Is it worth waiting for AMD Bulldozer?

[rivman]

I am wondering if it is worth waiting for Bulldozer,or just buying the mid range sandy bridge now.
I do a lot of gaming and i want the best CPU for budget that is overclockable.
I have heard bulldozer will be 50% better at games and applications than unlocked and overclocked sandy bridges.
I do not care for intergrated graphics since i use dicscrete graphics.
There have also been rumors that bulldozer will launch in mid august or late fall is this true?
If you were me,would you wait?

 

[bearclaw99]

1. Sandy Bridge isn't exactly 'mid-range' since the i5 2500K/i7 2600K are the best available gaming CPUs available

2. "I have heard bulldozer will be 50% better at games and applications than unlocked and overclocked sandy bridges. ". Where did you hear that? I highly doubt Bulldozer will even match Sandy Bridge core-to-core, but it's really impossible to say either way when there are no benchmarks available. The vast majority of games do not utilize all 4 cores much less 8

 

[oby20]

if you only do alot of gaming why wait for amd bulldozer? whats the point? games are not that huge load for most cpu anyway, i mean there are lots of cpu today out there available from intel or amd that is very good in gaming. specially the sandy bridge, the intel i5 2500k and i7 2600k and AMD phenom II 965. these cpus together with a very good videocard can perform any game extremely. so why wait for bulldozer? i dont see the point waiting unless you do more than gaming like 3d animations or the likes, that will be worth waiting for bulldozer, but just gaming, surfing net watching movies editing photos?? you dont need to wait, that will not make the bulldozer faster and better than those cpus that i mentioned.

 

[mdd1963]

If BD were launching in a week or even a month, that might warrant waiting...

However, the i5-2500k's gaming performance is known to be simply outstanding * today*....; even if BD's performance matches SB or miraculously exeeds it (very doubtful, IMO), that won't make the 2500k suddenly seem 'slow'

 

[Emperus]

Point is, if you have the cash now to build up an i5 2500k rig then NO, its not worth waiting for Bulldozer. Its very doubtful if a corresponding Bulldozer processor can match (let alone surpass) the 2500k performance figures.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

And you'll be well advised to change your tagline before a mod notices it
Moto

 

[lessthanflawles]

could do what i did and get the phenom II x4 955 with an am3+ motherboard now and overclock the heck out of it. Then wait to see some actual numbers on the BD and upgrade accordingly. Obviously sandy bridge is better, but an OC x4 can still perform very well on the cheap.

So unless you have lots of money, I would go the amd route.

 

[dogman_1234]

All on your terms.

BTW, change your tag. No one wants to read that, especially THG!

 

[Guest]

I would get a Sandy Bridge cpu now, preferably the i7 2600k or the i5 2500k. Or if you wanted to wait you could wait for Ivy Bridge. I may be a bit biased because I have never cared for AMD cpu's.

 

[liquidchild]

People whine a lot on this site.....you wont answer his question till he does what YOU want him to do? Go ahead and take your ball, opinions are plentiful on this site. Mine is to wait it out. If BD comes out, and is sub par, THEN jump ship. That way you wont be kicking yourself for not waiting if BD turns out to be the new king.

 

[dogman_1234]

People whine a lot on this site.....you wont answer his question till he does what YOU want him to do? Go ahead and take your ball, opinions are plentiful on this site. Mine is to wait it out. If BD comes out, and is sub par, THEN jump ship. That way you wont be kicking yourself for not waiting if BD turns out to be the new king.

That is why I advised him to choose. Either wait, or go with Intel right now.

He does not loose, actually he wins.

 

[computernugget]

flipping patties??? really???? people are making a big deal over that?

personally im waiting bulldozer why? im more of an amd fan thats why and i know its gonna be better than current amd cpus. i could care less if they cant beat sandy bridge at gaming or not. i have nothing agaisnt intel ive always liked amd more. as long as there is a performance increase over the previous cpus i will be happy.

now commence bombardment.

 

[dogman_1234]

The Tag was not flipping patties...it had to do with explicit body pars.

 

[jj463rd]

Sure you could wait till August or September.It's only 1 or 2 months away.
Then check back here at Toms Hardware for their review and see all the other benchmarks as well at other sites.If the performance is less than Sandybridge then go for a Intel Sandybridge CPU.However if it outperforms it then go for Bulldozer.
In addition if AMD has a big winner with BD (performs extraordinarily beastly and whoops a**) then Intel will probably drop the prices on their Sandybridge line of processors and current Sandybridge owners will probably cry (either because of dropped prices or feeling that their CPU is in the lower tiers or performance) .
It's a win win situation either way by waiting.

 

[warmon6]

I am wondering if it is worth waiting for Bulldozer,or just buying the mid range sandy bridge now.
I do a lot of gaming and i want the best CPU for budget that is overclockable.
I have heard bulldozer will be 50% better at games and applications than unlocked and overclocked sandy bridges.
I do not care for intergrated graphics since i use dicscrete graphics.
There have also been rumors that bulldozer will launch in mid august or late fall is this true?
If you were me,would you wait?

The age old question.... should i get "this item" now or later?

Really, it comes down how long "your going to" or "can you wait" which is a question only you can answer.

You cant go wrong either way, although i will point out that if you keep on waiting for something better, you'll never get anything.

I do a lot of gaming and i want the best CPU for budget that is overclockable.
I have heard bulldozer will be 50% better at games and applications than unlocked and overclocked sandy bridges.

For gaming, As others have said, bulldozer will not be much of a gain (if any) in gaming performance over the cpu's that currently out.

As for 50% better at games, unless you happen to be playing more than 1 game at once, it is very unlikely Bulldozer will be 50% better than SB. maybe on par or very slightly above at most but not that high. You're bottleneck in high end games on a large monitor resolution will be the gpu(s).





In my personal option, i would just get what i need/want now. Meaning for you, i would say dont wait on BD to come around. Just get SB can be done with it.

 

[smelly_feet]

If you can wait, I think its worth waiting.
There will be modernized memory controller, AMD's version of HT. Once software developer's write code optimized for this new architecture, we may see surprising results.
This looks like the bulldozer midrange proc (see wiki):
http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/More-AMD-Bulldozer-Benchmarks-Surface-3.jpg
This -unoptimized=proc was standing toe to toe with the i7 990x
http://news.softpedia.com/newsImage/AMD-FX-Series-Bulldozer-CPU-Benchmarket-Against-Intel-Core-i7-990X-3.png/

So...if these web reports are true, and you can wait, then I would wait.