Sandy Bridge / Broadwell

[Anteaus]

I'm currently running an i7-2600K. It has served me very well for awhile now and so far I haven't seen any compelling reason to move away from it. With Broadwell coming out "soon", I'm curious if anyone has any opinions as to whether moving from Sandy Bridge to Broadwell is a worthy path. My GPU is a GTX 570 so I know there is performance to gain from a new GPU, but I'm looking at the big picture.

Any thoughts?

 

[Homeles]

Broadwell's not coming to desktop until summer of 2015, as of the latest roadmap, so probably not as soon as you'd hoped.

With that GPU, there wouldn't be a compelling reason to get a faster CPU anyway. Also, if you've got that 2600K overclocked, you're not going to realize a significant difference in CPU performance vs. a stock or overclocked 4790K. If you've got it stock, you'd notice a difference for sure, but only outside of gaming, at least until you've upgraded that GPU.

 

[jpiniero]

Don't bother. Maybe Cannonlake.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Aside from platform enhancements, there is little incentive for us Sandy/Ivy users to switch to Haswell/Broadwell. I'd at least wait and see what Skylake offers, before making a switch. PCIe 3.0 capable PCH sounds nice.

You should think about upgrading that GPU before, but I'd wait until Maxwell/Pirate Islands hits sometime this autumn (we hope)...

 

[Homeles]

Aside from platform enhancements, there is little incentive for us Sandy/Ivy users to switch to Haswell/Broadwell. I'd at least wait and see what Skylake offers, before making a switch. PCIe 3.0 capable PCH sounds nice.

You should think about upgrading that GPU before, but I'd wait until Maxwell/Pirate Islands hits sometime this autumn (we hope)...

Maxwell's pretty much a given, but AMD's plans are a lot less clear.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Aside from platform enhancements, there is little incentive for us Sandy/Ivy users to switch to Haswell/Broadwell. I'd at least wait and see what Skylake offers, before making a switch. PCIe 3.0 capable PCH sounds nice.

You should think about upgrading that GPU before, but I'd wait until Maxwell/Pirate Islands hits sometime this autumn (we hope)...

Ha! Wish I'd heard about that when I bought my GTX 780 Asus Direct-II-whatchamacallem in January. Indeed it was a vast improvement for the SB-K.

I'm re-evaluating my "enthusiast-enthusiasm." I have too many computers; I just refurbished a refurbished laptop and sent my friend the check. I'm going to squeeze as much as possible from my "Old" toys for a while.

For speed in Ghz referencing the 4790K comparison, I believe what Homeles says. There would be improvements in the power-consumption and the instruction set with Haswell or Broadwell. There might even be overall better performance or at least benchmark performance. But I'm guessing they're still incremental, only adding to the increments of Ivy and Haswell.

I think mainstream computing "needs" have extended the usefulness of older hardware. Unless you do bleeding-edge gaming, even LGA-775 systems updated with an SSD boot drive are quite adequate. Rendering, gaming, and other CPU-intensive tasks -- you might want to get the latest-greatest, but I don't think you'd notice any deprivations with an OC'd Sandy Bridge. It's been now three years with my sig-rig, and I'm still marveling at what a dream-machine it is. Sort of like looking at CNN's Frederika Whitfield when she announces she's 50 years old. [Did that make Joan Rivers green with envy? or was she just mad about the animal-rights thing?]

FWIW -- Few months ago, we posted our Cinebench scores on a thread here. My rig was neck-and-neck with an i7-4770K -- latter OC'd to 4.4 Ghz.

[written and submitted by an '07 Centrino-Duo]

 

[Anteaus]

Thanks for the info. I'm going to look toward getting a new GPU soon. I've got my eye on the GTX 780TI.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Thanks for the info. I'm going to look toward getting a new GPU soon. I've got my eye on the GTX 780TI.

Nothing wrong with that, although a lot of IT veterans weighed in for an evaluation of "bang-for-buck" comparisons between last year's graphics cards. The breakeven point was a card with NVidia 760. On the other hand, if you see yourself following a sort of "continuous upgrade/update path," the 780 and "i" should give you a good run for the money even when you chuck the Sandy.

Still -- the new Maxwell cards supposedly require less power and give good performance. Howsoever you "do it," it's not a bad idea . ..

I just have to remember to load up the truck tomorrow morning so I can deliver several boxes and bags to the county's "e-recycling center." I suppose there are worse things to define a hoarding obsession, but crap is crap, and I have too much crap.

 

[Homeles]

Thanks for the info. I'm going to look toward getting a new GPU soon. I've got my eye on the GTX 780TI.

If I were looking to buy a new high end GPU right now, I'd be waiting until the 880 comes out in a few months. It'll probably perform similarly to the 780Ti, but should be much less expensive for Nvidia to manufacture, which could potentially bring lower costs. And at the very least, it'd use a lot less power, and be able to overclock very well because of its thermal headroom.

 

[Anteaus]

I might wait a few months but in general I'm not one of those people who waits unless I'm within a month or so of release. I came to the conclusion years ago that I'd rather enjoy the now then constantly fret over new tech on the horizon. High end GPUs are luxury items so the way I see it if I'm committed to burning a large amount of cash on tech I don't need, I might as well burn it today and enjoy it instead of waiting.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Ha! Wish I'd heard about that when I bought my GTX 780 Asus Direct-II-whatchamacallem in January. Indeed it was a vast improvement for the SB-K.

I'm re-evaluating my "enthusiast-enthusiasm." I have too many computers; I just refurbished a refurbished laptop and sent my friend the check. I'm going to squeeze as much as possible from my "Old" toys for a while.

For speed in Ghz referencing the 4790K comparison, I believe what Homeles says. There would be improvements in the power-consumption and the instruction set with Haswell or Broadwell. There might even be overall better performance or at least benchmark performance. But I'm guessing they're still incremental, only adding to the increments of Ivy and Haswell.

I think mainstream computing "needs" have extended the usefulness of older hardware. Unless you do bleeding-edge gaming, even LGA-775 systems updated with an SSD boot drive are quite adequate. Rendering, gaming, and other CPU-intensive tasks -- you might want to get the latest-greatest, but I don't think you'd notice any deprivations with an OC'd Sandy Bridge. It's been now three years with my sig-rig, and I'm still marveling at what a dream-machine it is. Sort of like looking at CNN's Frederika Whitfield when she announces she's 50 years old. [Did that make Joan Rivers green with envy? or was she just mad about the animal-rights thing?]

FWIW -- Few months ago, we posted our Cinebench scores on a thread here. My rig was neck-and-neck with an i7-4770K -- latter OC'd to 4.4 Ghz.

[written and submitted by an '07 Centrino-Duo]

It would seem we're pretty much in line. Due to a resent encounter (see thread), I'm actually considering weather or not my next system will be an S- or T-series Skylake i7. Call me crazy, but it seems a little strange to burn double the power to chase an extra 3-5 FPS (when over 100FPS already), or shaving 5 seconds of an encode. Won't skimp on the graphics card of course...

I might wait a few months but in general I'm not one of those people who waits unless I'm within a month or so of release. I came to the conclusion years ago that I'd rather enjoy the now then constantly fret over new tech on the horizon. High end GPUs are luxury items so the way I see it if I'm committed to burning a large amount of cash on tech I don't need, I might as well burn it today and enjoy it instead of waiting.

That's what you should be doing. Buy what you need, when you need it. There is always something better on the horizon. If you always wait for something, you'll never get new gear...