel) is of less importance in regards to system stability than choice of components and the knowledge of the builder. Meaning either system can be very stable if built properly.

Also I'm talking about systems at stock settings here, meaning everything at default in the BIOS.

 

[BUTCH1]

My Ryzen 5 1600 system started hanging up on boot and sometimes on shutdown, the problem?, a bum DVD drive, every time windows polled it it ran off and hid LOL

 

[Ajay]

I haven't used AMD extensively (well, not since the K7/K8). I find my current system (in sig) to be very stable. I've had some annoying problems from time to time, but nothing major. One was actually due to an outdated graphics bios. I don't think I've every had a completely trouble free system, but a lot of that comes down to all the overclocking I've done over the years (CPU, GPU, RAM). Oh, and drivers used to be kind of horrible.

 

[lightmanek]

I work on both Intel and AMD systems. No major difference apart from some AMD boards having that USB bug, but that depended on the vendor.
Stability wise, both are equally good and I have systems dating back to 2010 still working fine.

 

[Leeea]

I started on Intel, moved to AMD in the Athlon days, moved to Intel after that, and switched back to AMD recently.

I have had little annoyances with every system I owned. I tend not to reinstall when I switch to new hardware.

For example, I did not do a fresh install on my current system, I just swapped the intel board for an AMD one. Intel rapid storage technology refuses to go away. To lazy to reinstall.

Prior to that, on an Intel one the AsRock WiFi / Bluetooth were a complete failure (not a software issue). Intel also nerfed my cpu after I bought it ( glares at Intel ).

Prior to that, on a Intel laptop, the screen would go blank, and the lid needed to be closed / opened to get it to turn back on. Simply avoided by never letting the screen turn off in power settings.

. . .
It is always the little crap that is not worth running down.


That said, the fresh installs I do for friends and family always seem to work well and without issues. I have relatives who were annoyed when they were forced to upgrade to Win10, and continue to use that old hardware that is over 10 years old now. AMD / Intel just does not matter for longevity.

It is all about the user, and then component quality as a distant 2nd.

 

[podspi]

Let's see, here are the chips I remember owning, in roughly the right order, except when grouped:

1. 8088
2. 286-486
3. Pentium 1-4 (inc. DC P4's and SC P4's with HT)
4. K6-2
5. T-bird
6. Athlon XP
7. C2D
8. Phenom 2
9. Bobcat
10. Haswell
11. AMD FX-8320e
12. Skylake
13. Ryzen 1000 and 3000 series
14. Icelake

In my experience the Intel systems have always been more stable. Maybe it is me, but I don't think so. Currently running a Ryzen 3600+580 8gb for desktop, and i7-1065G7 for mobile.

Looking at this list, the machines I remember being particularly stable were the 4670k (Haswell) and FX-8320e machines, both purchased extremely late in their respective product life cycles. I have a ton of issues w/ USB now with my Ryzen PC, and the Icelake laptop is all right, although it does sometimes have issues waking from sleep.

BTW, that 8320e was OCed to 4.4ghz(!). Yes, it was under water. And made my initial upgrade to a Ryzen 1600 very underwhelming.

 

[legcramp]

My previous Intel system was pretty solid, did not have any issues whatsoever:

• Intel 8700K
• Gigabyte Z370 Gaming 7
• EVGA 1080 Ti

My current system is also just as stable but unfortunately I am still having USB issues even with the latest bios etc:

• AMD 5900X
• Gigabyte X570 AORUS Ultra
• EVGA 3090

 

[lightmanek]

My previous Intel system was pretty solid, did not have any issues whatsoever:

• Intel 8700K
• Gigabyte Z370 Gaming 7
• EVGA 1080 Ti

My current system is also just as stable but unfortunately I am still having USB issues even with the latest bios etc:

• AMD 5900X
• Gigabyte X570 AORUS Ultra
• EVGA 3090

MSI boards don't have USB issues since launch, at least X570 ones
My main 5900X ring is ON around 363 days in a year, had maybe 2 crashes in the last 12 months and both due to severely undervolting GPU. Memory is OCed to the limit as well.

 

[fleshconsumed]

I've used both and both were about the same stability wise. I did have trouble with AMD, but only with AsRock motherboards. Asus and Gigabyte are fine in my experience.

[. . .]
I have a ton of issues w/ USB now with my Ryzen PC
[. . .]

Assuming you have updated your BIOS to the latest version try disabling DF C States.

 

[HutchinsonJC]

I don't see the point in basing an answer on something from more than 5 or 6 years ago as my guess is few will use that information to make a purchase decision now.

 

[moinmoin]

Maybe my personal data set is just too small, but across the last two decades for me both Intel and AMD were just fine. The only serious stability issue I had was with Nvidia chipsets, and those not with system stability (though always with Linux which in my experience gives much more leeway than Windows) but them literally losing features (non-working USB, PCIe lanes etc. pp.) as time went on...

 

[gdansk]

I have a Ryzen 1700X which is picky about memory speed and didn't wake from sleep properly on FreeBSD until a couple of years ago. After configuration it ran great. But I'm sure that's an annoyance to newer users.

I don't have any more Intel systems after it replaced the 4670K.

 

[podspi]

I've used both and both were about the same stability wise. I did have trouble with AMD, but only with AsRock motherboards. Asus and Gigabyte are fine in my experience.


Assuming you have updated your BIOS to the latest version try disabling DF C States.

I have a Gigabyte Aorus B450 with the latest BIOS. Disabling DF C-States makes it better but doesn't fix things. Thanks for the suggestion, though. Basically, my issue is plugging/unplugging devices will eventually kill all/most of the ports on the board until a physical power cycle. Really frustrating because my KVM acts like a hub that unplugs/plugs when switching computers.

 

[BUTCH1]

I have a Gigabyte Aorus B450 with the latest BIOS. Disabling DF C-States makes it better but doesn't fix things. Thanks for the suggestion, though. Basically, my issue is plugging/unplugging devices will eventually kill all/most of the ports on the board until a physical power cycle. Really frustrating because my KVM acts like a hub that unplugs/plugs when switching computers.

I have an Asrock B450 board, after I wake it from sleep sometimes some USB devices are not happy, a full reboot solves
it though.

 

[fleshconsumed]

I have a Gigabyte Aorus B450 with the latest BIOS. Disabling DF C-States makes it better but doesn't fix things. Thanks for the suggestion, though. Basically, my issue is plugging/unplugging devices will eventually kill all/most of the ports on the board until a physical power cycle. Really frustrating because my KVM acts like a hub that unplugs/plugs when switching computers.

That blows. You could try completely disabling Global C States, but that will increase your idle power consumption.

 

[podspi]

That blows. You could try completely disabling Global C States, but that will increase your idle power consumption.

Didn't seem to work. I really hope future AMD motherboards handle USB better...

 

[Leeea]

Lucky me, I do not seem to be having the USB issues you guys are having.

@podspi issue is horrifying. Anyone with random disconnects, same thing.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Did the USB problems crop up in 2019 with the launch of Matisse? I didn't hear much about it then, and personally I have had no such issues on my x570 board (Aorus Master).

 

[Leeea]

Did the USB problems crop up in 2019 with the launch of Matisse? I didn't hear much about it then, and personally I have had no such issues on my x570 board (Aorus Master).

Not sure, but ASUS released a fix for x570-pro on 2021-03-22:
TUF GAMING X570-PRO (WI-FI) BIOS 3603*
"- Update AMD AM4 AGESA V2 PI 1.2.0.1 Patch A
- Fix USB connectivity issue

So I think the issue showed up more as a 2020 issue. Also there is this press release:

AMD Locates 'Root Cause' of USB Issues on B550, X570 Motherboards

A patch will arrive through the upcoming AGESA 1.2.0.2 update, which motherboard vendors will likely start rolling out in early April via beta BIOS updates.

www.pcmag.com

As for why some and not others, rumors abound without any useful answers.

*lucky for me, my board came with the usb fixed bios, so no need to update for me. But now that I look, I see there is a BIOS update out there just waiting for me. I know I do not need to update and I should know better ...

 

[Hitman928]

Personally, my most troublesome system (in the more modern era at least) was my Haswell system with an MSI board. Had USB issues, sleep not working, occasional random reboots, all at stock. Was very happy to move on from that system even though it performed very well for its time. The Core2 system I had before that and the Ryzen system after have been rock solid for me. Back in the 'old days', you were pretty lucky if you didn't have to deal with some sort of system issues.

 

[mpo]

Did the USB problems crop up in 2019 with the launch of Matisse? I didn't hear much about it then, and personally I have had no such issues on my x570 board (Aorus Master).

Built my 3700x/x570 Aorus Pro Wifi in December 2019. No issues for me until the summer of 2020. Sleeping after a Zoom session seemed to trigger the 'no mouse on wake' problem, although not consistently. Unplugging and replugging the mouse usually would fix the issue. The spring '21 AGESA update helped some. Ultimately, I found plugging the mouse into one of the USB 3.2 ports (instead of a 2.0 port) made the issue go away.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Built my 3700x/x570 Aorus Pro Wifi in December 2019. No issues for me until the summer of 2020.

Hmm . . .

Not sure, but ASUS released a fix for x570-pro on 2021-03-22:

So I think the issue showed up more as a 2020 issue.

That would explain why I never had any problems on my Gigabyte board with USB. The last UEFI update I've done to the system was whichever one had AGESA 1.0.0.3ABBA. Which comes from 2019. There must have been some bad AGESA revs around the time of Vermeer's launch.

 

[biostud]

I don't think I've had stability problems, with either except unstable overclocks. But I had an USB problem with my B450 and 3800X at work, always disconnecting and re-connecting.

 

[Markfw]

I have bad a lot of both. Right now I only have 2 Xeon E5-2683v3's and a 2600k, the rest are Ryzen and EPYC. No problems with any of them for the last 36 years. I have only had one fail, an X2 3800 dual-core, and it was in a FF box, and the boy scouts that were using it, did not even tell me it died (it was loaned to a lan party), so who knows what they did to it.

 

[BUTCH1]

I have bad a lot of both. Right now I only have 2 Xeon E5-2683v3's and a 2600k, the rest are Ryzen and EPYC. No problems with any of them for the last 36 years. I have only had one fail, an X2 3800 dual-core, and it was in a FF box, and the boy scouts that were using it, did not even tell me it died (it was loaned to a lan party), so who knows what they did to it.

I have bad a lot of both. Right now I only have 2 Xeon E5-2683v3's and a 2600k, the rest are Ryzen and EPYC. No problems with any of them for the last 36 years. I have only had one fail, an X2 3800 dual-core, and it was in a FF box, and the boy scouts that were using it, did not even tell me it died (it was loaned to a lan party), so who knows what they did to it.

More than likely it had a drink sitting on top of the case and it got knocked over and into the running machine, the kids dried it out then said they had no idea why it croaked.