


You can see how all of these processors stack up in our AMD vs Intel CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy, but the landscape had changed in the wake of AMD's Ryzen 5000 launch. We're working to add in a more expansive update to some of the text below, but rest assured that Intel has retaken the lead in several of the categories. We've also thrown in results with both DDR4 and DDR5 memory for good measure. You can see the disruptive results in our Intel Core i9-12900K and Core i5-12600K review, and we've also added both our Windows 10 and 11 testing to our CPU benchmark database. Intel's Alder Lake chips take the gaming crown from AMD, and also rival or beat AMD in all meaningful performance metrics, like single- and multi-threaded productivity workloads. If you're looking for the fastest chip on the market, you should look to Intel's potent new Alder Lake series. Overall, there's a clear winner, but which CPU brand you should buy depends mostly on what kind of features, price, and performance are important to you. We'll also discuss the lithographies and architectures that influence the moving goalposts. We judge the chips on seven criteria based on what you plan to do with your PC, pricing, performance, driver support, power consumption, and security, giving us a clear view of the state of the competition. This article covers the never-ending argument of AMD vs Intel desktop CPUs (we're not covering laptop or server chips).

But in many cases, the answer is actually very clear. In fact, for most users, it's now a blowout win in Intel's favor, as you can see in our CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy. That's an amazing reversal of fortunes for the chipmaker after its decade of dominance was completely overturned by AMD's Ryzen 5000 chips. That fact has spawned an almost religious following for both camps, and the resulting AMD vs Intel flamewars, making it tricky to get unbiased advice about the best choice for your next processor. If you're looking for the best CPUs for Gaming or the best workstation CPU, there are only two choices to pick from – AMD and Intel.
