What compels you to keep upgrading your CPU?

[RyanGreener]

Hey all, just wondering for the ones who have gaming systems/beast CPUs such as the i7. What motivates all of you to keep upgrading after every new socket/architecture etc.? Do you guys actually feel bottlenecked with what you do or do you just want to get every ounce of performance? Just interested in hardware enthusiasts thoughts and all.

I myself, do not have a "beast" CPU. I'm running a lowly C2D E8600 at 4.25 GHz, with the usual stuff. 4 GB DDR3, mid-range GPU, WD Raptor, and although I want to upgrade for the hell of it, I can't really justify it because the only intensive thing I do is play SC2. I don't do any video encoding, or any of that other good stuff.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I myself, do not have a "beast" CPU. I'm running a lowly C2D E8600 at 4.25 GHz

I dunno, as far as dualcores go, I would say that one is pretty beastly. Then again, for things like video encoding, a Q8200 @ 3.125Ghz would probably outrun it. But for gaming, that must be pretty fast.

 

[RyanGreener]

I dunno, as far as dualcores go, I would say that one is pretty beastly. Then again, for things like video encoding, a Q8200 @ 3.125Ghz would probably outrun it. But for gaming, that must be pretty fast.

Ah, well all of my fellow friends IRL tell me it's nothing compared to an i7 in gaming, which doesn't really bother me, but hey, if they say it enough I might eventually believe it

 

[fffblackmage]

I wouldn't call an E8600 "lowly." That's one fast dual core.

My old E6320 was "lowly," but it is was a pretty decent CPU OC'ed at 3GHz.

My upgrade from the E6320 was a gamble. I saw a great deal on a Phenom II X2 550BE + Gigabyte 785G mobo, and I got lucky with the unlock.

At this point, I'm not expecting to upgrade to Sandy Bridge. Bulldozer? Most likely.

 

[nyker96]

I think I kept upgrading cpu so I can see how far each OCs to. Now that I think about it, I think even a weak dual core would have been sufficient for my daily usage. But still it's a hobby so it's not need based.

 

[Phynaz]

Not everybody does. I for one can't see the value in a cpu only upgrade, unless you are getting a massive increase in performance. My last cpu upgrade was a 486/33 to a 486/66.

If you're not getting double or triple the performance I just don't think it's worth the bucks.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

My aunt is still running a skt 478 Pentium 4 w/ a 6800gt. She doesn't game but is running Win7 and does some Photoshop work and is desperate to upgrade. She'll be getting Sandy Bridge, probably the i5-2400 quad. That's one hell of an upgrade!

 

[Athadeus]

I upgraded from original e6300 that I only bothered to get to 2.4ghz to i7 930 because I wanted the best performance I could get out of SC2 for a reasonable price (without MC deal and cheap X58 board I would not consider it reasonable). 2.4ghz Core2 with 2MB L2 cache, no L3 is pretty weak on SC2. I upgraded everything else at the same time so I can't comment on the effect of the core system upgrade alone.

 

[Rubycon]

It can never be fast enough.

 

[AdamK47]

Speed greed.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlkInNZ7xis

 

[TuxDave]

I'm stuck upgrading because they keep giving me faster chips to use.

 

[tyl998]

My last CPU was an AMD Athlon 3200 Single Core 2 ghz chip. It...blew chunks, and starcraft 2 was virtually unplayable. So, I needed to upgrade. But with a chip that old, my mobo needed to be replaced as well, and once the mobo changes, then the RAM changes, and oh hey IDE connectors are rare so now I need SATA drives instead of my old IDE drives/DVDr, etc.

Basically, my decision to upgrade my CPU (and I decided on an i7 930 because why not? You don't upgrade a chip often. Might as well go for high end.) ended up with me building an entirely new computer from scratch. I could've kept my GTX 280, but I was eventually tempted by a good deal on 2 Gigabyte 460 1GBs.

Basically, what tempted me to upgrade was crappy performance on all of my games. I was CPU-bottlenecked on EVERYTHING. Now that I have my new kickass rig, I won't be upgrading for another 4 years at least. Maybe 6 if I can OC decently.

 

[faxon]

because the performance boost is worth the money to me typically, when i have excess cash to spend on it. if i dont have excess cash to spend for quite a while then generally because the system has actually become too slow for what im trying to do with it

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Platform. I jumped from an E6600 on a 965P-DS3 Rev 1.0 to a i7 920 on a EX58-UD3R. Noice!
Just about to upgrade the rest of the rigs from various C2Ds on P965 mobos to Phenom II X3 740s on 870/785G mobos.

 

[MustangSVT]

c2d still adequate for most of my tasks. but rendering and photoshop/illustrator is quite slow now days.

ill wait for sandy b or cheap phenom unlock.

 

[maniac5999]

Two things motivate me: Cost of the upgrade and expected performance gain. (although the ability to mess around with a new part is there too) I'm not that much into graphics quality, but I do like a responsive computer. I had a HP DV6000 with a K8 2.2ghz, 1gb RAM and a ATi200m for almost 5 years, and finally gave it up because when WoW: WOTLK came out it was virtually unplayable. I priced out parts for a month, and eventually decided to get my current desktop. I built it for about $650, and was satisfied until Civ5 came out.

Now, I don't normally go for the intensive games. I'm a Strategy kind of guy for the most part, but Civ5 was a suprise. Late in the game it makes you wait an insane amount of time while it processes the other player's turns, so I'm currently getting a P2 940, which will hopefully last me several years. This upgrade is just $100, and will likely double my CPU processing power, as well as future proof my computer for quite a while.

After this, The only upgrades that I expect to do will be to get a SSD once I can get 80GB for $120, and probably a 7850 if it looks good when it comes out.

 

[darckhart]

cpu upgrades don't happen very often for me because i usually pick something i know will last if i don't go crazy with it. i went from an xp2800+ to q6600 and that was the biggest performance jump i had ever seen. (kind of surprised the amd chip lasted me so long frankly.) when my mom's computer died, MC had a sale on the i7 920s, so i said oh what the heck, gave her the q6600 and moved up. i anticipate this to be the workhorse for another long while unless the oc on sandy bridge is wicked in which case i might be tempted. video cards on the other hand...

 

[Idontcare]

What compels you to keep upgrading your CPU?

For me its mostly the desire to reduce/mitigate some accumulation of irritation on my behalf regarding some performance aspect of my rig.

For example my browsing experience taken at any given instance was definitely "acceptable" by most measures...but over the course of two years of slowly building up that "ugh, why is this taking so long" impatience I said "puck it, buying me an SSD" and that was that.

SSD was awesome, immediate boost in performance in the area that was beginning to irritate me just a little too much.

CPU is the same way...I run three programs that are CPU intensive - transcoding apps, backtesting on financial series, and computational chemistry apps.

I am mildly irritated with the length of time involved to get my results after pressing "start" in all three app classes. The day will come when my mild irritation will cross a threshold and I'll say to myself "puck this, let's see what kind of upgrade I can fetch on Newegg for a few hundred bucks".

I almost got there when Thuban released this past spring, but my irritation of spindle-drives got the better of me first. (and I have no regret about that)

When Zambezi comes I have a feeling my threshold for acceptable performance will suddenly be lower than it is today, triggering an immediate "puck this..." response and I'll be back to drafting wish lists on Newegg

 

[mv2devnull]

Lets put it this way.

Once upon a time there was a display with 640x400 resolution. For reason or another there was a bitmap image file of a girl and a cute cat. Nothing particular. An upgrade allowed a 640x480 resolution that revealed the topless nature of the above-mentioned image.

Some time later an addition of a sound-card revealed sound effects in up till then silent game.

It is highly unlikely that any future upgrade could produce as observable changes any more, but how could one know without trying?


It is usually not the raw speed, but addition of some new feature that "justifies" an upgrade.

 

[biostud]

my old died.

 

[exar333]

Either when my current system starts to show it's age, or I can't resist a new platform to play with.

The latter is especially true with a brand-new architecture because you just want to get it and fiddle with it for fun.

 

[Golgatha]

I don't like to wait for video to transcode, and I do a lot of transcoding.

 

[taltamir]

My religious belief holds that patience is a "deadly sin". Patience is being content with waste of time, and wasted time is seconds ticking towards your inevitable death and concession of existence. Efficiency is a virtue, and efficiency of time use is better achieved if you don't have to sit and wait and wait and wait and wait for the stupid computer to finish its work.
Thus I must always upgrade my machine for it to be faster and faster and perform tasks quickly without need for wait.

 

[aigomorla]

What motivates all of you to keep upgrading after every new socket/architecture etc.?

To preview new and upcoming cpu's which AT main forum cant show yet?

To hold the overclocking crown on this forum.

I like my #1 seat.... it comes with a back massage machine. :biggrin: