Future changes -> 2, 6, 12 months out?

[boatillo]

As you can see from my sig, my rig is a couple generations behind. I'm still pluggin along with my s939, DDR400 and AGP graphics with no real complaint yet! Playing Hellgate:London atm and it runs like a dream in 1680x1050 with most settings maxed (no AA).

But I am getting that itch to burn up some money.

I want to make a BIG jump, but not into a hole. I want to move from single to quad-core, DDR to DDR2 or 3, and SLI DX10 graphics...but still kinda have that bad taste in my mouth from my current system being completely junked by technology and socket changes so quickly (by quickly I mean AMD dropping 939 like a rock and AGP what?). So....

Intel going to be sticking with 775 or moving soon?

AMD going to release a decent quad-core soon? Will they be dumping AM2?

Is PCI-E going dodo-bird within the next 3-5 years?

How serious are manufacturers about moving from DDR2 to DDR3?

Any format changes going to force new PSU's with funky new connectors?

Thanks for any updates!

 

[MarcVenice]

So many questions. Intel is sticking with s775, but they keep making slight changes so newer CPU's often don't work on older s775 mobo's. Right now p35 mobo's and x38 will both support Penryn though. Amd should be sticking with AM2 as well, but I have no clue what AM2 mobo's will support Phenom, and which boards won't. In fact, I was going to ask on the motherboard forum today. PCI-E is going to stick around a while longer, but we're moving from pci-e to pci-e 2.0. As far as I know PCI-E videocards will work in PCI-E 2.0 slots, and PCI-E 2.0 videocards will also work in PCI-E 1.0 slots. Who knows when videocards require more bandwith then PCI-E 1.0 can deliver though, a year ? 2 years ? More likely 2 years imo.

DDR3 is still very new and expensive. I don't foresee DDR3 becoming a requirement for another 2 years at the very least. You can buy mobo's which have 2 ddr2 and 2 ddr3 slots. But by the time DDR3 becomes affordable, and necesary, you'll probably need a new mobo too, because your socket has been replaced with something new. Right now, I'd say stick with ddr2, most bang for buck, in fact, ddr3 won't give any extra performance at all over DDR2 right now.

PSU's, haven't heard a thing about them. CPU's and GPU's are only going to use LESS energy, because of the smaller production processes and what not. Any 500w qaulity unit should be able to power any rig you can build, unless it's out of the ordinary with dual socket / dual cpu's and/or sli-ed 8800gtx's.

Right now you seem not to have a need for a new rig though, so I would at least wait till the start of december and see what the new 8800gts's bring, perhaps see what phenom brings as well.

 

[boatillo]

Yes, I've resigned myself to the fact that all purchases should and will wait until the new year. I'd like to see more quad options than just the $279 one from Intel. I am not going to pay a silly premium for an 8800GT (or 2). That nice Abit IP35 board seems overly expensive right now. Heck, I want to see what Ati releases in response to the 8800GT.

And I like my 500w Fortron psu, but I really doubt its the same as newer 500w ones. It does have a 24pin atx connector...but it lacks those super high 12v lines and fancy pci-e connectors.

Good info though. Why did AMD roll out 754, 939, 940, & AM2 when they could have just made modifications like Intel?

 

[jkresh]

940 shouldn't be on that list as it was for opeterons (xeons have their own socket, though their are some 775 xeons). 939 to am2 was for memory change (ddr to ddr2, remember with AMD memory is on cpu so switching types means more complex cpu, while intel the controller is on the motherboard (till the end of 2008 anyway)).

Also does it realy matter if they change sockets or release ones with the same socket that require a new board (due to voltages or ...) anyway. At least with amd if the cpu wont work in the board it wont fit, Intel it may fit and still not work.

The 3870 is ati's response to the 8800 and the NDA on it is up sometime next week (I think), also if you are going intel (and quad) you either have to go crossfire or wait for nvidia's new chipset as the 680i boards don't seem to like quads (from what I have read).

 

[biostud]

after penryn when they move the memory controller onto the CPU intel is going to change to LGA1366.

 

[Roguestar]

SLI, haha.

775, DDR2 and PCI-E will be here for at least another 2 or 3 years, and you'll be looking for an overhaul or upgrade within three years anyway if you want to play new games.

 

[boatillo]

Wow...I did not notice that this board

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813127030

doesn't do SLI. For $185.

Why does it have two PCI-E x16 slots?? It doesn't say anything about crossfire either.

So....are all AMD boards (assuming they have the slots and right chip) SLI compatible? And do any Intel boards do Nvidia dual graphics?

 

[sparks]

Originally posted by: boatillo
Wow...I did not notice that this board

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813127030

doesn't do SLI. For $185.

Why does it have two PCI-E x16 slots?? It doesn't say anything about crossfire either.

So....are all AMD boards (assuming they have the slots and right chip) SLI compatible? And do any Intel boards do Nvidia dual graphics?

Only motherboards with Nvidia chipsets have SLI. I believe (you'll have to check this) that all AMD and Intel chipsets should be Crossfire compatible because AMD and Intel have cross licensing agreements. I just don't understand why Nvidia doesn't license SLI to Intel or AMD.

 

[Roguestar]

^^^ Well, nVidia aren't going to license SLI to AMD because AMD now own ATI...

OP: Consider if you really, really actually need SLI. Even the 8800GT should run even HL2:E2, Bioshock and UT3 maxed out at your resolution.

 

[boatillo]

Probably wouldn't be immediate SLI, figure like most I will go for it as an upgrade path.

One 8800GT at system build.

Another 6-12-18 months later as prices fall even more, hoping I can grab an identical one.

Never been able to run any game I've owned with bunches of AA & AF (unless it was 5 years old) so I figure I should see what its like for once!