AMD or Intel: What's better for you?

I hear this a lot when talking to non-uber computer users. What's better, AMD or Intel? Well, it's a tricky question. But there are three questions you can ask yourself to help you figure out which you should go for.

Question 1: What's my budget?
This should be the first question you ask yourself when figuring out what kind of computer you want, and it's probably the main factor in this discussion. If you have a budget of around $400-1000, you should probably go with an AMD processor. They give the best price to performance. If you have a budget of over $1000, I would recommend an Intel chip, because at the $1000 mark, you can afford to go with a higher range processor, not to say AMD processors are low-end, though. At $1000, you can go into the high end CPU category. You can get a high end i5 or low end i7 processor and still have enough money to buy the rest of the components. At $600, the i5 and i7s aren't really an option since they would take up about half of your budget.

Question 2: What graphics card will I be looking for?
When you are picking out a processor, you should think about what kind of graphics card you are going to use. If you are going to be using an i7 CPU, you don't exactly want a GPU that will die when the CPU isn't even running at 100% of it's ability. If you are buying a dual core AMD Athlon processor, you don't exactly want a GTX 780Ti, cause the Athlon will cause it to be slow. You want to find parts that fit into your budget and that work well with each other. If you are going to buy a high end graphics card, go with a high end CPU as well, such as a Core i5 or FX-8000 series processor. If you have a mid-range processor, you could go with a Core i3 or an FX-4000 series processor. It's all about finding parts that work together efficiently and don't choke each other out.

Question 3: What will I be doing with this machine?
This is a major question you want to ask yourself as well. If you plan on just having a basic web browsing computer which can play Minecraft, you'll most likely want to go with an AMD processor, cause you can get a quad core processor for under $100. If you are going to be doing some heavy gaming, you should most likely go with a higher end AMD, such as an FX-6300 or higher, or go with an Intel Core i5 processor, though they do cost a decent amount more, about $30 more than AMD's flagship FX-8350. However, if you are going to be doing video editing, high detail photoshop, or 3D modeling and stuff like that, you will most likely want to go with an Intel i5 or i7 CPU, because they do a lot of that stuff better than AMD processors because they have hyperthreading where AMD CPUs don't.

I hope this helps you make a decision on what CPUs you want. If you are still unsure about what CPU you want to get, I highly recommend http://www.cpubenchmark.net/. They have a bunch of charts showing which CPUs are better than others using different ways to benchmark. It's a really good tool to use.

Personally, I recommend two processors right now depending on a person's budget. For a $500-750 budget, I recommend the AMD FX-6300. For a $751-1000 budget, I recommend the AMD FX-8350. For a $1000+ budget, I recommend an Intel Core i5 3570K.

Happy Gaming.