Advanced Micro Devices Set to Change PCs of the Future
For many years, two companies have dominated the PC market with a very profitable partnership. Microsoft and Intel have built a very solid business on this relationship, and this has made it difficult for other companies to get a foothold.
One such company, Advanced Micro Devices or AMD, have been an alternative to Intel for some time. However, they haven’t succeeded in making much of an impact on Intel’s business.
All that dominance could take a hit however when AMD launch their new Zen Architecture chips.
photo/ Gerd Altmann via pixabay
AMD Looks to the Future
Up until now, AMD has had to settle for supplying budget PC’s while Intel works with the likes of Apple. But on April 11th, AMD will be launching a new addition to its line-up, the Ryzen 5.
This new chip is going to be up against Intel’s Core i5 chips, and there is evidence to suggest that they will be more than a match.
The high-end Ryzen 5 boasts an impressive six cores and twelve threads. This compares to Intel’s i5 chip which has only four cores and four threads.
While Intel chips have better performance with applications that only utilize single threads, AMD is banking on a future where more will be better.
Intel Playing Catch-Up
Part of the reason that AMD could gain the advantage over Intel is because the CPU giant is looking for longer term strategies that save money. For this reason, Intel’s new range of chips is only slightly better than last years.
AMD on the other hand, have said that the Zen chips offer a 52% improvement in performance over its previous generation. Even the budget Ryzen 5 chip has four cores and eight threads, which is better than Intel’s i3 which has only two cores and four threads.
This means that if Intel is to maintain their position, they will have to come up with significantly better performance in the next gen architecture.
Gaming PC’s and Virtual Reality are the Future
Intel has always been faster at handling the older software. However, AMD is aiming their newest chips at the emerging virtual reality gaming where more cores, threads and improving PC memory have the advantage.
In this respect, Intel chips will start to suffer by comparison, and AMD is hoping that this will make them the manufacturer of choice. Additionally, they have even managed to improve on the traditional functions that Intel chips do so well with, however, they are still lagging behind.
There is no doubt that the CPU market is about to get very interesting. With AMD looking to the future and Intel stuck in the past, it may be some time before the two giants really start to battle it out.
However, one thing is certain. These technological developments in electronics will mean faster chips with better performance across the board. This, in turn, means gamers and those using other high-performance software, will be spoilt for choice when it comes to who to choose.
Author: Carol Trehearn
photp/ Wren Handman via Pixabay
