Ivy Bridge and NVIDIA 6**

[Arcilux]

So I was planning on building in February or March and reading some articles saw that Ivy Bridge is slotted to be released in March/April 2011 for consumers. Saw another article suggesting NVIDIA would be releasing their 600 series near the same time. Any idea if it would be worth it to wait? I am usually really skeptical of buying parts brand new, just because of the issues, but at the same time am not sure about buying previous generation when a new generation is coming out.

[Illuminance]

You might get 100 different opinions here, but for what it's worth:

I enjoy the prices getting slashed when they announce new products coming out. You could wait until Ivy bridge is announced (and if you want to blow mega $ on it because it seems solid, you still have that option) or build sandy bridge at that point when they nerf the cost. You can build a computer that will be 80-90% as effective for a substantially reduced cost, and put the money towards another computer down the road. That's the path I'd take, at least.

[DeltrusDisc]

You might get 100 different opinions here, but for what it's worth:

I enjoy the prices getting slashed when they announce new products coming out. You could wait until Ivy bridge is announced (and if you want to blow mega $ on it because it seems solid, you still have that option) or build sandy bridge at that point when they nerf the cost. You can build a computer that will be 80-90% as effective for a substantially reduced cost, and put the money towards another computer down the road. That's the path I'd take, at least.

Good post.

@OP: If you have the money, like a good deal to blow on the computer, it might be in your benefit, even fun, to buy Ivybridge and 6xx and be the big kid on the block, more or less. The increases in power we're expecting with the GTX 6xx series especially is fairly significant, and if you play a game like BF3, you might see a pretty good use from it. Ivybridge, I'm expecting, with its die-shrinks, would make sense to have 6 core CPUs come out, I hope the i5-3500K will be a 6 core, I would consider buying it or the i7-3600K if I had the cash.

It will all come down to what you want to do with the rig and how productively.

[BicycleMafioso]

With computers, you can always wait another six months for new hardware to be released and prices to drop.
Problem is, you'll keep waiting. There will always be new things to be released.

If you're not expecting something within two months or less, upgrade when you need the upgrade, or when you have the money.

[Arcilux]

Well, money will be a concern and depending on the cheaper cost of the old vs the cost of the new I might have a decision made. My main concern is whether or not there will be reliable motherboards to support the new technology, or the other parts. Not really sure what all components interface directly with the video card and the CPU besides the mobo, so I want to be sure that if I get IB or the 600 series GPU that there will be other parts to make a reliable build

With computers, you can always wait another six months for new hardware to be released and prices to drop.
Problem is, you'll keep waiting. There will always be new things to be released.

If you're not expecting something within two months or less, upgrade when you need the upgrade, or when you have the money.

Yes, but my build time would be about the same time as the projected release. I will be getting a Christmas bonus next month, plus tax return, and that would give me enough time to save up from my paychecks. The absolute latest I can wait is May, but I wanted to build by March or so. It just happens to sound as if the new CPUs and video cards are coming out at that same time frame.

[DeltrusDisc]

The chance will always be there for faulty products, whether with older stuff or newer stuff, we take that chance whenever we buy parts and not a prebuilt that's already been tested and is known to "work."

[Rennadrel]

My understanding is that Ivy Bridge and the 600 series Nvidia chips are mainly a TDP drop so less power consumption, slight performance increases will be seen, but I don't think it's really worth investing in, AMD is doing the same thing with the 7000 series graphics cards. With the price drop on most processors and graphics cards imminent, unless heat output to performance ratio is important to you, there really isn't a need to invest in an Ivy Bridge processor or Nvidia 600/AMD 7000 card. Especially when an i7 2600k will drop a considerable amount between now and then, I see no point in making an investment in new technology yet.

[DeltrusDisc]

Who says the i7-2600K will drop a considerable amount? Look at some of the old i5-7xx CPUs... they're more expensive than the i5-2500K, close enough to the 2600K as well! >_< i7-990X remains a $1,000 CPU to this day, as well.

The 7850 and 7870 are both die-shrinks of the 6950 and 6970 while the 7950 and 7970 will likely be new architecture, but also due to the die shrinks we can definitely expect an improvement in the processing power of these CPUs/GPUs because they'll be clocked higher since they'll be creating less heat, or so I've been told by one Cantii.

[BicycleMafioso]

To be fair, that's not a fair comparison. The i5-7xx is the first gen from the 1156, just like the i5-2500K from the 1155.
A better idea would be to compare the i5-7xx to the i5-6xx to simulate Sandy Bridge -> Ivy Bridge. Except they won't halve the amount of cores and slap HT instead.. As far as we know.

But prices are unlikely to drop.

[DeltrusDisc]

(Shows my lack of knowledge about the 1156 chipset from not coming into the hardware world till late-1366 and into 1155....)

i5-6xx -> i5-7xx makes more sense. x_x

CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER ANYONE?!!

[BicycleMafioso]

Seeing how they released the 1366 what was it, a year prior to the LGA1156, and they started off with i7-9xx, then with 1156 they added i7-8xx and i5-7xx, then followed it up with the die-shrinks in i5-6xx and i3-5xx I think it makes sense ;p

Higher number, more powerful. They had already released their extreme series. Which also explains why many of us were so surprised when they revisited the mid-range prior to the extreme, because it historically made little sense, yet in marketting, it was a world of difference.
They obviously made the right choice.

... But I'm getting sidetracked.

[DeltrusDisc]

Seeing how they released the 1366 what was it, a year prior to the LGA1156, and they started off with i7-9xx, then with 1156 they added i7-8xx and i5-7xx, then followed it up with the die-shrinks in i5-6xx and i3-5xx I think it makes sense ;p

I need to go reboot my brain, brb in a few.

[Wries]

Ivybridge, I'm expecting, with its die-shrinks, would make sense to have 6 core CPUs come out, I hope the i5-3500K will be a 6 core

As much as I'd like a 6 core Ivy I think it'd be for Intel to shoot themselves in the foot since Sandy Bridge E flagship models are 6-core.

Of course if they get an "Ivy Bridge E" 8 core chip for them to launch on the LGA2011 platform, a 6 core for the LGA1155 wouldn't sound too far fetched, if only they had some competition motivating them to do so ;o

[Abominator]

Just a quick question as this thread seems like an appropriate place to ask. When Nvidia 6XX series hits stores won't the graphics cards for sale simply be stock versions, with no after market cooling like you see in a twin frozr II card? I ask this because I have only been following computer technology recently and haven't witnessed a new unveiling of a graphics card range and am unsure of how soon after the release of the stock graphics cards the modified graphics cards like the twin froz II and the like are released.

[Nellah]

Yeah, if they do 6-core in the 1155 socket, I would be surprised if they did it to an i5 of all things. If they keep i7s in the 1155 line, those might be given a choice between six real cores or four real cores plus four Hyperthreaded; purely hyperbole and imagination on my part, but I'm hoping for a hexacore 1155 i7 .

[Wries]

Just a quick question as this thread seems like an appropriate place to ask. When Nvidia 6XX series hits stores won't the graphics cards for sale simply be stock versions, with no after market cooling like you see in a twin frozr II card? I ask this because I have only been following computer technology recently and haven't witnessed a new unveiling of a graphics card range and am unsure of how soon after the release of the stock graphics cards the modified graphics cards like the twin froz II and the like are released.

Many cards of current generation were released with non-reference designs right off the bat. But since the PCBs and chips were very similar to the generation before, that might explain it. Though also the 460 IIRC had custom coolers right from the beginning and that was a new PCB, chip and everything.

Since the 600-series will probably be brand spankin' new, at least the high-end parts, it's all up to how long before release nvidia lets their partners take a look at the new designs. Since custom-coolers is all the craze today my bet would be that they will get the chance to have some ready for the initial release.

[DeltrusDisc]

Yeah, if they do 6-core in the 1155 socket, I would be surprised if they did it to an i5 of all things. If they keep i7s in the 1155 line, those might be given a choice between six real cores or four real cores plus four Hyperthreaded; purely hyperbole and imagination on my part, but I'm hoping for a hexacore 1155 i7 .

I wouldn't actually be surprised.

I was talking in Mumble to Cyanotical a bit back, and the way he put it, made perfect sense. Going to try and remember the conversation....

Die shrink from 32nm to 22nm is about a 33% drop, and thus space would be opened up. If we consider, this will likely make it so the CPU causes about that much less heat and that much room would be opened up, so if 66% of the chip would be 4 cores, that 33% could be another 2, thus making it into a 6 core CPU.

Don't tell me any of you wouldn't love seeing that happen. -.-

[Simca]

I wouldn't actually be surprised.

I was talking in Mumble to Cyanotical a bit back, and the way he put it, made perfect sense. Going to try and remember the conversation....

Die shrink from 32nm to 22nm is about a 33% drop, and thus space would be opened up. If we consider, this will likely make it so the CPU causes about that much less heat and that much room would be opened up, so if 66% of the chip would be 4 cores, that 33% could be another 2, thus making it into a 6 core CPU.

Don't tell me any of you wouldn't love seeing that happen. -.-

I would love it, but I'd love it 100x more if more than a handful of games could actually use 6 cores.

Also, shrinking processes are rarely that proportional.

[DeltrusDisc]

I would love it, but I'd love it 100x more if more than a handful of games could actually use 6 cores.

Also, shrinking processes are rarely that proportional.

We can only I hope I guess. :P

I personally would love to see something like this in Ivybridge, since I have F@H running most of the hours in a day, I'd love to be able to have a 6+ core CPU to do some -bigadv so I could put Cyanotical in his place.