Buy processor now or wait

[Marknelson]

I'm looking to buy a new cpu in the next 6 months or so. I was going to buy a i5-4690k but then i read about the new microarchitectures: Broadwell and Skylake. should I just wait until they come out with the new ones? I don't mind waiting, I mostly just need education but i wasn't able to find out much while researching.

 

[Marknelson]

Depends on you
can you wait or not?

Boardwell -skylake still rumors and release date exactly is unknown

But the core i5 4690k is a great cpu
for gaming will last you 2years

For education will last by alot!
For education core i3 4350 is better choice

If you in hurry get it you wont regret

I meant more as education on the processors themselves. I know like the hierarchy of current processors but i don't know the improvements that will come with the new architectures and such. I already built my friend a mid-level gaming pc with a i3-4130 and a R9 280

 

[Marknelson]

Depends on you
can you wait or not?

Boardwell -skylake still rumors and release date exactly is unknown

But the core i5 4690k is a great cpu
for gaming will last you 2years

For education will last by alot!
For education core i3 4350 is better choice

If you in hurry get it you wont regret

I meant more as education on the processors themselves. I know like the hierarchy of current processors but i don't know the improvements that will come with the new architectures and such. I already built my friend a mid-level gaming pc with a i3-4130 and a R9 280

 

[synphul]

New architectures are always coming out. If you wait til broadwell, then you're left waiting til skylake - if you hold out for skylake, you'll be holding out for what's around the corner. There are two types of people, one's who like to get the new tech when it comes out, those who like to wait for it to become refined. If you want bleeding edge, wait for the broadwell. If you want refined, opt for the haswell refresh (4690k).

Most of the info on broadwell is revolving around the mobile sector and most of the 'new' tech involves much lower power consumption. Great for laptop users, kind of a moot point for desktop users. Keep in mind it's a die shrink and every time a die shrinks it becomes more difficult to overclock as heat levels rise faster due to the density on the smaller die. Before too long overclocking won't be much of an option at all. There goes the performance coolers and everything else unless they completely refigure tech and come up with a new method to overclock. That's why we're already seeing lower peak oc's for i5's and i7's.

Currently the i5's are a little sporadic and oc limits can range from 4.5-4.7ghz. Most struggle to get beyond 1ghz over stock. The more cores the harder it becomes as well. The older wolfdales and yorkfields were 45nm. Sandy bridge were 32nm, Ivy bridge and haswell are 22nm, broadwell is set to drop to 14nm.

For the most part without serious competition from amd, intel isn't forced to compete as hard and since they are top dog in performance for the time being, they have no reason to sell off their cpu's cheap. Most month to month pricing indicates they hold steady unless there's a sale (like right now on the 4690k's, the lowest they've ever been). Some stores are ending their sales and prices have already gone back up. Even with the release of the 4690k refresh, you'd think the 4670k would have dropped in price. Or gone on sale to compete with the newer improved 4690k. It didn't, it held price and became more expensive by comparison.

Unless you need mobile or small form factor performance (fanless, htpc etc), I'd go for the 4690k while it's still a good price if you can. Even with the new architecture that's come out one after another (ivy bridge vs sandy bridge) the performance gains were minute really. I'd expect the same here unless they decide to ditch silicon altogether and desktop skylake is some sort of fiber optic space age tech. Doubtful though.

 

[jaguarskx]

Like Ivy Bridge and Haswell, the primary goals of Broadwell is to reduce power consumption which means less heat generated and also to improve the integrated graphics core performance. Actual CPU performance increase takes a backseat so the improvement will probably be another 6% or so.

Skylake is a new architecture which likely means a move away from the mediocre 6% increase in CPU performance when going from Broadwell to Skylake. However, it is not expected to be released until August 2015 or later.

 

[Marknelson]

Like Ivy Bridge and Haswell, the primary goals of Broadwell is to reduce power consumption which means less heat generated and also to improve the integrated graphics core performance. Actual CPU performance increase takes a backseat so the improvement will probably be another 6% or so.

Skylake is a new architecture which likely means a move away from the mediocre 6% increase in CPU performance when going from Broadwell to Skylake. However, it is not expected to be released until August 2015 or later.

I still have a good amount of time until i can acquire all the parts of my pc so if i can wait until they're released, should I?

 

[synphul]

I think what people are getting at is, if you wait long enough - there will always be something better. It's the nature of the beast and has been the past 2 decades of computing. You could wait for broadwell - or wait for skylake - or keep waiting because i'm sure there will be something after skylake too. Probably even a new socket. Within a few months of using it, it will be outdated regardless. Sort of like buying a new car, the minute you pull off the lot you just lost an easy $5,000-6,000 in less than a 10th of a mile.