Intel or AMD?

[paolo]

  I am thinking of buying a new computer. With Mandelbulb 3d and mandelbulber would an Intel or AMD processor be a better option? Is either program optimised for either Intel or AMD? Or are they equally optimised for both processors?  I have heard that an Intel processor is faster but a lot more expensive for a six core machine. Thank you.

[hobold]

AMD has indeed fallen a bit behind Intel in recent years. At the highest price points, AMD cannot match Intel's offerings. But with the more affordable processors, AMD is still quite competitive. At any given price point, Intel offers a bit more integer throughput and substantially higher single threaded integer speed. But AMD is ahead in floating point throughput.

I would guess that specifically for Mandelbulber and Mandelbulb3D, AMD's quadcores and hexacores deliver substantially  better FLOPS per dollar than anything Intel is willing to sell. But at the very high end, Intel's hexacores offer more FLOPS on an absolute scale, if you are willing to pay for it.