Bye Intel, hi AMD! I’m done after 2 dead Intels Published: 2025-09-07 Tag: pc Summary Michael Stapelberg shares his experience with Intel CPUs failing twice in his high-end 2025 Linux PC, leading him to switch to an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D. He discusses the instability of recent Intel CPUs, his testing process, and comparisons of performance and power consumption between Intel and AMD CPUs. --- What happened? Or: the batch job of death The Intel Core Ultra 9 285K CPU (replacement for an earlier dead 285K) in Michael's PC failed again after intensive use. He was running a batch job using layout-parser and tesseract to convert scanned documents to text. Attempted to speed up the process using CUDA GPU offloading, but had to fallback to CPU only. During the 4-hour CPU-heavy batch job, power consumption was around 300W with high CPU temperatures (~100°C). Following the job, PC failed to wake from suspend-to-RAM. Power button unresponsive. Diagnostic ruled out power supply, RAM, and disk, suspecting either CPU or mainboard as faulty. Returned both CPU and motherboard, unable to identify which was the cause. No, it wasn’t the heat wave Contrary to reports blaming recent Intel crashes on the European heat wave, Michael cooled his room with air conditioning during the test. Room temperature ranged from 25 to 28°C, considered normal for PCs. CPU running at ~100°C is within Intel's allowed max (110°C). Intel CPUs should crash, but not permanently die due to heat alone. Which AMD CPU to buy? Michael chose the fastest desktop AMD CPU: Ryzen 9 9950X3D (with 3D V-Cache). Compared Ryzen 9 9950X (without 3D V-Cache) and 9950X3D variants, choosing the latter due to better Linux kernel support (Linux 6.13+) and performance in some workloads. The chosen motherboard was ASUS TUF Gaming X870+ Wifi (socket AM5), preferred for endurance and lower power consumption vs X870E chipset boards. Performance | Workload | Intel 12900K (2022) | Intel 285K (2025) | AMD 9950X3D (2025) | |--------------------------------|---------------------|-------------------|--------------------| | Build Go 1.24.3 (cd src; ./make.bash) | ~35s | ~26s | ~24s | | Gokrazy/rsync tests (make test) | ~0.5s | ~0.4s | ~0.5s | | Gokrazy Linux compile (gokr-rebuild-kernel -cross=arm64) | 3m 13s | 2m 7s | 1m 56s | The AMD 9950X3D slightly outperforms the Intel 285K in these benchmarks. Power consumption | CPU | Mainboard | Idle Power | Idle Power (with Monitor) | |---------------|----------------------------|------------|---------------------------| | Intel 12900K | ASUS PRIME Z690-A | 40W | 60W | | Intel 285K | ASUS PRIME Z890-P | 46W | 65W | | AMD 9950X3D | ASUS TUF GAMING X870-PLUS WIFI | 55W | 80W | AMD 9950X3D has higher idle power consumption and higher peak power usage compared to Intel CPUs. Daily household energy usage increased from about 9.x kWh/day (with Intel PC) to 10-11 kWh/day after switching to AMD. Conclusion Michael has a long history of buying Intel CPUs for Linux PCs, attracted by their performance, stability, and power efficiency. After repeated failures with Intel's latest CPUs, he is switching loyalty to AMD for the foreseeable future. Despite slightly higher power consumption, AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D offers better performance and Linux kernel support features. Hopes for better idle power in future AMD chips and renewed competition in CPU market for improved quality and innovation. --- If you liked this post, subscribe to the RSS feed or support Michael via [Buy Me a