Building a PC can be daunting sometimes, especially for beginners. I remember when I was building my first PC, I had so many questions. Everything has to be compatible, and you have to avoid bottlenecking as much as possible. Let’s say that you want an AMD GPU, and now the question is: which CPU do you want? Would pairing it with an AMD CPU may be beneficial?
So many people are wondering this very question, which is why we decided to write this article. After doing in-depth research, here is what we found out:
Generally speaking, AMD GPUs do not work better with AMD CPUs than Intel CPUs. Both Intel and AMD CPUs will give you similar performance. However, some rare cases exist when you have installed Intel integrated graphics drivers, and conflicts can exist between them.
Now let’s cover this in more detail.
Does AMD GPU work better with Ryzen?
At first, it might sound plausible that AMD provides some benefits for those who buy their GPUs and CPUs. However, that is not the case, especially after diving in a little deeper.
One thing right at the beginning. Both brands create some CPUs that are less powerful than others. If you need a lot of parallel processing capability, an AMD CPU is the best choice, and an Intel CPU is the greatest choice for game performance. NVIDIA’s GPU is currently the most powerful for gaming.
Therefore, “better” has no intrinsic meaning. A better GPU, for example, does not make games run faster, but it does produce a greater frame rate.
You need to figure out what you want to use your PC for and how much money you want to spend. Then you need to find what your options are for that price, and find out how they perform in the applications you want to use, be that games or media production or whatever else.
For instance, my friend has a laptop that runs an Intel CPU with an AMD GPU and a desktop that runs an AMD CPU with an AMD GPU. And he also runs the exact same operating system on both. He says there is no difference.
I also know a guy with Intel Core i7–4790 and AMD RX 570. Someone who is not very knowledgeable might think that won’t work. However, they seem to get along just fine in his games. Also, his son has AMD A8 APU (comparable to a Core i5–4570) that works perfectly with an NVidia GTX 1050 Ti.
The reality is that as long as you have driver support, it won’t generally matter. We are well past when companies tried to bork each other by making incompatibilities between their hardware.
Even though they are rivals in the GPU industry, they promote cross-platform because if they didn’t, it would do major damage to both sides. If Nvidia did not support the AMD platform, they would be unable to catch the consumers that use AMD CPUs such as Ryzen, which is rather popular, and people would flock to team red for both GPU and CPU. If AMD does not support Nvidia, many consumers will opt for Intel CPUs in order to use Nvidia GPUs.
AMD created Smart Access Memory, also known as “Resizable BAR,” which enables Ryzen 5000-series CPUs to work better with Radeon 6000-series GPUs by allowing the CPU to access the GPU’s VRAM. This can improve performance by 5% or so in some tasks where the CPU and GPU are working on the same data, i.e., most PC games.
Several motherboard manufacturers, however, have allowed this feature with older AMD CPUs and GPUs, Intel CPUs, and Nvidia GPUs; therefore, it is dependent on the motherboard and BIOS version loaded.
Both AMD and Nvidia GPUs appear to benefit equally from resizable BAR. While it benefits Intel CPUs slightly more than AMD CPUs, “Resizable BAR” can work just as well with an Intel CPU in some instances, despite being better supported on AMD B550 and X570 motherboards.
Other than the fact that AMD currently makes superior CPUs than Intel, there is no reason why an AMD GPU should be coupled with an AMD CPU rather than an Intel CPU if Resizable BAR is supported on both systems.
One possible issue is that if your Intel CPU has integrated graphics, you must have both Intel and AMD GPU drivers installed, which can result in a slightly increased driver overhead. In addition, I would note that there is a small risk of driver conflicts, which can cause instability in some cases.
However, in practice, both of these effects are usually negligible, and this possible problem is only applicable if you have Intel graphics drivers installed. Other than that, an AMD GPU and an Intel GPU will work just as well as AMD GPU and an AMD CPU.
Finally, remember that there is no benefit over a combination of an Intel CPU and an Nvidia GPU, as that combination has even worse optimization for Resizeable BAR, and is equally as inclined to driver problems.
How to enable Smart Access Memory
Before we begin, make sure your AMD drivers are updated.
For ASUS motherboards
- Once checked, enter your BIOS (mostly by pressing F10, F12, or DEL during startup).
- Click on Advanced Settings or Advanced Mode
- Click on Advanced
- Under PCO Subsystem Settings, enable Above 4G Decoding and set Resize BAR Support to Auto.
- Now click on Boot and make sure that CSM is disabled.
- Click on Exit and Save Changes and Reset.
For MSI motherboards
- Enter BIOS
- Click on Settings
- Click Advanced
- Find PCIe/PCI Subsystem Settings and enable Resize BAR Support
For Gigabyte motherboards
- Enter BIOS
- Click Advanced Mode
- Set Resize Bar Support to Auto
For AsRock motherboards
- Enter BIOS
- Click on Advanced
- Enable CAM (Clever Access Memory), which is the same thing as Resize Bar Support
Focus on the CPU specs, not on the brand
There are several important factors to keep in mind. First, the clock speed is a key spec to consider. It tells you how fast the CPU can operate. The higher the clock speed, the faster CPU will be.
Another important factor is the number of cores. This refers to how many processing units the CPU has, which allows it to handle multiple tasks at once. If you plan on using your computer for a lot of multitasking or gaming, you’ll want to look for a CPU with more cores (usually 4-8).
The cache is another spec to consider. This refers to the amount of memory in the CPU, which it uses to access frequently used data quickly. A larger cache can help speed up your computer.
You’ll also want to consider the thermal design power, which tells you how much heat the CPU generates. If you’re using a high-performance CPU, you may need a more robust cooling solution to prevent overheating.
Overall, the number of CPU cores recommended today depends on how you plan to use your computer. A quad-core CPU is usually sufficient for everyday tasks, while more demanding tasks may require a CPU with six or more cores. However, it’s important to remember that other factors like clock speed and cache can also impact performance.
It’s worth noting that having more CPU cores doesn’t always equate to better performance. Remember that you cannot optimize every software to take advantage of multiple cores, so a CPU with fewer but faster cores may perform better in these cases.
Finally, here is some basic advice on making your PC “faster”:
There are several components in your PC, and the majority of them can affect its performance in some way or another and to varying degrees. If your PC feels slow in general use, you should look into your RAM, storage, CPU, and GPU.
If you have insufficient Memory for your needs, your System may slow down when you have multiple apps running at the same time. To find out, open the task manager and look at the Memory use. If your programs take a long time to load or your PC takes a long time to boot up, try upgrading to faster storage, such as a SATA or NVME SSD.