Build a Gaming PC now or wait for "Fermi" and 6-Core-CPUs?

[TheAnyKey]

I am a student and don't have much money, so I really want to buy one PC and keep it for at least 3-4 years.

I have read great things about this "revolutionary" new "Fermi" GPU from nVidia and the upcoming 6-Core-CPUs.

That made me really doubtful whether I should build a PC with the hardware currently available(maybe an i7 920 or Phenom II 965 BE and a HD 5870) or wait for the Fermi and the 6-Cores.

I am really unsure. What do you think, should I wait for the new hardware or is the current hardware sufficient? The release dates I've found: Fermi-Cards: March 26, 2010; 6-Core-CPUs: "before the end of Q2 this year".

I read the best Fermi-Card, the GTX 480, will cost $680, that is about as much as the hd 5970 costs now.

So what would be your advise, If I want a Gaming PC that lasts as long as possible? From what you've heard, will the new hardware really be that much better and render all the current hardware obsolete, at least for gaming purposes?

Thank you.

 

[TheAnyKey]

Problem with going with a gulftown or Thuban is this. No games utilize more then 4 cores. Will crysis utilize 6 cores? Maybe...

6 cores are pretty useless in games and should only really bought if you do video editing and other processor intensive things.

A X4 955/5870 would be an awesome setup as well as a 750/5870. All depends how much you wanna spend.

Maybe at least the prices for the current stuff will drop then. Do you know what the 6-Cores will cost, are there prices out yet?

 

[randomizer]

If you plan to game exclusively, don't go past a quad core. You're wasting your money. The exception would be for Flight Simulator X, in which case you should get 2 6-cores.

 

[TheAnyKey]

If you plan to game exclusively, don't go past a quad core. You're wasting your money. The exception would be for Flight Simulator X, in which case you should get 2 6-cores.

What about the Fermi GPU? Is it really a complety new kind of video cards, which makes todays models just obsolete?

 

[randomizer]

A bit hard to tell since we have little in the way of performance figures for it. But as far as making everything else obsolete, you should only believe that if you're a shareholder

 

[bitsmt]

Working with technology for over 20 years has tought me one thing - it will always keep changing (usually for the better).

Every six months, something new comes out that cliames to make the previous Hot Stuff, Luke Warm. When a new piece of tech comes out, the previous versions will drop in price. Software Manufacturers usually wait a few months (3-12months) to make their code ready to take full advantage of the most resent tech. When it comes to new OS, the wait is usually 2-3 times longer. They have to be really excited about the new tech to put something out sooner. Trust is a big issue here.

Technology begins to become obsolete about 3 years from purchase. Obsolete as in it works harder to process the latest code, making for a slower experience,

Given this info you must decide on the following.
- How much am I willing to spend on my new tech?
- How long am I willing to wait after the tech is released?
- How long do I want to keep it?


Although a 6-core processor may seem extreme, it will ensure you gear is ready for next gen playing. You could always dedicate 4 of the cores to your game and assign the other 2 cores to other applications for a better computing experience. Eventually, games will not only take advantage of all the cores, it will need...more.

Here is my advice (or 2cents):

Get a good motherboard. Find one that will be able to take you on a 3-5 year ride, at the least. It should allow for as many upgrades as you think possible during this time frame. Maybe an 16-core will come out in 2013, can the board support it?

Get a good case with great cooling and airflow. The cooler your system stays, the longer the components will last. Keep the case clean and blow out the system at least once every 6 months or more.

Its a little of a guessing game. If you don't go cheap, but go smartly and penny wise, you'll be happy for years.

 

[theholylancer]

fermi is reported at best 20% better than a 5870, and on average 5% better across all games (not just NV sponsored the way it's meant to be played games) and at worst ~10% worse off (if you used games that only favored ATI) for the TOP end (the GTX 480 with 512 shaders).

while a 5970 just puts it on dead-men-walking mode, and a 1 Ghz 5870 (5890?) would at least be on par with the top end fermi.

I think if they are any reasonable they would be competing with prices at the performance point, or else they would lose large mind share and market share.

 

[loneninja]

Intels only announced 6 core is gulftown, and it's an extreme edition chip fetching a price around $1000. AMD has thuban coming out, expected to be much cheaper because it'll fail to perform against gulftown, and even the current I7. Price is still unknown, but clock speeds will be lower than on Phenom II X4. By the time a game can actually use 6 cores, there will be much more powerful options on the market for less.

 

[xaira]

dont wait for ermi, tdps are reported to be volcanic, if you will use the power of a hexacore, you should wait for that, intel hexa should be out this month and amds should be in may, at a quater the price

 

[loneninja]

Thuban is going to put a hurting on the I5 750 and should be very close to the current bloomfield's and Lynnfield's with Hyperthreading.

It'll do well with multithreaded software, but the I5/I7 series will probably still be much better in single threaded apps, power consumption, and overclocking head room.

 

[andy5174]

More accurately, i5/i7 will still be much better in apps that use at most 4 threads.

Thuban and Gulftown suck as most apps still use less than 4 threads, let alone 6!

 

[shravankale]

TRUST me you won't need a 6 core CPU...get a four core maybe an i7 or AMD phenom II X4 955BE( overclock the 955BE to 965 be by 200MHz, 200Mhz is the only diiference) is you are on a budget.

Wait for the fermi cards...