2024 - is AMD okay for SL or is Intel a must ?

[InnerCity Elf]

I'm trying to decide between two desktops, both with GeForce RTX 4070, 32GB DDR4 RAM, other technical specs same or comparable, too.

One has AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, the other Intel Core i9-11900KF (around €100 more expensive).

Generally, I tend towards the AMD one for a few reasons, and it should be enough for all my non-SL usage,
but I only had Intel computers so far, zero experience with AMD and SL, 
and seen it mentioned over the years that for SL you should definitely choose Intel.

Could it be a big mistake to take the AMD one, regarding SL? If it's just a few FPS less, I probably won't care.
If it's more like just half the FPS or less, or everything in funky pink, or so, I might care... 😬

Realistically, I don't go to clubs or places with lots of people in a small space at once often; what I do like, though,
is being able to look over and seeing as much as possible of a region. And shadows. I love shadows!

Now, is it more like "you'd be really stupid to take the AMD one", or "probably you'll be fine, but if you're one of the very unlucky 0.1%, you'll end up
seeing la deuxième vie en rose eternally", or "sure, AMD is fine, just your performance with Intel would likely be somewhat better"?
Or is "Intel over AMD for 2nd Life" just an outdated myth by 2024?

I've gone through some related not too old threads here already, but am not really much the wiser,
might be because I don't understand tech (speak) too well.
Maybe someone can shed some light (and shadow)?

[Solar Legion]

AMD Ryzen 7 2700X user here: AMD CPUs're fine.

Especially with that GPU and RAM.

Edited January 11 by Solar Legion

[Candide LeMay]

I have one 5600X machine and one 5900X machine and they both do fine with SL.

[InnerCity Elf]

Awesome, great to hear, thank you for your speedy replies, that calms me a lot, going with AMD then, that one comes with a very pretty case, and 3 years warranty and pick-up service, too.

[Solar Legion]

4 minutes ago, InnerCity Elf said:

Awesome, great to hear, thank you for your speedy replies, that calms me a lot, going with AMD then, that one comes with a very pretty case, and 3 years warranty and pick-up service, too.

Heck, when I can get up the money to do so, I plan on upgrading my own rig to the 5800X as well. It'l properly support the actual, stable clock speed of my RAM. Doing that though and getting full use out of it will require that I also update my motherboard (B450 chipset) to a newer one (B550 at least) as well.

[Jenna Huntsman]

AMD have been very competitive since 2nd gen Ryzen. So modern AMD CPUs are pretty much just as good for SL as Intel CPUs are.

In fact, if heat generation is of concern to you, then the Ryzen chips produce less heat than their Intel counterparts.

[InnerCity Elf]

Thanks, another voice for AMD, or at the least against Intel obligatory    Less heat is good, too!

[Henri Beauchamp]

I have been using many CPU brands, and to speak only about the x86 CPUs, in the past I used Intel, Cyrix and AMD, in this order. I am not a fan of any brand, and I simply pick up the best choice I can find at the moment I upgrade my PC (or build a new one), this choice being governed by both the best performance/price ratio, and the best suitability for my various usages (which go way beyond SLing, of course).

For SL, I have been using Athlons (XP, 64), a Core2 Quad, Core CPUs (Sandy Bridge, Coffee Lake), and I am currently using a Ryzen 7900X. In the early 2000s, AMD CPUs were the best choice (faster), then Bulldozer ruined it for AMD, and I switched to Intel (with the Core2 Quad) and Intel CPUs have been the best choice for SL during a looong time...

Yet, with Zen4, AMD is back on par with Intel for performances, and superior to Intel in term of power consumption (important, since the more power consumed, the more heat to dissipate, the bigger and the noisier the cooling system); Zen4 is also not impaired by the P/E cores split (yuck !) seen in Intel's current CPUs...

I therefore chose AMD, with a Ryzen 7900X, for my last PC, and I do not regret it the least !...

Despite the heavy threading in my viewer (Cool VL Viewer configured to decode textures with 22 threads and create them in 22 other shared GL contexts/threads, adding to the 2 threads for the renderer and the graphics driver, plus miscellaneous other threads, such as for the texture fetcher, the texture cache, the object cache, sounds, plugins, etc), the CPU is never loaded at 100% (or only for a few seconds after a TP or login in a render-heavy sim with gazillions textures and meshes): it runs cool and quiet !

The Ryzen 7900X is also a beast to compile big programs (with it, the Cool VL Viewer compiles in less than 165s under Linux, which is 2.7 times faster than with my previous overclocked Core-i7 9700K @ 5GHz).

Note that with any of the modern CPUs (those capable of 5 GHz and higher boost clocks), you will likely not notice the slightest difference in peak frame rates, but for a smooth experience, do choose a CPU with 16 or more (virtual) cores (today's viewers can use quite a few threads, and future viewers will use even more of them).

Edited January 11 by Henri Beauchamp

[AmeliaJ08]

When people speak against AMD for SL (a bit of an outdated thing but they do) they're referring to GPUs, not CPUs. AMD make exceptionally good CPUs (just like Intel) and on the higher end own the performance crown for desktop chips. A modern Ryzen will do very well in SL.

Perhaps there was a time when maybe an AMD CPU wasn't such a good idea but even when it wasn't we're not talking some huge performance gap, for most of the 2000s on the higher end/enthusiast type CPUs AMD and Intel have traded blows and you couldn't really go wrong with a chip from either of them.

The GPU stuff relates to under-performing OpenGL drivers that plagued Radeon cards for many years, it has improved however.

Your GPU is a far more important consideration when the CPU debate is Ryzen 5800X vs i9 11900KF since both are more than enough to run SL. We're talking 8 core CPUs with very high single and multi-threaded performance (important for SL) either way, go with whatever brand you like more.

 

 

 

Edited January 11 by AmeliaJ08

[InnerCity Elf]

Thank you both for the info, too, good to know.

[gwynchisholm]

I thought this was an old post for a second, I wouldn’t even consider an 11900k now unless you’re getting it secondhand for very cheap.

Which is a valid option, Z590 boards are fairly current in terms of tech and the 11900k is a great performer but only if those two things are priced very well. Otherwise, intel is on the 14900k at this point, 3 generations into a socket. I wouldn’t look at lga 1200 if you’re buying new, look at lga 1700 options instead.

Besides the point, cpu choice barely matters for SL at all in terms of brand or chipset or whatever, it’s down to the potential performance of the individual processors. The amd thing with SL was more to do with video cards and was based on some OpenGL bugs from now ~10-15 years ago. It’s not relevant today at all. 

The 5800x is in a similar spot but is a little more reasonable to buy new. Socket AM4 is now dead, no further generations will be on it, same as intels lga 1200 for the 11900k. As such it’s pretty cheap, and the 5800x performs well, especially in multicore. It will be behind the 11900k slightly in single core which is more important for sl, but as mentioned, the 11900k shouldn’t be considered unless you’re buying used. If you compare the 5800x to a more relevant previous generation intel option you can still get new, it is more like the 12900k to reference, and that is better than the 5800x but not by a whole lot. AMD is now using AM5 so the 7800x or 7700x would be contemporary choices on the amd side of things. If those are your two options and you have no other options for whatever reason, it will be more important to look at the motherboards. A decent intel Z590 board will have usb type c, pcie 4.0, resizable bar, generally just a lot of decent features. Just the same higher end X570 am4 boards for amd will have a lot of those features, it’s just X570 is far less common to see in general, if you’re buying a prebuilt with a 5800x it’s almost certainly B550, which just has less going on. Something with a 5800x3D is a little different and is more likely to have a higher end motherboard.

 

Tldr the cpu doesn’t matter all that much in terms of make. It’s about raw performance, and platform/board features. Look for newer stuff first, as both suggestions are older generations by a few years.

[filz Camino]

I've updated both my desktop and laptop computers in the last few months - both have AMD processors and both perform really well with SL.

I don't find any of the current Intel options compelling for my use case. AMD is using an advanced TSMC 4nm manufacturing process and that gives them a pretty big edge in terms of efficiency and power consumption when compared to Intel's current manufacturing process and CPU offerings.

Intel CPU performance does currently lead for productivity tasks, but only by operating at eye wateringly high power levels. When it comes to overall gaming performance, the fastest processor right now is AMD's 7800X3D, it is faster even than the new Intel i9-14900K and uses a small fraction of the power.

So  I think the TL;DR is - If you want absolute best productivity performance and don't care about fan noise and power consumption - buy Intel. For most other use cases, consider buying AMD.

(This is only true right now, in a few year's time the situation may have changed. Although the outlook for the next year or so is that AMD may actually have moved more convincingly into the lead).

Edited January 14 by filz Camino

[InnerCity Elf]

Thanks! I went with a compromise, considering my budget, needs vs wants, local company (one of my biases when possible) with extended warranty, pick-up-and-return, and great customer support, power consumption (extremely expensive here these days...), and, thanks to you all, AMD for a change. My new pc should arrive in a few days, I'll update here to add if I'm happy with AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and RTX4070 combination in SL, in case it helps someone else. It should more than cover all my other use cases.

Edited January 16 by InnerCity Elf
I really, really shouldn't type on my phone...

[AmeliaJ08]

52 minutes ago, InnerCity Elf said:

Thanks! I went with a compromise, considering my budget, needs vs wants, local company (one of my biases when possible) with extended warranty, pick-up-and-return, and great customer support, power consumption (extremely expensive here these days...), and, thanks to you all, AMD for a change. My new pc should arrive in a few days, I'll update here to add if I'm happy with AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and RTX4070 combination in SL, in case it helps someone else. It should more than cover all my other use cases.

That will absolutely crush SL, no problem enjoy it.

Edited January 16 by AmeliaJ08

[InnerCity Elf]

My new desktop arrived yesterday, and I've been hanging out in SL quite a bit. It runs wonderfully, I'm happy. Thanks again for dispelling my AMD anxiety : )

[J Canucci]

I run an AMD R9 5950X with 32GB of RAM and an RTX 3060. In all my years ive never ever had a smoother experience than i do now, even on a crowded shopping event sim.