VEGA & RYZEN vs NIVIDIA and INTEL - Buy now or wait.

[Thinkfreely]

Now that VEGA and RYZEN are almost upon us its the first time in 5 years I am actually considering doing a new AMD themed build (If performance is there). I am curious on how many people are planning on doing a VEGA/RYZEN and waiting out the next months, or are planning on still going INTEL now and just upgrading the CPU (IE GTX 1080 TI for example).

 

Personally if the architecture works as indicated, I may be a AMD builder again. I am not a fanboy of either, for me it's all about performance for price. But what does the community think?

[Energycore]

Don't do an AMD or Intel themed build unless you benefit from the theme itself, just choose the best option at the moment you want to build.

[Apollo Refugio]

an AMD build would be gnarly once again

[WereCat]

Since Ryzen is supposed to release early this year I would wait and see but for Vega prepare to wait at least until summer.

[Thinkfreely]

3 minutes ago, WereCat said:

Since Ryzen is supposed to release early this year I would wait and see but for Vega prepare to wait at least until summer.

So.....your waiting for AMD?

[WereCat]

1 minute ago, Thinkfreely said:

So.....your waiting for AMD?

I have no reason to upgrade from what I have right now but I am excited to see how Zen will perform.

[Thinkfreely]

14 minutes ago, Apollo Refugio said:

an AMD build would be gnarly once again

Looking at your sig, you going back then to AMD?

[Phentos]

Voted other, because while I'm planning on doing a Ryzen build provided it lives up to its claims. If it doesn't, then I'm going Skylake-X.

 

When it comes to GPUs, I'm not planning an upgrade until late this year or 2018. If a Vega card matches or exceeds 1080 performance for ~$500, then I might consider it. 

 

Otherwise I'm waiting until Volta.

[Thinkfreely]

7 minutes ago, Phentos said:

Voted other, because while I'm planning on doing a Ryzen build provided it lives up to its claims. If it doesn't, then I'm going Skylake-X.

 

When it comes to GPUs, I'm not planning an upgrade until late this year or 2018. If a Vega card matches or exceeds 1080 performance for ~$500, then I might consider it. 

 

Otherwise I'm waiting until Volta.

Intel hasnt given us enough of a reason to upgrade.

[Phentos]

2 minutes ago, Thinkfreely said:

Intel hasnt given us enough of a reason to upgrade.

I need a 6+ core CPU though for my workloads. Skylake-X releasing later this year would satisfy that demand if I don't go with Ryzen, because I'm definitely not going to sit around and wait until 2018 for a new build with 6 core Coffee Lake CPUs. 

 

X99 is a dead path now, not worth investing into anymore.

[He_162]

10 minutes ago, Phentos said:

Voted other, because while I'm planning on doing a Ryzen build provided it lives up to its claims. If it doesn't, then I'm going Skylake-X.

 

When it comes to GPUs, I'm not planning an upgrade until late this year or 2018. If a Vega card matches or exceeds 1080 performance for ~$500, then I might consider it. 

 

Otherwise I'm waiting until Volta.

Vega is hoping for below 300 watts to power their GPU at the same performance as the GTX 1080, which does 170 watts. So I think going with Nvidia after their prices drop a bit would be the better option.

[He_162]

3 minutes ago, Phentos said:

I need a 6+ core CPU though for my workloads. Skylake-X releasing later this year would satisfy that demand if I don't go with Ryzen, because I'm definitely not going to sit around and wait until 2018 for a new build with 6 core Coffee Lake CPUs. 

 

X99 is a dead path now, not worth investing into anymore.

Coffee lake is JUST for smaller devices, laptops, etc, with lower wattages though isn't it? They wouldn't beat your current processor.

[Phentos]

Just now, He_162 said:

Coffee lake is JUST for smaller devices, laptops, etc, with lower wattages though isn't it? They wouldn't beat your current processor.

Is that so? Icelake then.

[He_162]

5 minutes ago, Phentos said:

Is that so? Icelake then.

Cannon lake is for notebooks, and laptops, coffee lake is for mobile devices like tablets.

 

Icelake will be the 10nm+ process, and designed for desktops.

[Phentos]

Just now, He_162 said:

Cannon lake is for notebooks, and laptops, coffee lake is for mobile devices like tablets.

 

Icelake will be the 10nm+ process, and designed for desktops.

Intel's naming schemes are getting silly now.

 

Anyhow, for me it comes down to Ryzen vs Skylake-X. If Ryzen lives up to its claims, then AMD I go. If it doesn't, then I'll wait until Skylake-X releases.

[He_162]

1 minute ago, Phentos said:

Intel's naming schemes are getting silly now.

 

Anyhow, for me it comes down to Ryzen vs Skylake-X. If Ryzen lives up to its claims, then AMD I go. If it doesn't, then I'll wait until Skylake-X releases.

Keep in mind the "Extreme" processor series kind of lie, for example:

The i7-6950X is not a 6th generation architecture, despite the "6" in it's naming scheme depicting the generation.

 

The extreme processors started with the 2nd generation of intel core series, so the i7-5960X is actually 4th gen, for another example.

 

The new "6th" gen extreme processors will be skylake based, and probably won't offer optane support, unless Intel decides to move them forward, and skip the 6th gen architecture completely.

[Phentos]

Just now, He_162 said:

Keep in mind the "Extreme" processor series kind of lie, for example:

The i7-6950X is not a 6th generation architecture, despite the "6" in it's naming scheme depicting the generation.

 

The extreme processors started with the 2nd generation of intel core series, so the i7-5960X is actually 4th gen, for another example.

 

The new "6th" gen extreme processors will be skylake based, and probably won't offer optane support, unless Intel decides to move them forward, and skip the 6th gen architecture completely.

I'm well aware of that. 

 

Optane products will probably be extremely expensive, while offering little real improvement for most consumers, at first. So that is low on my priority list.

 

Need the cores (and RAM) for VMs, video encoding, and software development. VMs because I'm going for VMware certs later this year, and hands-on practice would be invaluable.

[He_162]

1 minute ago, Phentos said:

I'm well aware of that. 

 

Optane products will probably be extremely expensive, while offering little real improvement for most consumers, at first. So that is low on my priority list.

 

Need the cores (and RAM) for VMs, video encoding, and software development. VMs because I'm going for VMware certs later this year, and hands-on practice would be invaluable.

Alright, good to know. I was just making sure you knew, I know more than a few people who were disappointed about that.

[Thinkfreely]

12 hours ago, He_162 said:

Alright, good to know. I was just making sure you knew, I know more than a few people who were disappointed about that.

yeah and I think ultimately we have all been a little tired of the so called "improvements" with the last 5 years of Intel. If the specs works out its AMD for me.

[App4that]

13 hours ago, Phentos said:

Intel's naming schemes are getting silly now.

 

 

Yeah, because Ryzen and naming your top tier architecture after a bad car is totally OK 

 

17 minutes ago, Thinkfreely said:

yeah and I think ultimately we have all been a little tired of the so called "improvements" with the last 5 years of Intel. If the specs works out its AMD for me.

So completely ignoring the market is better than improvements? All people seem to see is IPC, until the discussion turns to AMD, then it's excesses as to why it's lower than Intel.

 

AMD has sat on their ass and lead us around with a carrot on a string. 

[Suika]

Ryzen < Kaby Lake / Skylake

 

There's no way Ryzen is going to come out of the blue and beat Skylake, the only reason to wait for it is to see if Ryzen offers similar performance for cheaper or drops Intel's pricing, and chances are, AMD isn't going to undercut Intel enough to justify the wait, but that's my opinion. I'm also extremely impatient so there's that. If you're curious or a fanboy, you're more than welcome to wait, but I wouldn't hold my breath. I'm not saying, "hurr durr screw AMD," but rather that from what we know and what we can predict, purchasing Intel now isn't likely to screw you over.

 

Vega ~ Pascal

 

Not too sure on this, at all. If you're willing to wait up until June for a GPU, personally I would out of curiosity. AMD has released a Titan killer before, who's to say they couldn't do it again?

[Thinkfreely]

6 minutes ago, App4that said:

Yeah, because Ryzen and naming your top tier architecture after a bad car is totally OK 

 

So completely ignoring the market is better than improvements? All people seem to see is IPC, until the discussion turns to AMD, then it's excesses as to why it's lower than Intel.

 

AMD has sat on their ass and lead us around with a carrot on a string. 

Haha way to go to 0-100!! I actually agree, I think the contention is that the improvements haven't been sweeping. But I am not absolving AMD, because it's been 5 years or more since I have even considered using what they have over Intel.

[smokefest]

14 hours ago, WereCat said:

I have no reason to upgrade from what I have right now but I am excited to see how Zen will perform.

Its RYZEN not ZEN  

From leaked benchmarks, Ryzen seems to perform a bit under the i7 6950x for applications tasks,

And Ryzen seems to perform like an i5 6400 for GAMES...

So look like a good cpu but doesn't seem its going to beat intel for games...

[smokefest]

14 hours ago, WereCat said:

I have no reason to upgrade from what I have right now but I am excited to see how Zen will perform.

Its RYZEN not ZEN  

From leaked benchmarks, Ryzen seems to perform a bit under the i7 6950x for applications tasks,

And Ryzen seems to perform like an i5 6400 for GAMES...

So look like a good cpu but doesn't seem its going to beat intel for games...

[App4that]

2 minutes ago, Thinkfreely said:

Haha way to go to 0-100!! I actually agree, I think the contention is that the improvements haven't been sweeping. But I am not absolving AMD, because it's been 5 years or more since I have even considered using what they have over Intel.

But that's subjective. I'm sitting on Haswell and can't use M.2. I have a slot, but not enough lanes. Kabylake does. 

 

Not everything is the few metrics that get headlines. The Pentiums having hyperthreading is huge, the unlocked i3. But because we want to root for the underdog we ignore everything positive Intel does. That opens the door for AMD to relax. And I am tired of them relaxing. I've also been at 100 since AMD has been making more press conferences than new product.