Waiting for *at least* IB/Piledriver, worth waiting for Haswell?

[Obsoleet]

I'm using the machine in my sig, and have been since ~2008.. I use it more than most people would, it gets a workout. I really want to at least wait till Ivy Bridge, because I want trigate and all the advancements I think we're going to have with IB. Also, I have faith in BD and Piledriver, that it could become another Phenom2 (a great chip).

So as long as my hardware doesn't die on me before Ivy Bridge I'm going to wait for that. But reading about Haswell makes me think that it might be worth waiting until 2013.

My core requirements are PCIE 3.0, native (Intel or AMD) USB 3.0, and native SATA6gb. It appears most of this is out now, but I want it all.

I also thought about waiting for Broadwell in 2014 if my rig lasts that long. But I think the sweet spot will be 2013 (Haswell) or until my rig dies, whichever comes first. I think this gives AMD enough time to get Bulldozer sorted out (Haswell's launch), it will also be interesting to see at that time what AMD has to offer.

 

[lau808]

something better will always be a year away. if u can manage fine with your rig then just upgrade when u can no longer resist lol. amd will have thier performance increases but i dont think they will catch up to intel with this uarch. and i am not an intel fan boy either. just get whatever has all your personal requirements when youre ready.

 

[Arachnotronic]

There's always something better, but you only live once and you're only guaranteed to be alive right now.

Sandy Bridge is seriously the best desktop CPU architecture ever to grace Newegg and if you actually want an upgrade, there's no doubt in my mind that an i7 2600K with an IVB-ready mobo will serve you really well.

Intel chips hold resale value ridiculously well, so once you're on-board, it'd be cheap to move to IVB.

Make the move today if you want to upgrade, man. CPU's are cheap, memory is dirt cheap, and Intel mobos are Ivy Bridge ready.

 

[mrjoltcola]

Agreed, Intel17++


OP,

I never consider options that involve "waiting". For me, it is like buying stock. At any given point in time, the market has figured in all of the factors, pressures, supply, demand, upcoming releases, and presents me options to buy to fill a need for computing power. I don't "wait for the next generation" nor do I buy "future proof". I buy excess power / capacity today, to ensure my upgrade cycles are infrequent enough to skip a generation. My last upgrade before SB/SB-E was the first Conroe platform, in 2006.

Today, a Sandy Bridge Extreme rig should be IB compatible, and meets all my requirements and budget. When SB-E released, I ordered on day one, and let me tell you, I have never been more pleased with a rig EVEN MORE a week after the build than when the parts arrived, until now. With 32GB quad-channel RAM and 6-cores @ 4.6, this feels like the computing equivalent of a tank. I can run multiple benchmarks simultaneously at numbers previously unattainable on a single PC, and I have room for the next generation of video cards, and that should carry me another 4-5 years, unless a major breakthrough changes the landscape completely.

 

[BenchPress]

I really want to at least wait till Ivy Bridge, because I want trigate and all the advancements I think we're going to have with IB.

Ivy Bridge won't take full advantage of 22 nm Tri-Gate yet. It's mostly just a shrink of Sandy Bridge, and it allows Intel to mature the process.

Haswell on the other hand will bring us major new architectural features. Most notably the AVX2 instruction set might very well revolutionize computing, by bringing the qualities of GPU architectures to the CPU. A modest quad-core could deliver 500 GFLOPS thanks to FMA instructions, and the gather instructions offer parallel memory accesses. AVX2 makes auto-vectorization a whole lot more effective, so expect to see great speedups for any application that is recompiled to make use of it.

Of course Intel doesn't want you to know just how awesome Hawell will be and have you wait for it. They want you to buy a Sandy Bridge system now, then upgrade with an Ivy Bridge CPU, and then buy a whole new Haswell system.

 

[nyker96]

Piledriver even w/ 15% improvement over BD isn't going to touch Ivy. I'd say Ivy is the choice. Haswell might also be a good choice since it has some power saving features and new architecture as well. I'd say if you can wait a bit get Haswell, if not at least wait for Ivy.

 

[BD231]

Wait until you can get more cores, going from a quad to a quad is terrible advice, especially considering you're pushing a single GPU. Bulldozer is not going to get that much better, it's clearly a cost cutting design on the path to more cores that bit AMD in the ass.

They swear up and down it's a server part, but even as a server chip it sucks compared to the competition. Don't expect much from bulldozer, it's definitely a design flop and needs to be replaced.

 

[CPUarchitect]

...going from a quad to a quad is terrible advice...

I beg to differ. In isolation the number of cores is no more indicative of performance than clock frequency.

Haswell may very well offer four times the FP throughput of old quad-core CPUs, thanks to AVX2. It should also have a superior cache hierarchy (including gather support) and might have extended macro-op fusion support. And the turbo clock frequency will be much higher than the Core 2 Quad 9450's 2.66 GHz.

So it would be a very nice upgrade even with just the quad-core model.

 

[IntelUser2000]

I'm using the machine in my sig, and have been since ~2008.. I use it more than most people would, it gets a workout. I really want to at least wait till Ivy Bridge, because I want trigate and all the advancements I think we're going to have with IB. Also, I have faith in BD and Piledriver, that it could become another Phenom2 (a great chip).

There's ALWAYS something better on the horizon. Some people can resist the urge and buy at exactly at the time they want. Others, not so much. If you are the latter I suggest you do the following:

Set a price budget, and have that amount available to you at all times. Next time you feel like going to a computer store, buy within that budget.

 

[Edrick]

I am waiting for Haswell. But I am also buying everything in between.

I do not know how people can resist the urge.

 

[blckgrffn]

I am waiting for Haswell. But I am also buying everything in between.

I do not know how people can resist the urge.

Spousal expectations.

 

[aigomorla]

I am waiting on haswell, and i will RAPE this forum when i get it.



you can expect me to piss a lot of people off, and even make ADAM wipe his check in greed if things goes the way i plan.

Spousal expectations.

lololol... I am skipping Sandy-E... i have a Sandy-B 2600k which sits unused tho...

the 990X im on right now is doing more then i would possibly want.. .and a sandy-e is not a true upgrade for me....

if im dropping 1g on a cpu... then by god it better be at least 2x faster then what im on right now.

 

[Obsoleet]

I am waiting for Haswell. But I am also buying everything in between.

I do not know how people can resist the urge.

It's not a problem for me. I just like to make up my mind, and once it's set I'm good to go. I'm not sure why, but it's more the decision that's important, not the struggle to not buy or spend the money. I tend to not buy things until what I already have either breaks, or I truly need an upgrade (its not doing what I need it to do). The desire for the latest isn't enough for me, I'd rather have the money.

I'm definitely crossing my fingers my rig doesn't break in a major way before Ivy Bridge. I think at minimum I need that. I really don't like the state of things right now on the CPU/chipset front (sounds silly, I recognize, because things are so overpowered and fast that it's great)..

I can wait for Haswell because my rig does everything I need and more. It powers my PlayOn streaming software, it gets used directly as a HTPC, as my gaming system both on my TV and at the desk, it's my file server, DVD ripper (my Q9450 still does that great, about 15 minute rips), content creation (websites). I just love it and it's the only rig I maintain so when I do replace it I'm going all-out with a $800 CPU, fastest single GPU I can find, $800 SSD. If AMD can offer good bang for buck at that time, then great, but we'll see.
If they can put out the equivalent of the 965 Black Edition in 2013, it would be hard to turn down. The last rig I built was a 955BE with a Intel 80GB G2 and it's a fantastic rig. But, Haswell is probably going to get the job for my next main rig.

 

[Arachnotronic]

I am waiting on haswell, and i will RAPE this forum when i get it.



you can expect me to piss a lot of people off, and even make ADAM wipe his check in greed if things goes the way i plan.



lololol... I am skipping Sandy-E... i have a Sandy-B 2600k which sits unused tho...

the 990X im on right now is doing more then i would possibly want.. .and a sandy-e is not a true upgrade for me....

if im dropping 1g on a cpu... then by god it better be at least 2x faster then what im on right now.

Yeah, I'm waiting on Haswell-E as well. This 980X is raping pretty much every workload/benchmark I throw at it. And with IVB and HSW mainstream not going beyond 4 cores, this chip will be top notch for a while.

 

[Arachnotronic]

I am waiting on haswell, and i will RAPE this forum when i get it.



you can expect me to piss a lot of people off, and even make ADAM wipe his check in greed if things goes the way i plan.

Do you know people at Intel? I feel from your posts that you tend to know a bit more about future Intel stuff than what'd be expected

 

[Smartazz]

I have a Q6600 now, but I just ordered my Z68 2500K rig. I figure I'll skip IB which won't be a huge upgrade, then go to Haswell if it turns out to be a good upgrade.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Good move, Smartazz. I went from a q6600 to an i7 860 and saw a huge improvement, esp. involving the whole platform.

Moving from an i7 860 to a 980x, while in theory should have been a bigger jump, was not as big (since the i7 860 was plenty fast -- the q6600 is slow). 2500K is the way to go.

 

[zlejedi]

Wait until you can get more cores, going from a quad to a quad is terrible advice

I went from shitty six core Phenom to quad core 2500K - one of the best upgrades in my life

 

[Edrick]

Do you know people at Intel? I feel from your posts that you tend to know a bit more about future Intel stuff than what'd be expected

Yes, his posts does point in that direction. But on the other hand, he is never specific about much, so it could be all talk. Other than getting some ES samples early from his sponsor, I am not sure what other knowledge he is privy to.

 

[Edrick]

Moving from an i7 860 to a 980x, while in theory should have been a bigger jump, was not as big (since the i7 860 was plenty fast -- the q6600 is slow). 2500K is the way to go.

Still not sure why you moved to x58 now....unless you got a deal of a lifetime.

 

[grkM3]

get a top end 1155 board now and a used 2500k to play with and then drop a 22nm ivy in there.

I have a feeling that everyone with a sandy e will go back to quads once the ivys hit the streets.

If you can have a 5.5ghz quad ivy with hyperthreading on water I dont think having 2 extra cores will match the single core raw power of higher clocked ivys.

Id take a 5.5ghz 8 thread monster over a 4.5ghz 12 thread beast

serioulsy other than cine bench numbers no one on this forum needs 12 threads and if you do you are already running a xeon setup,admit it you are only using it for braging rights lol

my 2600k has been doing just dandy at 5ghz for the last 6 months!!! other than cine bench it can do fine up against sandy e and with the faster cache it actually does better in gaming at my clocks

 

[Arachnotronic]

Still not sure why you moved to x58 now....unless you got a deal of a lifetime.

It cost me less to get this 980X + x58 mobo than it would have to buy a good (i.e. equivalent in quality as my p6x58d-e) P67/Z68 mobo + 2500K.

It really was the deal of a lifetime on both the CPU and mobo fronts. Also, I've never understood how anyone could take Z68/p67 over x58. The LGA 1155 platform will never have more than 4 cores!

 

[Smartazz]

It cost me less to get this 980X + x58 mobo than it would have to buy a good (i.e. equivalent in quality as my p6x58d-e) P67/Z68 mobo + 2500K.

It really was the deal of a lifetime on both the CPU and mobo fronts. Also, I've never understood how anyone could take Z68/p67 over x58. The LGA 1155 platform will never have more than 4 cores!

I think a lot of people would prefer 4 faster cores over 6 slower ones. If you need the extra cores, then X58 and X79 make more sense. That also sounds like an incredible deal, nice system!

 

[Grooveriding]

I'll wait on a release if I want an upgrade and a new release is confirmed to be a few months off, otherwise forget it. Once you start committing to year long waits you'll be waiting forever, as there will always be something new under those conditions.

I wanted IB as well, but it looked like IB-E wouldn't be out till late next year and I said forget it. Likewise with SB, if you had bought a 2500K/2600K when they rolled out, you would of gotten a lot of use out of them.

Always is something new coming down the pipe.

Those C2Qs are still great chips, I have one in another machine and when I use it, it still feels nice and fast.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

It cost me less to get this 980X + x58 mobo than it would have to buy a good (i.e. equivalent in quality as my p6x58d-e) P67/Z68 mobo + 2500K.

It really was the deal of a lifetime on both the CPU and mobo fronts. Also, I've never understood how anyone could take Z68/p67 over x58. The LGA 1155 platform will never have more than 4 cores!

I spent $310 on a 2600k and a ga-z68p-ds3 board. Added 16gb corsair for $57. $367 total. I bet I spent less total than you did for your 980x.