So guys, due to the current epidemic that's going on in the world right now, 'going out and spending money' is a bit of a novelty at the moment, so I have some spare cash available to upgrade my PC. I have a 2nd gen i7, and quite a decent GPU (GTX 1060), and fast SSD. I've always been an intel supporter, but is it now time to change to AMD? Has anyone changed from intel to AMD, and have had a good experience?
If the AMD is faster than your current intel then your experience is likely to be good. That your wallet would still have more money in it is also a factor. Either way, the AMD / Intel "battle" has been going on for decades and people manage with either of them.
According to LTT (Linus Tech Tips) BitWit & JayzTwoCents AMD have just destroyed Intel (I'm sad because I'm an Intel fanboy and I also bleed green)
Everyone will have their own bias. But for me it's Intel with matching Nvidia GPU everytime! Years back, I started playing TS with a couple of AMD rigs, & unfortunately had all sorts of performance & stability problems. It really was a most frustrating experience. On questioning many long-standing TS fans about their experience, the overiding consus was that Intel machines (for whatever unknown reason) just seemed to run the game better. I haven't looked back since I made the transition to an Intel setup, the game just works so much better for me. I do appreciate there are many very happy AMD fans pleased with how their gaming PCs run the game But in my eyes, for this particular game you can't beat a modern fast i5/i7 4-core cpu (and having an unlocked k form chip, that you can properly overclock makes a big +ve difference). I believe it's for good reason that as standard, DTG use (at least they always did, I don't know whether this is currently the case) high-end Intel machines. Having said that, I confess to having no direct experience of the latest modern AMD gaming rigs. Perhaps things have changed. Do you have a friend with a decent AMD setup, that could perhaps give a true live demo for you? I'd personally want to see the game in action before committing to something different. Hoping you're happy with whichever platform you opt for.
With TS, what would be important is single threaded performance. This has always been Intel's strong point. However, it would appear that is about to change with AMD Zen3 chips, so the "gaming" crown would now seem to be with AMD. Of course, we really should wait until November 5th when Zen 3 is released to see independent bench results. This is of course only true if you are in the market for the new 5900X or 5950X chips. If your budget cannot run to this, then what you should do is look at independent benchmarks for CPU's single threaded performance, and get the fastest chip you can within your budget regardless of who makes it. Fanboyism is silly. Buy what is best for the job. As for GPUs, I'd also wait until the new AMD GPUs are released before rushing to buy an Nvidia card, especially with TS, as TS won't take advantage of ANY new features like Raytracing or DLSS. What you're looking for is the best performance in DX9, so that would be benchmark suites such as 3D Mark 06. Of course, if you play other games... then that's a different matter. Also, if you do anything else with your PC, such as video editing, 3d raytracing/modelling etc, then you'd really be silly to go down the Intel route, as AMD Ryzen/Threadripper are the undisputed king of multi-core computing at the moment. Build what does the best job for you.
When I got a new system last year my instinct, backed up by advice when I asked on the Steam forums, was to not really worry about TS because a PC that would do the other things I was interested in (video editing, adding TSW at some point- don't get me started) would also run TS well. You could perhaps tailor a system more towards TS, by going for a CPU with a higher clock speed at the expense of core count maybe, but you'd be robbing Peter (and everyone else) to pay Paul to little effect. You wouldn't notice that much difference in TS whilst holding back newer software. TS makes poor use of new hardware but that new hardware is still a hell of a lot faster than anything that was around when it was in active development- and so is your current system BTW. FWIW my system has Ryzen 5 and NVidea 1660TI and I'm very happy with it.
