Tick or tock?

[darkxshade]

Are you like me? ... Sorta forward looking trying to imagine your next build regardless of whether or not you need one. Most people can hold off a year when they begin planning a new build so this could be a deciding factor if you wanted it to. If so, what do you lean towards more on a raw emotional scale, the tick(die shrink) or the tock(new architecture)? The advantages of the tick IMO is that it allows the architecture developed last year to mature and refined on a smaller process. The advantages of the tock though would be that it's simply a new architecture where performance gain is likely the most signifcant.

This is of course all things aside and only based on your thoughts of Intels tick tock roadmap. Because I'm sure there are tons of other specifics that you take into account when you actually do decide on your next build.

 

[bryanW1995]

the last two "tocks" have been nehalem and conroe, last two ticks have been penryn and SB. imho the tocks have it by a landslide.

 

[Accord99]

Sandy Bridge is a tock though, Westmere was the tick to Nehalem's tock.

 

[iCyborg]

As a potential buyer, and despite the fact that I bought Nehalem, I like ticks better - mature architecture + benefits of a smaller die.
As someone interested in hardware in general, I'm more excited to read about new architectures.
Voted tick though...

 

[brandonb]

I typically have bought ticks... Not really a preference, just happens to hit the year I do upgrades. (I typically upgrade every 2 - 3 years). This year though my 3 year upgrade is landing on a tock so I will probably get a Sandy Bridge.

 

[Castiel]

 

[f4phantom2500]

i haven't run an intel cpu since pentium 4. i find both ticks and tocks to be about equally interesting, i just end up going amd all the time because i like getting the best value for my money; i haven't spent over $100 for a processor in...lemme see...huh i don't think ever. but yeah, i voted 50/50.

 

[IGemini]

When/If I upgrade (which only applies to Core 2 for the moment) I time it for tock-tick. My current system went from E6600 -> Q9650 to get the most out of the socket. Currently I just drool over the advancements in general.

 

[SlitheryDee]

The tick phase is just one cycle away from the next tock, which should theoretically represent a major performance improvement. People who upgrade every "tock" are only being left behind slightly by people who upgrade every "tick", and they don't have to wait through the next "tock" of processors that are significantly faster than theirs to get to the next "tick" before they upgrade. For that reason I think tocks win it.

That said, I personally don't time my upgrades in any way. When the itch becomes unbearable I get the best performer I can afford at the time.

 

[Castiel]

The tick phase is just one cycle away from the next tock, which should theoretically represent a major performance improvement. People who upgrade every "tock" are only being left behind slightly by people who upgrade every "tick", and they don't have to wait through the next "tock" of processors that are significantly faster than theirs to get to the next "tick" before they upgrade. For that reason I think tocks win it.

What about the people who upgrade all the time? :biggrin:

 

[darkxshade]

The tick phase is just one cycle away from the next tock, which should theoretically represent a major performance improvement. People who upgrade every "tock" are only being left behind slightly by people who upgrade every "tick", and they don't have to wait through the next "tock" of processors that are significantly faster than theirs to get to the next "tick" before they upgrade. For that reason I think tocks win it.

That said, I personally don't time my upgrades in any way. When the itch becomes unbearable I get the best performer I can afford at the time.

A good point and I figure a lot of the votes would go towards tock but the thing is that while you're on a tock cycle, you sort of know what features you're getting next year except that you get a faster and more refined version of it. While on a tick cycle, until NDAs are lifted or any details or benchmarks are released, you don't really have anything concrete to look forward to execept the knowledge that it's a new architecture(which may not be so great this time around). This is why I'm more excited by die shrinks and tend to plan my build around them.

My thinking:
SB just came out and it's killer so unless I need a PC right now, I can wait for IB and I likely won't be disappointed. However once IB is out, I don't really have much info on Haswell. I can't look forward to something I have not much info on.

 

[nyker96]

I personally like new architecuture the tocks since they are exciting, the ticks just allows for a higher headroom in OC maybe slight less power usage but nothing going to keep my mind interested.

 

[darkxshade]

I personally like new architecuture the tocks since they are exciting, the ticks just allows for a higher headroom in OC maybe slight less power usage but nothing going to keep my mind interested.

Maybe my wording was off in the OP, it's not a matter of interest, but rather a matter of preference or the inclination to lean towards one cycle over the other when you consider your build. Sure new architecture is exciting stuff but when I think about actually building a pc, I prefer to build during the tick cycle on idea that it's going to be built on proven technology on a smaller die but that's just me.

 

[Athadeus]

I voted don't think about it, and I just go for best performance in my budget when I want/need it. I don't usually even have a budget limit, more like how much value do I assign to the application I need/want it for. I got a Nehalem system 6-7 months ago, because I could not delay on the upgrade, and it was right in the value range I wanted for my purpose (SC2). Similar situations occured with my last 2 personal builds, which also happened to fall on tocks (not just coincidence as imo tocks offer better value).

 

[ShawnD1]

I like the die shrinks more. By that time, everyone understands how the overclocking process works. Changing the architecture sometimes makes it confusing.

 

[bryanW1995]

whoops...

I forgot that westmere was the tick since they are still $900 thanks to AMD's recent lack of competitiveness. And in this most recent case the tick was a significant improvement b/c the core count increased by 50% in addition to the iterative improvements. I still remember the day I found out that westmere wasn't going to offer a $300 (or even $500) cpu...

 

[Obsoleet]

It doesnt really matter but I prefer the ticks. I'm VERY happy I bought my Penryn (launch day for OEM) and have no regrets. It has 12MB of unified L2 cache while the Q6600 the 8MB cache was divided into 2, to each pair of cores and not shared. It's more than the CPU that's mature, the platform is more mature.

That said, if building today I'd forgo Intel all together outside of SSDs. I recently build a 955BE / 890 rig and for price/performance I love it, I'd build a a AMD 6core for myself today. Laptops, Zacate has the price perfect and performance is there, no reason to spend more unless you have a specific purpose to do so.

So there should have been an option for "AMD".

 

[killster1]

It doesnt really matter but I prefer the ticks. I'm VERY happy I bought my Penryn (launch day for OEM) and have no regrets. It has 12MB of unified L2 cache while the Q6600 the 8MB cache was divided into 2, to each pair of cores and not shared. It's more than the CPU that's mature, the platform is more mature.

That said, if building today I'd forgo Intel all together outside of SSDs. I recently build a 955BE / 890 rig and for price/performance I love it, I'd build a a AMD 6core for myself today. Laptops, Zacate has the price perfect and performance is there, no reason to spend more unless you have a specific purpose to do so.

So there should have been an option for "AMD".

Wow at first i looked up 955BE and was like yea this cpu is cool, then i read some more reviews and it loses to the i7 920 on just about everything. So how is it better value? the i7 920 is what 50$ more? 955BE is discontinued everywhere i look and is about 180-200$

I also dont care tick or tock have not used amd since opteron 165's. intel is cheaper for all around performance per $ at least for me, but i really have no need to upgrade i want to, i have the money to but for what? I dont encode much anymore i play games on and off but any cpu really plays games the same with good enough gfx card and decent res.... Only thing upgrade would help is the power bill and prob not help very much.

 

[Seven]

Tocks for me.

Conroe > SB, and Haswell might be next.

 

[bryanW1995]

Wow at first i looked up 955BE and was like yea this cpu is cool, then i read some more reviews and it loses to the i7 920 on just about everything. So how is it better value? the i7 920 is what 50$ more? 955BE is discontinued everywhere i look and is about 180-200$

I also dont care tick or tock have not used amd since opteron 165's. intel is cheaper for all around performance per $ at least for me, but i really have no need to upgrade i want to, i have the money to but for what? I dont encode much anymore i play games on and off but any cpu really plays games the same with good enough gfx card and decent res.... Only thing upgrade would help is the power bill and prob not help very much.

in modern games the cpu is much more important typically, especially the games where fps can actually be a problem. crysis, civ5, sc2, and DAO are just a couple of examples, with crysis 2 when that comes out as well.

 

[Vinwiesel]

My last Intel processor was a PII 400mhz. I upgrade pretty much only when required. Every time it's been because I need a new video card, but in order to do so, I need a new motherboard with the new Video slot (PCI to VGA to PCIE to PCIE 2.0x16). The new mobo means new processor and ram, and probably a new power supply. My last system was an AthlonX2 and was good for 4 years, and if this new 2500K system lasts that long I'll be very happy.
I was very near to building a 1st gen I5 system, but I'm glad I waited.

 

[Obsoleet]

Wow at first i looked up 955BE and was like yea this cpu is cool, then i read some more reviews and it loses to the i7 920 on just about everything. So how is it better value? the i7 920 is what 50$ more? 955BE is discontinued everywhere i look and is about 180-200$

I also dont care tick or tock have not used amd since opteron 165's. intel is cheaper for all around performance per $ at least for me, but i really have no need to upgrade i want to, i have the money to but for what? I dont encode much anymore i play games on and off but any cpu really plays games the same with good enough gfx card and decent res.... Only thing upgrade would help is the power bill and prob not help very much.

I got it from Frys with a 890GX for extremely cheap. I didn't buy it to compete with a i7 920, but it's by far a better value when I bought it.

 

[drizek]

As a potential buyer, and despite the fact that I bought Nehalem, I like ticks better - mature architecture + benefits of a smaller die.
As someone interested in hardware in general, I'm more excited to read about new architectures.

Same here, basically.

I've only ever really bought AMD, but the Intel processors that are interesting are usually the die shrinks. Original Nehalem was way too expensive and way too hot, whereas sandy bridge is quite tempting. Same for Merom. It was just a slightly faster and more expensive version of Yonah in terms of performance, and it wasn't until it got shrunk that it started being attractive. That said, reading about nehalem is much more interesting than reading about sandy bridge.

AMD doesn't really let you choose, Phenom introduced 65nm, Phenom II introduced 45nm and Bulldozer is bringing in 32nm.

 

[PreferLinux]

Sandy Bridge is a "tock" like Nehalem. In fact, according to Intel, SB is not based on the Pentium Pro, unlike PII, PIII, Core and Nehalem. i.e. it is a completely new architecture, not an improved version of the P6 (Pentium Pro) architecture. Given that, I expect we'll see quite an improvement with Ivy Bridge.

 

[drizek]

Sandy Bridge on the desktop is a delayed tick IMO due to the lack of quad core westmere, but yes, you are right.