The next big processor

[Jrecee]

Skipping the hexa-cores. When are the 8 cores coming? That's my next upgrade.

[bmoc]

Skipping the hexa-cores. When are the 8 cores coming? That's my next upgrade.

AMD is already there if you like that sort of thing.

[ZenErik]

Skipping the hexa-cores. When are the 8 cores coming? That's my next upgrade.

AMD is already there if you like that sort of thing.

But no hyperthreading... My quad core i7 probably performs better.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

I don't understand the general scoffing at AMD anymore. We're not in 2001 still...

[ZenErik]

I don't understand the general scoffing at AMD anymore. We're not in 2001 still...

I like AMD plenty. But when it comes to performance they simply cannot compare to Intel. However, for gaming you generally don't need all the extra CPU power that Intel provides. And AMD still holds an advantage with superior integrated graphics. Unfortunately their lead on integrated graphics shrunk quite a bit in this current generation.

[ice445]

At home I am using a Sandy Bridge-E i7-3820 and it is fantastic. I can't say enough good things about it. The only downside it is only has 4 cores instead of 6 like its big brother the i7-3930K.

That's my plan. I'm going to get the 3820 within the next week and stick with it for now. Then I'm going to replace it with one of the higher end Ivy Bridge-E's rather than the entry level ones when they come out next year. I was going to save up and plunk down on a 3930K for that 6-core goodness (3960x is way overpriced in comparison) but decided to wait because Ivy Bridge supports PCI-E 3.0 and Sandy Bridge doesn't.

PCI-E 3.0 is basically pointless, unless you plan on using a new dual card GPU in the future. Really not something that was worth waiting for. 2.0 provides more than enough bandwidth even for the highest end GPU's on the market right now.

I like AMD plenty. But when it comes to performance they simply cannot compare to Intel. However, for gaming you generally don't need all the extra CPU power that Intel provides. And AMD still holds an advantage with superior integrated graphics. Unfortunately their lead on integrated graphics shrunk quite a bit in this current generation.

The newest Vishera (Piledriver chips) compete extremely well in the price range in every category besides gaming (and even there, it's basically a question of how much higher the framerate is above 60 for each processor).

[bmoc]

I don't understand the general scoffing at AMD anymore. We're not in 2001 still...

I actually had an AMD processor in 2001. I had one of the first Athlons. It was a very good budget gaming PC and the first one that I built myself. I still think they make fine budget PCs. I have heard good things about their new Visheras. They seem to stack up well against comparable Intel i5's. Also I do hope they give Intel some serious competition in the high-end enthusiast arena again someday. I like having more options and competition is good for keeping prices low.

[arnold_the_bartender]

Sandy Bridge-E DOES support PCI-Express 3.0, it's just a certification thing. Read halfway down this page:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/di ... 30k_4.html

You'll see X79 Motherboards explicitly state their lanes are PCI-Express 3.0.

Good to know. I know my mobo has PCI-E 3.0 but everywhere I looked people have been saying the 2011 Sandy Bridge-E processors don't support it, so I wasn't completely sure. I'm gonna be getting an Ivy Bridge next year anyway though.

PCI-E 3.0 is basically pointless, unless you plan on using a new dual card GPU in the future. Really not something that was worth waiting for. 2.0 provides more than enough bandwidth even for the highest end GPU's on the market right now.

[Jrecee]

Don't do any intensive gaming on my pc. I do video editing which relies heavily on the processor and little else, although the trend is towards using the gpu for faster rendering, but that's still in its early stages.

[RCBH928]

I rethought this for a second and realized that its not so much the processor since the processors available now are enough for most people,

its the graphics cards that makes all the difference. its not like the i7 will save your Word document faster than core2duo (or will it ?)

I also heard graphic cards are being used to do computer processing too(non-graphic) which should give extreme speeds too. Its funny how no one ever thought of this in earlier generations. That could have helped a lot in '98 with the voodoo cards.

Also, as far as AMD and ATI, I am not too sure of this it always seemed to me like while they are comparable to intel and Nvidia , I see no reasons to favor them or pick them over intel or Nvidia. Even if intel+Nvidia are a little bit more expensive the price difference is not significant.

In other words, not sure what AMD or ATI will give me that intel or NVidia won't match or surpass. But I think there was a short time period when AMD was a bit cheaper and better than intel, I think around 2006?

We definitely need more competitions down that road as 2 processor manufactures is too little for 7 billion people. Monopolies scare me.