> Huge power draw. Weird motherboards. Has this improved nowadays?

AMD never fully fixed the USB dropout issues under load, AMD CPU/mobo are still extremely problematic for VR setups. There are also some weird issues around stuttering with the onboard fTPM enabled (which windows 11 wants you to use).

Better than the early days where Ryzen 1000 chips had cache defects that led to segfaults under compiling workloads.

The AGESA-BIOS model foists responsibility onto partners for distributing microcode updates and AMD tends to release buggy microcode that partners then have to fix, and they churn the microcode so fast that the fixes often go stale and break other things, but partners have to do them or people accuse them of "buggy BIOS". It's sort of the inverse problem in GPUs where AMD has to fix other people's game bugs in the drivers... partners have to fix AMD's microcode problems in their BIOSs. Commonly manifests as sensor glitches/offset problems/etc, sometimes this has led to real fun problems when those sensors are controlling core/SOC voltage or things like that.

AMD GPUs still suck for VR, the 5700XT series had huge crashing problems under the windows drivers that were never really resolved for a lot of people, and the 7000 series seems to be on course to replicate those sorts of issues. They did finally bring the 7900XTX's idle power down to only about 45W though.

The fans will vehemently deny it but yeah, you're pretty much right. AMD has gotten better but their software/drivers and user-experience still aren't as polished, either CPU or GPU. It's usually good enough it's not a problem, but you're going off the beaten path and they're not always flawless. On the other hand who knows what's going to happen with Intel with an exodus of staff already happening and likely to continue.

7900X, 7800X3D, 7900X3D, and 7950X3D are great looking parts at the right price but Intel is willing to make dealz right now to keep the cash flowing, they've got DDR4 boards to bring the platform cost down, etc. You have to evaluate the whole build and see what you get... and AMD does worse with large 128GB builds right now too. Although Intel is not flawless either to be fair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P58VqVvDjxo

Around here microcenter is willing to throw in a free 32GB RAM kit of decent quality if you buy a 7000X (not the base tier and unknown whether this will include X3D) and Newegg was offering a similar promotion at one point. Which neutralizes a lot of the platform cost difference - the DDR5 + PCIe 5.0 capable Intel boards aren't cheap either, but, a bit cheaper than AMD right now. Again, gotta look at the whole cost of the build for your own local costs.

Personally I think the DDR4 compatibility makes Intel a no-brainer for very cheap builds. You can get a PCIe 4.0 + DDR4 Intel board for the usual, expected price ranges... PCPP says starting from $79. If you're a fit for a Pentium/Celeron or a 12100/12100F that's a system cost AM5 can't compete with at the low end, you have to go back to AM4 which are slower systems.

The 12600K, 13500, and 13600K are also very good gaming-focused builds. There's nothing wrong with 7800X for gaming either, especially with the free RAM, but, Intel 13th gen does outperform it. And the e-cores are "free" at the MSRP, so Intel is simply giving you more, but, AMD is also dropping prices below MSRP lately (ymmv depending on your location).

For productivity and "server"-ish workloads, the AMD 7900X is great, particularly since AMD supports AVX-512 while Intel has disabled it on 12th/13th gen. And the 7800X3D, 7900X3D, and 7950X3D should all be very attractive high-end gaming+productivity "crossover" components if you are willing to splash out.