6950X? - Or wait for the ten-core Skylake?

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C

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This is probably not answerable, since the Skylake cpu does not yet exist, but it IS supposedly coming to a theatre near you in 2017.

I currently have a 5960X in my main rig for live music performance. It is pushed to the max, and I would do almost anything for a little more power (actually I'm after a smaller HW buffer, FWIW) so I am considering the 6950X.

However, money is crazy-tight right now, and that 10-core might only give a small increase in performance.

Does anyone know what we might expect with the ten-core Skylake? Info is very hard to come by right now. (Yes, I realize it will require a new mobo / socket.)


THX.
 
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elbert
If your overclocking them I suggest skylake-E as broadwell is a bad overclocker. Even haswell overclocks better. This is why tomshardware recommended the 5820k over the 6800k.
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Related Question:

What about the new chipset? Would a ten-core Skylake most likely use the same Z170 chipset currently used by the low-end Skylake chips?

Could we instead expect some new technology to be incorporated by the time these cpu's hit the market? USB 3.1, at least?
 
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elbert

elbert

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The 5960X has a better overclock than the 6900 so I suggest a good water cooler. Skylake-E isn't going to be much better. I've seen overlocks of 4.6Ghz so it should be easy to get over 4Ghz. I suggest a 280mm raditor cooler if your case allows.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i 113.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($94.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $94.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-18 18:49 EST-0500
 
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C

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Elbert, you make a good point about how each chip overclocks. Because my rigs are mission-critical, I don't go too crazy with OC, but it's still a factor. (more a question of how much the heat goes up with a mild OC, rather than how far you can push it.) I also don't use water cooling because of the slight danger involved with a portable rig. (Air bubbles stalling the fan, leaks....)

My 5060x has a huge, dual 150mm fanned Noctua on it, which is bolted to the case to the mobo can't flex during transport. This is actually slightly lighter and significantly quieter than a small water cooling system, and gives about the same cooling unless you get into some serious OC's. I only run the 5060X at 3.8 Ghz. I could go MUCH higher, at home, but my rigs need to run outdoors in August. Ambient temps of 100+ degrees F do amazing things to cpu temps!

----------------------------

Anyway, a little more research shows that Skylake-X has a maximum L3 cache size of only 13.75 MB ! That's pathetic, and worries me. Haswell-E allows for 20 MB, and the 10-core Broadwell has 25 MB ! I think that for a heavily multi-tasking environment, such as mine, that's a really big deal.

Is there some other factor that would let Skylake-X function faster than Broadwell, even with half the L3 cache size?
 
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C

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More regarding the overclocking possibilities:
Re the Skylake-X cpu's: I just read this, from a quite responsible source:

"Early reports say the chips will hit in the 6GHz range on liquid nitrogen, with reports of 5GHz on air “possible.”

SPEERS: This likely was done with the current 6700K, 4.0 Ghz 4-core. That will NOT apply to the ten core, which in use will be heavily multi-threaded, and will surely also have slower individual cores. However, the ability to overvlock each core differently will be a factor.

- but the article was about the Skylake-X series, not the S-series. Well, time will tell, I guess, but here I am with a $1600 question I can't answer.....
 
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