{"id":233003,"date":"2017-10-16T14:56:02","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T12:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=233003"},"modified":"2017-10-16T14:57:30","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T12:57:30","slug":"intel-and-amd-have-made-buying-a-cpu-unbelievably-confusing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/hardware\/233003-intel-and-amd-have-made-buying-a-cpu-unbelievably-confusing.html","title":{"rendered":"Intel and AMD have made buying a CPU unbelievably confusing"},"content":{"rendered":"

AMD and Intel compete for desktop processor market share, with the companies both recently releasing new\u00a0chips that\u00a0offer great performance and value.<\/p>\n

However, a series of architecture design and naming convention decisions by both parties have resulted in PC owners needing a PhD in computer science to figure out which motherboard works with which CPU, and how powerful their new processor really is.<\/p>\n

If you feel overwhelmed, read below – you are not alone.<\/p>\n

Processors<\/h3>\n

The first change that caught me off guard was the naming of Intel’s\u00a0low-power mobile processors for notebooks and laptops, which now masquerade as full-power chips.<\/p>\n

Previously, these could be identified thanks to their “m5” or “m7” naming convention – designating them as 4.5-watt, low-performance chips.<\/p>\n

Come the 7th-gen Kaby Lake mobile chips, and Intel dropped the “m” designation for the standard “i” brand – making it difficult for consumers to tell the difference.<\/p>\n

Intel then launched its next-generation high-end desktop chips, which have the “Core-X” designation and fit into a larger CPU socket than standard Core processors.<\/p>\n

However, the company placed products based on two architectures within the same generation – meaning customers must check whether their new Core X processor is based on Kaby Lake-X or Skylake-X architecture.<\/p>\n

For example, the Core i7-7740X is based on Intel’s 7th-gen Kaby Lake-X architecture, while the Core i7-7800X is based on the company’s 6th-gen Skylake-X architecture.<\/p>\n

This is potentially detrimental to consumers, as Kaby Lake-X chips can only take advantage of 16 out of 44 PCIe lanes on the high-end platform.<\/p>\n

This means you can only use half the RAM slots on the X299 motherboard with this CPU – while you can use more with chips based on Skylake-X.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mobile vs Desktop<\/h3>\n

Intel has further befuddled consumers by launching mobile and desktop Core processors under the new 8th-gen designation, when the chips are based on different architectures.<\/p>\n

The 8th-gen desktop processors like the Intel Core i7-8700K are based on a new architecture named Coffee Lake.<\/p>\n

The mobile versions of these chips are based on older architectures. For example: the Intel Core i7-8650U has the same 8th-gen designation, but is part of the “Kaby Lake R” family. This is a CPU lineup based on 7th-gen and 6th-gen technology.<\/p>\n

Despite their 8th-gen label, these chips are essentially built on the same design as the previous two generations of mobile processors.<\/p>\n

AMD has typically been straightforward with its processor naming conventions, but has caused a lot of confusion with chipset designations.<\/p>\n

Chipsets<\/h3>\n

Intel has traditionally used the X*99 and B*50 designations for its high-end and consumer motherboards respectively, substituting the * for the chipset series number.<\/p>\n

Intel’s 6th-gen chips launched with X99 and B150 motherboards, while its 7th-gen chips launched with X299 and B250 motherboards.<\/p>\n

This naming convention is a consumer-friendly system, and implies that the company’s 8th-gen chipsets should be named “X399” and “B350”.<\/p>\n

This progression was spoiled by AMD, however, which named its Ryzen Threadripper chipset “X399” and one of its Ryzen chipsets “B350”.<\/p>\n

While chipset names don’t denote power or performance, AMD’s coup on B350 and X399 make its platforms seem more advanced than their Intel counterparts.<\/p>\n

Following this, Intel had no choice but to disrupt its naming convention for its 8th-gen processors, naming its consumer platform “B360” instead.<\/p>\n

Intel has not launched its 8th-gen high-end platform, but it will be unable to use the “X399” chipset name when it does.<\/p>\n

\"AMD<\/a><\/p>\n

Backwards Compatibility<\/h3>\n

Intel has also created confusion among consumers with the launch of its 8th-gen processors and the chips’ use of the\u00a0LGA 1151 socket.<\/p>\n

The use of the LGA 1151 socket could imply that they are compatible with existing 100 and 200-series chipsets used by 6th and 7th-gen processors, but this is not the case.<\/p>\n

The 8th-gen chips are only compatible with Intel’s new 300-series chipsets and will not work with older LGA 1151-socket motherboards.<\/p>\n

This combination of business rivalry, design decisions, and compatibility issues means consumers will have to triple-check if their chosen processor will work with their motherboard as intended – whether they buy AMD or Intel.<\/p>\n

Now read:\u00a0MSI launches tiny Vortex G25 gaming PC<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AMD and Intel compete for desktop processor market share – and names for their motherboards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341028,"featured_media":232655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[577,35,131,46641],"class_list":["post-233003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hardware","tag-amd","tag-headline","tag-intel","tag-pc-hardware"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233003"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341028"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233181,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233003\/revisions\/233181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}