I have spent many years listening and reading numerous myths about AMD processors, not only by private users, but also in “professional” media, in quotes because falling for these myths means anything but professionalism. It’s true that some of these myths made sense at the time, but today were completely overcome and they no longer have a reason to exist.

At MuyComputer we always try to offer you a vision that is as realistic and unbiased as possible when we test both AMD processors and Intel models and know how to perfectly differentiate each other’s advantages and disadvantages.

We place special emphasis on these aspects because our articles they have a didactic purposeand since we don’t want to tell you what to buy in the end, We want you to be able to make that decision for yourself. Create your own criteria based on the information you have read in our articles and in our analysis. That is why it is so important that this information is real and that it is properly substantiated.

As we are still “stuck” on some myths centered around AMD CPUs, and as even Sunnyvale’s good work with the last two generations of Ryzen CPUs failed to debunk them, we decided to share with you this special article where We are going to debunk the most important myths which still surround these CPUs. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments and we’ll help you out.

1.-AMD processors work much worse

This was true for many years, but in many cases it has ceased to be true and today it no longer makes sense. As AMD processors began to make inroads into the mainstream consumer market, their performance it wasn’t entirely up to Inteland at certain times it was well below them. For example, remember what happened to the venerable K5 and what happened to the FX Bulldozer.

However, AMD has also been able to outperform Intel with several generations of processors., like the fabled Athlon 64, which was a huge blow of authority from Sunnyvale and took us into the 64-bit era, and managed to pit it against the ropes with the Ryzen 5000, the generation of processors with which the Sunnyvale giant beat Intel in single-threaded, multi-threaded, consumption and temperatures. Yes, it was a resounding victory.

It’s pretty even between Intel and AMD at the moment. With the Ryzen 5000, we saw Sunnyvale win overwhelmingly, and with the Ryzen 7000, it managed to significantly improve raw performance. Overall, the former took a small victory in single-threaded performance with the Core Gen13, but the latter maintains excellent single-threaded performance and competes well in multi-threaded.

The arrival of Ryzen 7000X3D was also made possible by AMD to recover ground in the gaming sector, where Intel won the game with the Core i9-13900K, which was the most powerful gaming processor alongside the Core i9-13900KS. With the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, which comes with 3D stacked L3 cache, AMD has returned to the top of gaming performance.

2.-They consume more than Intel processors

This is a recurring myth that has long since lost its meaning, although it is true that there was a time when it was true. Remember, for example, that it consumed an FX-8350 with four modules and eight integer cores more than 160 watts in intensive tests and that the quad-core eight-thread Intel Core i7-4770K can withstand under 100 watts in stock frequencies.

Over time, AMD improved and refined its architectures to such an extent that it managed to surpass Intel in efficiency. The most notable improvement in this regard came with the Ryzen 5000 and it was so great Ryzen 9 5950X with 16 cores and 32 threads outperformed the Intel Core i9-11900K with 8 cores and 16 threads and consumed less That this.

in stress tests the former was over 200 watts at stock frequencies while the latter averaged around 170-180 watts. The difference is noticeable, and despite this, the AMD processor outperformed it in both synthetic and gaming performance tests. The same story was repeated with the Ryzen 7000, these processors are more efficient than their Intel equivalents and in some cases by a large margin.

For example, the Ryzen 9 7950X registered the maximum consumption in my tests 225 watts in Cinebench R23, while the Intel Core i9-13900K achieved 309 watts. There is a substantial difference and the performance differences between the two are very small, so we can conclude that AMD has a more efficient architecture and this myth clearly no longer makes any sense.

3.-They overheat and lose power

This is another myth that is deeply connected to another myth that said they consume more than Intel models. Consumption determines things as important as performance and operating temperatures processor, so it’s normal that if it consumes more, it also generates more heat.

As with previous myths, it made sense at the time, but stopped having it when AMD launched the Ryzen 1000 and has lost it completely today. We’ve already seen that AMD processors consume less than their Intel counterparts, and their operating temperatures have also improved a lot over the years. Continuing with the previous example, the Ryzen 9 5950X runs smoothly with averages of 65 degrees C in games, and under intense load that puts it at 100%, it’s normal to reach approx. 80 degrees C. In contrast, the Intel Core i9-11900K moves in the band 91 degrees C

The maximum recommended value that AMD states for the Ryzen 9 5950X is 90 degrees C, so as we can see its temperatures are completely safe and We will never enter a level that forces us to reduce the frequency of work, which is known as thermal throttling. With Ryzen 7000, it is true that there has been a significant increase in operating frequencies, as practically all models reach and maintain a stable 95 degrees when working under full load.

However, AMD has confirmed in this case that this is a natural consequence of the design of the Ryzen 7000 itself and has confirmed that this is normal. I have had the opportunity to test all Ryzen 7000X and can confirm that at no point did they exceed the safe value of 95 degrees and that this operating temperature it had no negative impact on the performance of these processors.

4.-They use outdated and inferior platforms

It is largely a myth inherited from previous generations that again started to lose its meaning with the arrival of Ryzen 1000, which were AMD’s first mainstream consumer processors to support DDR4 memory and were integrated into a completely new platform. The AM4 socket was actually the first to use the PCIe Gen4 standard, and the AM5 platform integrates the latest industry standards, including support for DDR5 memory as well as the new PCIe Gen5 standard.

It’s true that AMD was behind in this a few years ago and that the quality of many motherboards left a lot to be desired, especially at the most basic and economical levels, but today this is nothing more than a myth. The most important assembly companies in the motherboard market offer superior products with premium finishes and feature levels that rival LGA1700-based equivalents (in scope and price range).

We can also find it in the middle zone AM4 and AM5 motherboards with very good finish and excellent performance level. This is important because it means that we don’t need a 300 or 400 euro motherboard to optimally move a processor like the Ryzen 9 7950X and that we won’t have to give up longevity or good build quality. you just need to be able to search.

AMD currently supports all the latest generation technologies that exist and has a very complete and advanced platform on the market, so i abandoned the PGA connection system and adopted the LGA connection systemwhich reduces the risk of damaging the processor by replacing the pins with gold flat connectors distributed along the matrix arranged in a certain order.

5.-AMD processors cause serious stability issues

This myth he was kind of rightand even in the last few years we’ve seen AMD’s newest generations come out with some stability issues in the early stages, but I think it’s been exaggerated in a way that’s not real and not always AMD’s fault.

With the debut of the Ryzen 1000 there were stability issues which in most cases were caused by RAM configuration, specifically speed and latency. In its early days, very high speed values ​​along with certain latency profiles could cause the system to fail to boot or cause crashes and reboots.

This was resolved with compatible profiles and ended up being completely resolved after the release of several AGESA updates. Those problems existed. but they were resolved and no longer appeared with Ryzen 2000, Ryzen 3000 and Ryzen 5000, three generations that offer very good stability and have not caused any serious problems.

With Ryzen 7000 I didn’t have any serious problems during the testsso I can confirm that these and the AM5 platform came to market in a much more advanced state than the Ryzen 1000 and AM4 platforms, although it is true that AMD still has some unfinished business in terms of memory support. DDR5 because it is not possible to install 24GB and 48GB modules.

As for the rest of the problems that have been found in recent years, most have been due to startup botched windows updates, or incomplete support. After all, no one is immune to Microsoft’s “poor” OS updates, and it’s not always fair to blame AMD for them.

In a personal capacity, I have been using a Ryzen processor since 2017, first a Ryzen 7 1800X and then a Ryzen 7 5800X and I never had stability issues or serious crashes. It is true that in both cases I did a careful manual configuration of the device and updated the BIOS and drivers, which is highly recommended, which not all users do.