# AMD EPYC

26 Hacker News commenters recommended AMD EPYC and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend EPYC server processors for strong multi-core performance, high memory bandwidth and good value. Critics say single-thread speed is weak and power use is high.

## Why people recommend it

- Strong multi-core performance (4 comments): "Epyc "reigns supreme" for anyone caring about performance / total FPS throughput" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47457464)) "Many numeric parameters leave no doubt about the increase in performance." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49029810)) "the speed of latest amd epycs are miles ahead of the default ci instances" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47732520))
- Good value for the money (3 comments): "you can build a micro-ATX machine with a Xeon or an EPYC in it for what feels like a pretty reasonable price" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46151561)) "something like $85 for a current-gen AMD EPYC, which are also about 2x as fast" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46729423)) "a used Epyc + DDR4 server can be great fun and epic value" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49433888))
- High memory bandwidth (3 comments): "If I did it again, I'd build an EPYC machine with 12 channels of DDR5" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45840368)) "you need real cores + high clock frequency + high memory bandwidth" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47239442)) "Massive leap in bandwidth on these things." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49034422))
- Top choice for serious builds (2 comments): "Save your money for a Xeon or EPYC build" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48805954)) "you would need Threadripper or EPYC" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48232755))

## What people warn about

- Weak single-thread performance (2 comments): "Power usage is not the best and singlethread is awful (-50%)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47293511)) "The Epyc CPU cores are _slow_ per core" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46718445))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Intel Xeon](https://hackerapproved.com/p/intel-xeon.md): 14 recommend
- [Nvidia Vera CPU](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nvidia-vera-cpu.md): 11 recommend
- [Ampere CPU](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ampere.md): 8 recommend
- [AMD EPYC Turin](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amd-epyc-turin.md): 8 recommend
- [AMD Opteron](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amd-opteron.md): 5 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.amd.com/en/products/processors/server/epyc.html)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "AMD EPYC", https://hackerapproved.com/p/amd-epyc/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).