Roughly a year ago, my seven-year-old System76 Thelio started to fail. The first issue was the USB ports, which cascaded to other ports until the system became unusable. As the machine was way beyond warranty, I knew it was time to purchase a new system.
That Thelio was my second System76 machine (the first being a Leopard Extreme), both of which lasted considerably longer than any machine I’d ever owned. There was never a time I considered switching to a different manufacturer; not only do I respect what the company is doing, but I genuinely like the CEO.
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When I went to customize the new Thelio, I was faced with a choice of CPUs: Intel or AMD. Pondering that question, my first thoughts were of power. Although I didn’t need enough juice to calculate Pi to the millionth decimal, I did need enough to drive multiple virtual machines, along with the usual apps I use — web browser, office suite, image editor, email, terminal, Slack, Spotify, etc.
I’d heard of how powerful AMD Ryzen CPUs could be and remembered that Linux creator Linus Torvalds switched to AMD Ryzen CPUs (after ripping into Intel). Although the AMD Ryzen Threadripper CPU was almost double the price of an Intel CPU, the power and cooling that come with it were worth the price to Torvalds.
Torvald’s take swayed me. Although I didn’t need the level of power offered by a Threadripper, I did want considerably more power than I had with my previous two machines.
But my decision wasn’t only about raw power.
Over the past few years, I’ve found Intel CPUs to be less stable than I’d previously experienced. For decades, Intel’s offerings were remarkably reliable and always ready to go. That changed, I believe, when the Spectre malware hit. Intel’s mitigations for that malicious attack did the job but at the cost of speed and reliability.
It’s a rare occasion that I experience a kernel panic on Linux, but that started happening a bit too often for my taste.
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Here’s another issue I started experiencing with Intel processors: overheating. More and more, I’d hear my machine fan running constantly and, on occasion, the machine would randomly shut down. This started happening well before the USB ports on the machine went wonky. After a bit of poking around (i.e., viewing log files), I confirmed that the problem was heat. I’d lost enough work and it was time to do something.
Before purchasing the new Thelio, I asked System76 CEO Carl Richell for his opinion, and he assured me that AMD systems were reliable and offered plenty of power. I said goodbye to Intel and leaped over to the AMD camp.
How it went and how it’s going
First, the switch was painless. As far as daily usage, there was no discernible difference. I didn’t have to make any changes to how I used my computers, commands all ran the same, all of the software I used was available to install, and I was up and running without issue.
When I first started using the machine, I noticed a considerable jump in performance. Of course, I was using a newer AMD CPU compared to the Intel i9 processor on my previous Thelio, so that jump should have been expected.
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What I didn’t expect was how much cooler the CPU ran. It’s a rare occasion now that I hear my system fan run. In fact, I haven’t had a single issue with this machine. Not one. I can’t remember the last time I purchased a new computer and found it flawless but that’s what this AMD Ryzen 9 7900X 12-core CPU-powered machine has delivered.
For example, if I issue the sensors command, I see the following information about the current state of my AMD Ryzen CPU:
nvme-pci-0400
Adapter: PCI adapter
Composite: +37.9°C (low = -20.1°C, high = +83.8°C)
(crit = +88.8°C)
Sensor 2: +46.9°C
No problem with the heat here. When using the Intel-based systems, I remember the CPU temps always running high. There were times when I was running more intense processes (such as compiling software from source) and the Intel CPU temps spiked. I haven’t experienced that issue with the AMD Ryzen.
You might think the issue could be with the system cooling, but I didn’t move from one machine manufacturer to another. In fact, I stuck with the Thelio for both Intel and AMD processors; although the cases have changed slightly, it’s still the rock-solid System76 internal cooling at work and AMD is simply superior in that regard.
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The GPU is AMD, too, which is yet another switch for me. I’d been using Nvidia graphics cards forever and this Radeon RX 7600 GPU is fantastic — no problems whatsoever.
Open-source
Although Intel has done quite a bit for the open-source community over the years, AMD has been very quick to release documentation and drivers for their hardware and they do so under open licenses.
Intel’s open-source issues fall into the lap of Nvidia, which seems determined to put up a wall between its hardware and open-source. Given that Intel systems tend to default to Nvidia GPUs, the nod here goes to AMD and its Radeon platform. Since making the switch from Intel/Nvidia to AMD/Radeon, I can say the graphics on my Linux systems have improved considerably. I see less screen tearing and windows move around far more smoothly.
In the end…
Overall, I find the AMD CPU to be far more reliable than any Intel-based system I’ve ever used. As for power, I can say the AMD Ryzen is a beast and I’m not even near the Threadripper level (maybe next time). The cooling, power, and openness of AMD have made me a convert and I can’t imagine ever going back to Intel.
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