Buy now or wait until January?

[arachn1d]

Basically what I'm trying to figure out right now is this, besides being impatient and a kid wanting his candy now.

In terms of performance, and the rig being more future-proof, should I wait until January for the new Intel Processors?

The latest video cards for both AMD and Nvidia are out now, right? Which card is more future proof?

Is there any value in jumping on a AMD processor + whatever current video cards are out now? Or wait a month and get a Intel Processor + whatever recommended video card? Would that be more future proof?

 

[mdd1963]

If high res gaming, get a quad core i5 760, a slot 1156 mb cable of Crossfire, and two Radeon 6850 cards, which outperform the best single GTX card around for hundreds less.....

Yes, perhaps the newer SandyBridge will give 2-5 fps higher framerates....; but 85 fps compared to 80 is hardly earthshattering.

 

[arachn1d]

I'm not looking for FPS on games right now as long as it's playable, what about games that come out next year? Will the architecture of SandyBridge and the new 6900 cards deliver better performance for the next games coming out in 2011?

What if I wanted to upgrade from the quad core i5 to the new 2600k. In order to do that would I need to get a new motherboard? If that's the case then waiting for 2600k is more future proof, no?

 

[christop]

Nothing is really future proof. if you want to stay on the bleeding edge of hardware wait for the new CPU to come out. I have been gaming on a e8400 for 3 years now and just pick up a I7-930 for an upgrade I am working on.

 

[arachn1d]

Well, in this case I mean the best path for upgradability over a distance of time. The biggest thing that decides this is the motherboard I think right?

If I get a i5 now I can't use the same MB I'd get with that for a sandybridge CPU right?

 

[Zenthar]

If I get a i5 now I can't use the same MB I'd get with that for a sandybridge CPU right?

Upgrade won't be possible since Sandy Bridge will use a new socket; that is part of the reason I would suggest waiting a bit. The other reason is to see the effect on overall prices; even if performance didn't improve that much over i5, it would be a bit frustrating to see that 2 weeks after purchase you could have gotten the same thing for 100$+ less (might be optimistic here, but who knows).

As for future-proofness, once in a while might come a game that will make your system seem old all of a sudden (like hearing "what's a modem") so it's something to prepare for. I'm still playing recent games on my E8400 and GTX 260, without lowering settings too much, but I'm only playing at 1680x1050.