Intel's new Alder Lake

[Will]

Intel’s Alder Lake big.little CPU design, tested: It’s a barn burner


A little late to posting this - but it looks like Intel's new Alder Lake is doing extremely well in benchmarks against AMDs offering.

I'm looking at building a new system next year, and currently deciding between going with the new Alder Lake (and building some point in March/April), or waiting until later in the year and building on AMDs next gen of CPUs.

 

[xrobwx71]

I am also looking at a new build next year. On my last 2 builds, I've gone with the Intel's that end in an X: 980X and my current 7960X.

I'm seriously looking at the 12900K. I was looking at the architecture regarding the E-Cores and P-Cores and its auto process of turning each on and off. If I can determine that I can control this or if I even need to), I'll probably pull the trigger on the 12900K.

Nothing supports it yet but it comes with PCIe v5.0 support which would be another doubling of bandwidth and also stretch its upgradability for the future.

 

[Will]

I'm also interested in the 12900K for next year - I'd like to give it a little bit of time to allow early issues to be ironed out (either CPU or with the new motherboards).

At the performance end, it's possible the AMD refresh early next year might match or beat the current Intel CPUs - but future upgradability is definitely a consideration for me, and I'd rather build a new system on one of the new platforms (new chipset and DDR5) with the expectation of future upgrades, rather than optimised performance out of the older chipsets in their final releases.

I saw some comparisons where DDR5 is currently pretty similar to DDR4 for performance - but has a lot more optimisation potential over the next few years, whereas DDR4 is currently maxed out.

 

[Corday]

When asked whether Intel is better or worse than AMD, I ask, what year is it?

 

[Will]

When asked whether Intel is better or worse than AMD, I ask, what year is it?

To be fair - Intel weren't doing so great the last few years. They had several years in a row where AMDs offering outperformed them.

 

[xrobwx71]

We all have our reasons for going with one or the other.

My first computer was in 1992? (I think) I knew absolutely nothing about computers at the time, I was into CB/HAM radios and loved tweaking those things into oblivion. I had a CB radio w/SSB Single Side Band that I had tweaked. I had it running through a Texas Star 500 watt linear amplifier. When I keyed the mic, it set off motion detector lights and would even light up a fluorescent T8 bulb in my hand if I was close enough to the antenna.

My first computer was a Comp USA piece of crap with an 80 Mhz Cyrix 486 processor. I didn't know better and it was a good thing as I learned a lot because I had to work my butt off to keep that thing running.
I quickly got into online gaming and my first was Doom for Win 95.
By 1993-5 I was ready for a new rig and I had met a fellow gamer online (Jedi Knight Dark Forces I believe) and it turns out he was a software engineer at GM (We still talk to this day and he is still an engineer at GM) I gained a lot of respect for him and in one of our many conversations, he recommended I stay with Intel. Coming from his education and background, I took it to heart. That's one of my reasons.

Getting into the video side of things, I had tried ATI, VooDoo, then AMD, and Nvidia. I have since stuck with Nvidia because the few times I tried an AMD product, the drivers sucked so bad I about had a stroke.

All that being said: I make no claims to which is better. It is my reasons, my choices. I don't debate it either because I respect other people's reasons and beliefs. I just thought I'd share a little history and some insight on my reasons for choosing Intel/Nvidia which means absolutely nothing to the world at large.

 

[Will]

I think my PCs have always been Intel - I think the earliest I had was either Pentium II or maaaybe a Pentium I - (it was on a hand me down PC running Windows 95, so I think it must have been).

If the new AMD platform was out earlier, I probably would switch over. Not that it makes a huge amount of difference at this point.

I have since stuck with Nvidia because the few times I tried an AMD product, the drivers sucked so bad I about had a stroke.

I've tried both and never really noticed that much of a difference - I feel like graphics cards tend to have more issues than other components anyway (based purely on my own PCs).