Haswell Now or wait for later?

Danzas4321 · Mar 1, 2014

Hey guys. around June time i was going to get an i5 4670k and an MSi Z87-G45 as an upgrade to my PC. However according to roadmaps the 9 series chipset will release and also a haswell refresh and/or Broadwell. So what should i do? Should i wait for The haswell refresh or broadwell? Or jump on an i5 now? Thanks

Bad_Kitty13 · Mar 1, 2014

i would say wait for broadwell if you can. no sense in making a excellent gaming computer only to have the new series come out a few months later. also i think it will be on ddr4 with native ram speeds of 2133 which is pretty awesome. and you will be able to save up more money for better components as well imo.

Danzas4321 · Mar 1, 2014

But appart from DDr4 Isnt broadwell just a die shrink for power efficency?

Bad_Kitty13 · Mar 1, 2014

yea there is the die shrink but i thought it is supposed to have a performance increase and i also read in a magazine(maximum pc ithink?) that with the die shrink it is rumored they are going to do away with the k designators and they didnt say why so either the whole series will be overclockable or the more likely scenario they are going to boost to max off the shelf performance and do away with overclockability. haswell-e looks promising though its supposed to have up to a 50% increase in some applications over ib-e and run on ddr4 as well.

Bad_Kitty13 · Mar 1, 2014

i would hold out until intel releases actual specs of the broadwell series and not from the rumor mill to see if it is going to be a viable increase from haswell. you know how they like to play with their cards close to their chest.

Danzas4321 · Mar 1, 2014

So Broadwell might not even overclcok D: IF it doesnt then Haswell it is

techgeek · Mar 1, 2014

Playing the waiting game is walking on a slippery slope. You could wait until the 9 series chipset comes out and the Haswell refresh, but by then there could be something else that you hear about that could catch your interest.

I guess the first question you should ask yourself is do you need this new computer now? Or at least really want it now.

It's guaranteed that there will be some performance improvements if you wait. However you must weigh those improvements against having to wait 6 months or maybe more depending on what you decide.

Danzas4321 · Mar 1, 2014

Well my 760k gets beat by an ivy i3 in games to start with and i get Massive FPs drops in Bf4 my fav game so i guess it makes sense to upgrade. With the Intel Tick tock thing though Haswell wasa tock ( New architecture) So that means broadwell will be a tick, meaning a die srhink. So if it mainly brings DDr4 and power efficency i dont really care too much

Bad_Kitty13 · Mar 1, 2014

if it is a die shrink and power efficiency even if they do have a k line the headroom would suck because of the heat right?

Bad_Kitty13 · Mar 1, 2014

amd haswell-e looks promising but it is also probably going to cost as much as a brandnew car to build a whole system around that, lol

con635 · Mar 1, 2014

Danzas4321 :

Have you tried mantle? I'm not saying this as a solution but interested in the results as I'm about to pair the same card as yours with an athlon.

AdmiralDonut · Mar 1, 2014

I'd just go for an Ivy Bridge i5 3570k and not worry about playing the "My stuff is newer and therefore better than yours" game.

techgeek · Mar 1, 2014

AdmiralDonut :

Why would you suggest Ivy Bridge over Haswell at this point? Socket 1155 is dead. I also think it's not a case of e-penis that he's worried about, more a case of buyers remorse.

AdmiralDonut · Mar 1, 2014

techgeek :

Hmm, lets see. Haswell stuff is more expensive for not much benefit and is as dead as Ivy Bridge. After all Broadwell will require a different chipset remember? So why bother with Haswell when an Ivy Bridge is cheaper and has just as much choice and power as Haswell.

Good enough reason? I think so.

EDIT: For clarity, I should point out that when I say Haswell is dead, I mean that any motherboard/CPU combo you buy now for Haswell will NOT allow you to run a Broadwell chip. So If you want to upgrade to Broadwell, you may as well get Ivy Bridge now and save money.

techgeek · Mar 1, 2014

AdmiralDonut :

I wasn't arguing that Broadwell will be compatible with the 8 series chipsets. However the upgrade path is dead now for 1155. Ivy Bridge isn't cheaper than Haswell and the motherboards aren't anymore expensive either. The one thing is your running out of options with Ivy Bridge since most of the motherboard and CPU's are drying up. Today a i5 4770K is $380 CAD and a i7 3770K is $360 CAD. Twenty dollars doesn't make it much more expensive. There are still some more processors coming for this generation of Haswell, albeit probably nothing that's going to knock anyone's socks off. There are no more Ivy Bridges coming. Also an Ivy Bridge platform (Z77) only comes with 2 native SATA III sockets, Haswell comes with 6. Today most enthusiasts run more than two SATA III devices. Granted if one of them is a traditional HDD it could be run on SATA II without a performance penalty, but why should anyone have to.

DeathFlows · Mar 1, 2014

should I also wait? my bday is in may and ima have around 500 to spend and that will only be for cpu mobo ram and maybe psu

Danzas4321 · Mar 1, 2014

SO what should i do? 4670k or wait for broadwell? Thasts the main aim here. is all broadwell is is more power efficent with a larger GPu meaing i sacrifice cache then Haswell it is

techgeek · Mar 1, 2014

DeathFlows :

Waiting is a difficult game to do. Really it's tough to say. You could wait and find out that you waited for less than a 10% increase in speed or marginally better power efficiency. With only $500 dollars for CPU, mobo and RAM with the possibility of a PSU as well, you might be better served with an AMD build anyway. Maybe without the PSU you could squeek by with a decent Intel build. The one thing that may play into your favor with waiting is in that time you might be able to save a few more dollars to put towards your build.

AdmiralDonut · Mar 1, 2014

techgeek :

You just contradicted yourself. You admit that Haswell and Broadwell both require different chipsets, thus any Haswell board purchased now will also be a "dead end" once Broadwell is released. I would also like to know where you are in the world that Ivy Bridge chips are so scarce, since I see plenty of them on the market, both new and secondhand, and all for a fair bit less than Haswell ones.

The only thing I will concede is the native SATA III ports on Ivy Bridge is less than that of Haswell, but there is no way that makes it worth paying out for Haswell over Ivy Bridge when there is no substantial difference between Intel supported SATA III and ones like the ASMedia on ASRock boards.

Danzas4321 · Mar 1, 2014

I Was Gonna egt the 4670k and the MSi Z87-G45 gaming. this should last a long time right?

techgeek · Mar 1, 2014

Danzas4321 :

My opinion is that Broadwell will be marginally better than Haswell, more power efficient, die shrink, yadda yadda. Unless DDR4 gets you hot, I don't see anything special coming on the 9 series platform. One could only hope that Intel goes back to using solder to thermally connect the die to the IHS with Broadwell, that should reduce some of the heat issues that came with Ivy Bridge and Haswell.

If it were me, I'd go Haswell now. June is a long ways away to be playing on an Athlon. I have a i7 4770K and my son just got a i5 4670K. Both are great chips. If I was only interested in gaming I would have saved the $100 and got the i5, but I do a little crunching, so I got the i7 for the 8 threads.

Danzas4321 · Mar 1, 2014

so the die shrink wont do alot? i presume it will be like sandy to ivy with pretty much no improvement right?

techgeek · Mar 1, 2014

Danzas4321 :

I haven't heard of any new features being added to Broadwell. If anything you might see a slight bump in clockspeeds if their efficient enough to lower temperatures at the same clockspeed. This would be very marginal though, like 100MHz, certainly not enough to wait for.

One thing I have heard about Broadwell is that Intel may move the IVR off-die. This could spread out the heat distribution on the IHS. One of the problems with Haswell is that with the transistor density and the power components for the IVR integrated into one die, the heat was very concentrated. The heat produced by the IVR added with the CPU's heat was concentrated over a very small area. How much this will alleviate the heat issue though I don't know.

Danzas4321 · Mar 1, 2014

So pretty much nothing to get excited about and get Haswell?

techgeek · Mar 1, 2014

Danzas4321 :

Well if I was you, that's what I'd do. When I get itching for an upgrade I've got to have it fast. You have a quad core Athlon and you've certainly got a decent overclock on it, but Haswell should perform fast enough at stock so that you'll feel it.

I know about buyers remorse too. But the best way to combat it is to buy what you want and then be happy with what you have. Hard to do I know, especially if you're an enthusiast and you read reviews for all the new tech that comes along like I do. I held onto my overclock Q6600 until this year and then upgraded to Haswell. That didn't mean I didn't want to run out and get Nehelam, Sandy, Ivy, Sandy-E, etc. It just felt like the right time to upgrade. If it feels like that to you, then I say do it. If you can hang on longer, then maybe that's what you need to do.

Haswell Now or wait for later?

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