AMD vs Intel for Virtualization: Which is Better?

Virtualization is a technology that allows you to run multiple operating systems or applications on a single physical piece of hardware. Virtualization can increase the efficiency, flexibility, and security of your computer. However, to do virtualization well, you need a powerful processor that supports virtualization features.

The two most popular processor brands on the market are AMD and Intel. Which is better for virtualization? What is the difference between the two? How to choose the right processor for your virtualization needs? This article will answer those questions by comparing AMD and Intel with different aspects.

Virtualization Features

The virtualization feature is a feature that allows the processor to run multiple operating systems or applications simultaneously by dividing hardware resources. The most common virtualization features are AMD-V and Intel VT-x, which are virtualization features for x86 processors. This feature allows the processor to create a virtual environment isolated from the main operating system, making it easier to manage and migrate virtual machines.

Other virtualization features are AMD-Vi and Intel VT-d, which are virtualization features for I/O devices. This feature allows the processor to allocate I/O devices directly to specific virtual machines, improving performance and security. In addition, there are also virtualization features for memory, such as AMD-RVI and Intel EPT, which allow the processor to manage virtual memory efficiently and reduce overhead.

AMD and Intel have similar and compatible virtualization features. However, there are some differences between the two. For example, AMD-Vi supports IOMMUv2, which is a feature that allows virtual machines to access main memory directly, without going through a hypervisor.

This feature can improve virtual machine performance and security, especially for applications that require fast and heavy memory access, such as graphics or networking. Intel VT-d does not support this feature, but it supports VT-c, which is a feature that allows processors to optimize virtual network performance by reducing overhead and latency. This feature can improve the performance and scalability of virtual machines, especially for applications that require intensive network communication, such as cloud or big data.

Virtualization Performance

Performance virtualization is the performance that a processor can achieve when running multiple operating systems or applications simultaneously. Many factors affect virtualization performance, such as core count, frequency, cache, architecture, and virtualization features. The more cores, the higher the frequency, the larger the cache, the newer the architecture, and the more complete the virtualization features, the better the virtualization performance.

AMD and Intel have their advantages and disadvantages for virtualization performance. AMD typically offers more cores and caches than Intel, which can improve virtualization performance for thread- or data-intensive applications. For example, the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X has 16 cores and 64 MB of cache, while the Intel Core i9-10900K has 10 cores and 20 MB of cache.

However, Intel typically offers a higher frequency and more efficient architecture than AMD, which can improve virtualization performance for applications that require single-threaded or special instructions. For example, the Intel Core i9-10900K has a maximum frequency of 5.3 GHz, while the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X has a maximum frequency of 4.9 GHz. In addition, Intel has the Sunny Cove architecture, which supports AVX-512 instructions, which can improve virtualization performance for applications that require vector or floating-point operations.

Here is a table comparing virtualization performance between AMD and Intel for some popular processors:

The virtualization score is a score given by PassMark Software based on virtualization performance testing conducted by users. These scores are relative and may change over time. The current highest score is 100, which belongs to the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X.