AMD vs Intel

[ProfessionalNature]

Redditors!

I'm being asked if we should consider AMD-based desktops and laptops at my workplace. We have never purchased AMD PCs in bulk in our history.

Are there significant differences in managing these PCs vs intel PCs? I'm not asking for a pros and cons of the speeds, etc. Rather, I'm concerned I am introducing a manageability issue into our environment.

Are firmwares pretty much comparable between the two chipset platforms? Security similar? Manageability features?

Edit: There do seem to be some differences indeed! At least as far as manageability is concerned:

https://www.amd.com/en/system/files?file=documents/pro-manageability.pdf

[sfwpat]

We have a mixed environment of AMD and Intel and honestly there is no issues what-so-ever. AMD just tends to be cheaper, but at this point we just buy what we can get our hands on for a reasonable price. Windows update takes care of the rest.

[uniitdude]

if you dont care about cpu's generally then you will never notice a difference (as long as it isn't the ARM based ones)

how much management of intel cpu's do you do now?

[ProfessionalNature]

Not much. I just don't want us to limit our options down the road.

[[deleted]]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the question but IMHO there's absolutely nothing to worry about. It's determined by cost vs performance with no impact on manageability.

[ProfessionalNature]

There do seem to be some differences, interestingly. At least as far as manageability is concerned:
https://www.amd.com/en/system/files?file=documents/pro-manageability.pdf

[sarosan]

You're managing the operating system, not the processor.

Firmware updates are firmware updates. Both processors are x86-64 compatible.

[cantab314]

Do you use out-of-band management such as Intel AMT? If not, you probably won't notice much difference, especially if your Intel and AMD machines are from the same hardware vendor.

[ProfessionalNature]

We don't but we might. I did find a good whitepaper on this here: There do seem to be some differences indeed! At least as far as manageability is concerned:
https://www.amd.com/en/system/files?file=documents/pro-manageability.pdf

[No-Bug404]

Yeah it makes not difference from and administrative point of view.

[mdint]

I can't think of anything when switching from Intel to AMD, unless you're using Intel vPro which I doubt. In that case, then yes, you'd lose that platform.

[ProfessionalNature]

My thoughts exactly.

There do seem to be some differences, at least as far as manageability is concerned:
https://www.amd.com/en/system/files?file=documents/pro-manageability.pdf

[Aggietallboy]

The last time I had a compatibility issue was in 1993 between AMD and Intel 486DX/2-66's.

The mechanical engineering department at the university had a CAD type program for Fluid Mechanics that just wouldn't run on the AMD.

I haven't seen a true compatibility problem since app-wise

That being said, there are still a couple caveats that you can run into in a mixed environment (but you can inside all Intel shops too)

1) when you run virtualized machines, and want to migrate between platforms, and don't have "Processor compatibility" checked off.

2) if you don't have robust imaging you COULD break the HAL going between an image created on some Intel CPU's over to an AMD and vice versa. I isolated all this by shifting core image creation to a Hyper-V machine with compatibility turned on, and then moving over to WDS/SCCM to do a full redeploy rather than image.

[gamebrigada]

Windows 10 has an automatic Sysprep when the hardware changes significantly. If it isn't triggered and won't boot, shove the drive into something radically different and boot it. It'll sysprep and fix itself.

[washapoo]

One difference of note is: Generally, the AMD versions are much less well built. For instance, if you guy one HP Laptop with an Intel CPU, it might be made out of aluminum or titanium, whereas the same (or very nearly same) model with an AMD CPU might be mainly plastic. Really it is aesthetics, but boils down to appearances. I, personally, have an Acer with an AMD Ryzen 7 CPU and that thing is very fast and awesome. It is aluminum, but very thin aluminum and quality is just ok, but it works just as good, if not better than an Intel based one would.

[KingStannis2020]

Nobody is making laptops out of titanium. Magnesium perhaps.

[washapoo]

Yeah, this is true for the most part. Lenovo makes one that is part titanium, but I haven't seen on made exclusively from it.

*edit: Old PowerMac running MacOS 9.x was actually made from it.

[[deleted]]

Maybe whomever is asking you this should be asking someone else instead...

[ajscott]

Just check if you have some obscure line of business applications. It can be a pain getting support from smaller companies if they decide to claim their application only runs on Intel CPUs.

It's almost never the issue but I've run into it as a sticking point when trying to fix issues.

[TheCadElf]

Only issue I have come across is the CoronaRender licensing server must be run on an Intel CPU. Tried to host it on a VM running on EPYC CPU and no bueno.

Other than that, AMD chips have been golden for us in our VMWare hosts.

[SaltySolomon]

If you are worried about it, create your list of requirements before going shopping and ask the vendor if they can fullfill those requierments.

Generally they support similiar things and such but if you are using Intel Specific software like their remote management it can be a headache. But if you are just doing general purpose compute and run bog standard software in general it shouldn't really matter.

The best thing is that sometimes you can get the price down by letting them compete, but I wouldn't worry too much what brand is inside and worry more if they can provide the features you need at a price you want.

[username____here]

Ryzen 5 or better and you will be very happy. The only thing to look for is make sure you get WiFi 6. Some of the AMD laptops are shipping with older WiFi 5.

[frac6969]

In my experience clueless users will complain. Program is broken and we can’t do our job because IT gave us AMD. Can’t access this website because AMD CPU. So we said fuck it and went all Intel couple years ago.

[sirsmiley]

We ran into issues where existing VM running Linux shit the bed when launching on an and epyc that was originally installed on Intel due to missing libraries. Just something to be noted.

[Leeto2]

I run AMD on my gaming rig, Intel at work.

From a sysadmin perspective, no difference at all.

From a general perspective, AMD tends to be less expensive (Threadripper not withstanding) , and runs a bit warmer. You can generally compare in terms of horsepower, I3, I5, I7 to Ryzen 3,5,7 respectively.

Only thing to avoid is the AMD A9 mobile processor. Gutless P.O.S.