4 disadvantages of using an AMD processor

Unlike GPUs, AMD is fighting a much more balanced fight in the CPU market, where it competes with Intel. The Ryzen lineup offers solid options for anyone looking to play games or increase productivity, and the X3D models are especially powerful for gaming. It is no coincidence that several of the brand’s processors are among the most powerful desktop CPUs on the market.

This doesn’t mean that AMD processors are automatically the best choice in all situations. Depending on the type of use, there are still some disadvantages compared to competitors, mainly Intel. This difference shows up in some business applications and other tasks that take advantage of specific platform features. The basic configuration of Ryzen chips may also need a little more attention.

While AMD remains a great choice for many users, primarily anyone considering building a gaming PC, there are several situations where having one of the company’s processors is a disadvantage. It is for this reason that we have highlighted some of these cases so that you can understand what may be hindering your daily use.

Although AMD processors are excellent for gaming and general tasks, Intel processors still have the advantage when it comes to video editing. This mainly happens with video editing programs, which can take advantage of proprietary technologies from the company’s processors, like Quick Sync. In some workflows with H.264 and HEVC, this speedup makes a noticeable difference when exporting or playing files.

Puget Systems’ testing with the Ryzen 9000 series has shown that Intel processors can stay between 10 and 30 percent ahead in some of these workloads, with even greater advantages in specific cases involving HEVC. This is one of the reasons why the dispute between Intel and AMD still depends a lot on the type of task, as Intel remains competitive in the video editing field.

If you want to build a PC with the intention of editing better and playing fewer games, an Intel processor may be the best option, especially those in the Core Ultra line. Within AMD itself, the Ryzen 8000G chips partly reduce this disadvantage by offering more comprehensive encoding and decoding capabilities. Yet they are in a different category and are not a direct replacement for the Ryzen 9000 chips intended for high-performance desktops.

One of the limitations of the AM5 platform, which houses many of AMD’s most powerful Ryzen chips, is that it can run into problems in configurations with many RAM sticks. Current controllers work better with two DIMMs than with four.

The Ryzen 9950X, for example, supports DDR5-5600 if you only have two modules, but this value drops to 3600 if you occupy all four RAM slots. This is one of the essential tips for beginner PC builders, especially when choosing memory and a motherboard.

Another issue is memory drive, which can significantly increase boot time on some AM5 cards, especially with high capacity kits or EXPO profiles used. In different systems this does not occur uniformly and functions such as memory context restoration can significantly reduce these delays after initial setup. Still, anyone planning to install four modules or overclock memory may find more options and tests than expected.

Anyone choosing a Ryzen processor more often finds USB4 than Thunderbolt on AM5 motherboards. Although the two technologies are closely related, there are important differences between Thunderbolt and USB-C.

USB4 can carry data, video, and PCIe traffic over the same connection, while Thunderbolt 4 adds certification requirements that guarantee features like 40 Gbps bandwidth, PCIe support, and specific video and power capabilities.

In practice, this makes the Thunderbolt experience more predictable, while the features available in a USB4 port may vary from motherboard to motherboard. If you’re using features that rely on this type of connection, or if you want to build a workstation with multiple devices connected, this is one of the drawbacks you’ll have to deal with regarding AMD CPUs. This type of technology, on the other hand, is much more common on Intel processors, mainly in the Core Ultra range.

For anyone who wants to play games, AMD’s X3D processors have a good reputation, since 3D V-Cache can greatly improve performance in processor-limited games. However, that doesn’t automatically make every X3D chip the best choice for any task you want to do on your PC. Models like the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, 7800X3D, and 9800X3D prioritize gaming performance with eight cores, while CPUs with more cores generally handle high productivity better.

If you want to build a PC that, in addition to gaming, you also want to use for video editing, rendering, code compilation, or other tasks that take advantage of more cores, this is a downside to AMD. In fact, for gaming, one of the ways to save money on the computer is to choose a processor that does not exaggerate in terms of the number of cores, which makes X3D chips a perfect choice.

At the same time, there are exceptions within AMD’s own lineup. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D combines 16 cores with 3D V-Cache, making it much more suitable for anyone looking for excellent gaming performance and productivity on the same system. But in exchange for that larger investment, you end up paying a lot more, making a Ryzen 9 without X3D or an Intel chip better choices.