Intel and AMD CPU usage percentages vary by system configuration and workload.
Intel and AMD CPU usage percentages vary by system configuration and workload.
I recently viewed some CPU performance tests on YouTube comparing Intel and AMD. I noticed AMD CPUs used less power than Intel ones. The AMD models tested were Ryzen 7 3700X and 3800X with 50-60% utilization, while the Intel side featured an i7 9700K operating at 85 to nearly 100% usage. Is this typical for these processors, or is it just a difference between them? I own an I5 7600K that’s running close to full capacity during recent games. Please advise, as I’m considering upgrading my system in the near future—AMD or Intel?
I believe the tests you were checking were related to gaming. This is because games (any application, though some perform better) are limited by the number of cores they can utilize. AMD usually offers more cores than games can effectively use, which results in reduced overall performance.
The 3700X and 3800X each have double the threads, providing extra capacity for multitasking. Most games require around 8 threads, allowing the 9700K to utilize its full potential. The 3700X offers 16 threads via SMT, and while it approaches all cores at over 50%, SMT helps maintain performance. This is why the 9700K often outperforms in gaming, offering more than 8 threads and similar core efficiency to the R5 3600.
Ryzen 7 3700x/3800x features eight processing cores and sixteen threads. The Intel 9700k offers eight cores with eight threads, but it does not support hyperthreading. This means the operating system can assign more tasks to maximize performance across the available cores. The 3700x/3800x supports simultaneous multithreading, a concept similar to hyperthreading. The OS treats these threads as separate logical cores, so even at half utilization, the system still manages to use a portion of the available resources. The efficiency gain here is around 25%, though it doesn’t follow a straight-line improvement. This technology, known as hyperthreading or simultaneous multithreading, is common on most modern chips except for Intel’s designs.
Also remember, CPU percentage in Task Manager doesn<|pad|> can't show how much the processor is being used. It only tells you how often it's active. A CPU at 50% might not actually consume 50% of its capacity—it's just idle for half the time.