Next gen Intel CPU/sockets? vs 6 core

[Bluescreendeath]

One of my friends has the option of either spending $500 on a next gen Intel CPU/socket when it comes out (sandy bridges?)
or
buying an i7 980x from another friend for $600-$700.

Should he buy the i7 980x now, or wait for sandy bridges to come out? Do you think sandy bridges will be much better than the i7 980x, about the same, etc?

high end sandy bridges >/~ i7 980x ?
medium end sandy bridges </~ i7 980x ?

I know we have no idea on the performance of future intel chips, but based on, say core2 to corei7 performance increase, what would be a good idea?

 

[o1die]

One of the Intel products was cancelled recently. It could have been sandy bridges.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Anyone else have any predictions?

 

[o1die]

You're right. It was Larabee

 

[Haserath]

There's a wiki page on Sandy Bridge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Sandy_Bridge_(microarchitecture)

Seems intel is going for more memory bandwidth, I don't know what 4x1600mhz will really do if were already not seeing much benefit from going above 3x1333mhz. It's wiki, so that might not be true.

The stock clocks are also higher then Nehelem, this could mean that we have even better overclockers coming. It even uses turbo mode to go to 3.8ghz! Hope that's true.

I would probably wait for the new arch since it will be a bigger leap then just a die shrink.

 

[Kewlx25]

There are Sandy Bridge benches up already... I don't think they're cancelled.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

o snap....so a 4c/8t sandy bridge might equal a 6c/12t i7 980x?
And a 6c/12t sandy will beat a 6c/12t i7 980x...

In that case I should tell my friend to save his $$$ for sandy?

 

[Haserath]

o snap....so a 4c/8t sandy bridge might equal a 6c/12t i7 980x?
And a 6c/12t sandy will beat a 6c/12t i7 980x...

In that case I should tell my friend to save his $$$ for sandy?

Well, if he's willing to wait for 6 months then it would be worth it. In fact, AMD's Bulldozer might put up good competition and keep prices low.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Aye. He has a quad now so there won't be any huge benefits to upgrade to a hexa - I'll tell him to wait.

thanks

 

[ulysses35]

Next year brings two new sockets from Intel

LGA 1155 (not compatible with LGA 1156)
LGA 2011 (repalcing LGA 1366)

 

[xaira]

sandy was not cancelled, if sandy is cancelled then nehalem/westmere will have to continue, larabee was cancelled again, this like the third time, a high end sandy quad will smoke a 980x, but in the beginning they will start with mainstream, they should move to high end in q2 2011, still, i would spring for the 980x if its just $600

 

[jimmysmitty]

There are Sandy Bridge benches up already... I don't think they're cancelled.

Might we ask to see those benches?

 

[xaira]

http://techpowerup.com/124273/Intel_Sandy_Bridge_Quad-Core_Processor_Tested.html

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Nice, a 2.5GHz Sandy almost rivals a 2.8GHz i7 860.

 

[Haserath]

It seems that Sandy Bridge lost by about 10k points to the i7 975 in one test, but slightly beat it in the second. Is that due to the new AVX instruction set?
Seems bad that they're only going to match their older arch if the new instruction set isn't being used.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

It seems that Sandy Bridge lost by about 10k points to the i7 975 in one test, but slightly beat it in the second. Is that due to the new AVX instruction set?
Seems bad that they're only going to match their older arch if the new instruction set isn't being used.

ya, but it's clocked at 2.5GHz, whereas the i7 975 is clocked at 3.33GHz - so performing worse in one and rivaling it in another despite a .83 GHz difference is pretty good.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

I've played with the 32nm quad's and they're nothing spectacular but they run a good 10-15C cooler

I thought the only 32nm CPUs were dual core i3s/i5s and hexacore i7s?

 

[Haserath]

I used to have a 32nm Westmere Quad Xeon which i ran for a month then promptly sold it.

http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww252/2MCHBoost/settings2.png

Well, that's different then Sandy Bridge based CPUs.

 

[jadavis1992]

The increase in performance is neat and i am looking forward to possibly getting my hands on one of these but the quick socket change is just unreasonable.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

I used to have a 32nm Westmere Quad Xeon which i ran for a month then promptly sold it.

Nice!

 

[leastat]

has anyone else been hearing that Sandy Bridge based cpu may not be overclockable ? sounds like a ploy too make people spend the money too get high end and not low-mid and overclock

 

[hell_storm2004]

If Sandy gets canceled.. then we have to stop advising people to wait!!!

But i don't think it would be. Intel is heavily relying on it for boosting there sales before the Bulldozer come out. Earlier they get it out in the market, the better. The early head-start would boost its sales.

 

[leastat]

intel may try too release a fue more hex cores before the sandy line just too suck up the most cash they can