For many businesses eager to meet the challenges of today’s many rapid technology changes head-on, investments in refreshing and upgrading their IT infrastructure can play a key role. Finding the right mix of hardware may involve introducing new laptops that feature processors from both AMD and Intel. While mixed-CPU fleets may make the most technical or financial sense for some organizations, IT admins may have concerns about possible increases in management complexity. In a recent study, we explored these concerns by performing a series of hands-on tests to determine whether OS deployment and some key system-management tasks become more complicated or time-intensive in an environment with both AMD and Intel CPUs.
We tested two pairs of laptops from Dell and HP, each pair containing one AMD processor-powered laptop and one Intel processor-powered laptop. Because organizations use different deployment and management tools, we performed two separate deployments using two different methods: a traditional approach with Configuration Manager and a modern, cloud-centric approach with Windows Autopilot.
In our tests, we found no difference in effort between the AMD- and Intel-powered laptops in deployment and some key management tasks. Each deployment method took the same number of steps and nearly the same amount of time, with only slight variances in hands-on admin time for each laptop. When we evaluated the process of installing drivers as well as updating, wiping, and reimaging the systems, we found that all four tasks required the same number of steps for each device.
Our results demonstrate that admins can use the same processes for deployment and some key management tasks with AMD- and Intel-powered PCs while expecting them to take equal effort and comparable amounts of time. With that knowledge in hand, IT admins should feel free to consider the potential benefits of moving to a PC environment with both AMD and Intel CPUs without being concerned about time sinks or more management complexity.
To read about our PC deployment and management comparison tests in more detail, check out the report below.
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