AMD vs. Intel

[Mystical_Titan]

Intel's budget range is now the i3 CPUs, correct?

[StarBound]

No I think the actual budget is the Pentium G series. The i3 is still over the R1k mark that sort of negates "budget".

[CyberGecko]

Currently Intel have a few Celeron G series also in the Sandy Bridge range if you looking for "budget". They are round the R400 mark.

Also, according to my suppliers the Intel LGA2011 socket should be available round about next month or early January. That would change alot of things again, though it will probably replace the LGA1366 at the high end spectrum bringing the 1155 maybe even further down in price.

[StarBound]

Its doubtfull. The CPUs in the 2011 range is bloody expensive this time around and you can bet that just as the 1366 boards were the more expensive component that the 2011 boards will also cost the other arm and leg.

I don't see any market space left for AMD. Compared to the same price CPU intel dominates. A phenom 2 x4 costs as much as an i3 which performs better. The 1155 boards also has a large price spectrum so even a R500 board can take an i7 if you later feel like taking it that far.

I hate to say this but cosidering the current stance of things I don't think AMD will make it 2 years from now.

[Mystical_Titan]

Bulldozer was supposed to be their answer to Intel, but that fell flat.

Anyone who wants to get 2011 and OC it is going to have to fork out as the cheapest unlocked CPU will retail for about R 5,000 - R 6,000. Ouch. Add on four to eight 4 GB sticks of DDR 3 running @ 2,400 MHz (which seems to be the going speed of the RAM) and you're looking at a CRAP load of money.

[StarBound]

But was bulldozer not aimed at the high end market?

Rumour has it all LGA2011 cpus will need after market coolers. From a gaming standpoint I am wondering if it is worth getting an upgrade and if I shouldnt just wait for 2 years till intel releases the next cpu set. I'm already in the untouchable section.

[Mystical_Titan]

But was bulldozer not aimed at the high end market?

Rumour has it all LGA2011 cpus will need after market coolers. From a gaming standpoint I am wondering if it is worth getting an upgrade and if I shouldnt just wait for 2 years till intel releases the next cpu set. I'm already in the untouchable section.

Um... an 8-core CPU running at 3.6 GHz with 8 MB cache and it's not aimed at the high-end segment?

For overclocking you'll need an aftermarket cooler for sure. Upgrading to 2011 is going to give you nothing to little improvements for gaming. A review from Legit Reviews pits a P55 / i7-870 / GTX 470 against a Z68 / i7-2600k / GTX 570 and the differences are not mind-blowing.

Also, in the Battlefield 3 benchmarks from Guru 3D the CPU makes just about zero difference.

[DarkStar]

Bulldozer was supposed to be their answer to Intel, but that fell flat.

Anyone who wants to get 2011 and OC it is going to have to fork out as the cheapest unlocked CPU will retail for about R 5,000 - R 6,000. Ouch. Add on four to eight 4 GB sticks of DDR 3 running @ 2,400 MHz (which seems to be the going speed of the RAM) and you're looking at a CRAP load of money.

This.

This is what SERVERS are made of. Not gaming PCs.

Sure, somewhere in the distant future we could use all 16 threads on the chip, but right now? Games are barely able to fully use 4 threads on a Quad Core CPU.

Coupled with 16-32GB of RAM is plain overkill. Even my PC with 8GB of RAM is slightly overkill.

[Mystical_Titan]

Bulldozer was supposed to be their answer to Intel, but that fell flat.

Anyone who wants to get 2011 and OC it is going to have to fork out as the cheapest unlocked CPU will retail for about R 5,000 - R 6,000. Ouch. Add on four to eight 4 GB sticks of DDR 3 running @ 2,400 MHz (which seems to be the going speed of the RAM) and you're looking at a CRAP load of money.

This.

This is what SERVERS are made of. Not gaming PCs.

Sure, somewhere in the distant future we could use all 16 threads on the chip, but right now? Games are barely able to fully use 4 threads on a Quad Core CPU.

Coupled with 16-32GB of RAM is plain overkill. Even my PC with 8GB of RAM is slightly overkill.

And yet you will always find some nut with WAY too much money who will buy all that just to say he has it.

[StarBound]

-.-

*cough* It followed me home. So I kept it...

[Mystical_Titan]

I will be honest, if money was no problem for me, I'd do it too.

[StarBound]

Well I am in that position for the first time in forever. But I keep coming back to performance where it counts. The extra PCI-E lanes makes it very attractive for 3-way sli which I don't plan on using. The next thing is that sata6 and usb6 wont start affecting lanes which with 1 gfx card is not an issue anyway.

Money is not an issue. I planned for this in a way. But I can't shake that feeling of keep back and use that money in another way or wait for the next platform. Maybe that is what I will do this time. ...or maybe I am just fooling myself and looking at a new system towards the end of the year.

Will see what time does

[D3PART3D]

You better do the smart thing and put that money somewhere you won't be tempted use it until a real need arises. Should I PM you my banking details?

[Mystical_Titan]

The thing is, for a purely gaming system, 2011 has NOTHING over 1155 or 1366, nothing that will justify the costs anways. If I had to get a new machine now, I'd probably go for 1155 anyways and use the extra cash for something else.

[Mystical_Titan]

Wait, scratch that, I want 2011.

[D3PART3D]

Wait, scratch that, I want 2011.

What do we blame this sudden loss of sensibility on?

[StarBound]

Hehe. Yeah now I am curious. Did a real benchmark come out showing it has a 50% lead over the 1155?

[Mystical_Titan]

No, I just decided I wanted it.

[StarBound]

Haha. Someone doesn't just want something unless there is a reason to want it. Like bragging rights or that your current system doesn't cut it anymore. I can still change my mind at any moment. Just need to have the proper motivation for it.

[Mystical_Titan]

Well, it won't do anything for my framerates, but it'll be cool to have quad-channel RAM. Guess I'd just want it for the bragging rights then.

[StarBound]

XD

You won't be hitting a bandwidth roof with quad channel any time soon.

[StarBound]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cor ... ,3071.html

Great performance but again it only shows that one i7 is good enough for anything. Even the AMD systems are performing like clock work on new games.

[Mystical_Titan]

I'm very disappointed with the bandwidth shown so far by quad-channel. The real world benifits over Sandy Bridge's memory seem to be almost nil.

[StarBound]

Well it shows that the bandwidth increase is indeed there but so far it has no real benefit. Maybe we should play 2 games at the same time and see what happens.

[Mystical_Titan]

Okay, scratch that again, I don't want 2011.

Quad-channel performance is disappointing and the hardware is also very pricey: About R 5,500 for the Rampage IV Extreme, another R 5,000 or so for the K-edition CPU so you can OC properly and another R 3,000 to R 5,000, depending on which RAM you buy. No way!