James wants to be able to upgrade his computer to a new processor and motherboard. Should he go with Intel or save money and go with AMD? Leo says that AMD has kept Intel innovating and the prices down. However, for the last few years, Intel has surpassed AMD. But AMD is bouncing back with the Ryzen processor platform, which is very affordable. So it comes down to what's more important, price or performance?
Bill heard that there's a new super fast overclocked Intel chip at over 4Ghz called the 8086K. Leo says that K means it's unlocked so he could overclock them, but he'd need an insane amount of cooling to keep it from overheating. So he's not really impressed.
The latest exploit "Spectre" affects every single chip made in the last ten years. At first, security researchers thought that the exploit only affected Intel processors, but it turns out this hack also effects ARM, AMD, and any other processor that uses speculative prediction. The white hat hackers who found the flaw discovered that you can use it to access valuable data including passwords and other information. Leo says that Microsoft has already pushed out a fix, and Apple's High Sierra has patched the vulnerability with a recent fix. Apple has also patched the iPhone and iPad.
Jerry is getting a new computer and wants to know if he should buy one with an Intel or AMD processor? Leo says that AMD is a bit underpowered and he recommends sticking with the Intel i5. Leo says that for what Jerry does, a Chromebook is a very reliable and low cost alternative. It's the most secure OS out there. Leo recommends the Samsung Chromebook Plus, which goes on sale next month.
Alex is thinking about getting an AMD processor because they seem more affordable. Leo says they are, but really not enough to justify the performance gap. Also, Broadwell processors aren't out yet, but they will certainly be even faster. Leo likes that AMD is out because it keeps Intel honest, and pushes Intel to keep innovating, keeping prices down. That's what competition is for. But sadly, AMD is just not as fast.
Leo recommends consulting PCper.com to research the components for building his own PC.
Barbara bought a refurbished Windows 7 computer and she keeps getting an error message saying that the Catalyst Control center isn't supported. Leo says that's a video card driver error and it's likely that Barbara just needs to update her drivers. ATI's Catalyst Control center is primilary for gamers and Leo says going to AMD.com and clicking on the driver support page will get her where she needs to go. She will need to know what video card she has. Barbara should get this directly from AMD, not a third party site.
Grant loves to play video games and wants to get a good computer to do it. Leo says that depending on the types of games he plays would decide just how powerful a computer he'll want to get. If he's doing first person shooter games, or games with heavy 3D graphics, then he'll want a laptop with an i7 processor and plenty of RAM.
AMD isn't really a competitor anymore. They're largely used in cheaper computers, and even the low-end has been supplanted with low power, low cost Intel processors. AnandTech.com has some great benchmarks on both, but he should get an Intel. They are faster and more reliable.
