Coffee Lake Coming With 1151 Socket, But Still Requires 300-Series Chipset

[redgarl]

With AMD Rysen going to 7nm and Intel Canon lake at 10nm, this coffee lake seems a bad idea. Not only they need to update the socket, but this launch is rushed at best. They already released kaby lake earlier this year. This is nothing more than trying to stop AMD from taking market share. Some retailers mentioned that AMD was surpassing intel sales in their websites, it tells a lot.

 

[InvalidError]

As for previous generation hardware getting on sale I don't see that in Sweden. Since Kaby Lake was released most Skylake CPUs have stayed at their old price, just being available from a decreasing number of retailers.

Intel hasn't cut prices on older CPUs when new generations got introduced in about 10 years, which happens to be when Intel eclipsed AMD with Core 2. Now that AMD is back to credible threat status with Ryzen, a pricing reaction is far more likely. From Skylake to Kaby Lake, there isn't much of a performance increase, which translates to not much pressure to make any pricing changes.

Coffee Lake will lower Intel's price per core by a significant amount, which will make current-gen chips considerably less appealing. On top of that, AMD will likely need to lower Ryzen's prices to maintain a compelling value proposition, which is going to make older Intel chips look like even worse value propositions. I'd say those are two strong reasons to expect Coffee Lake to force Intel to lower prices on older CPUs. Not many people are going to bother with Skylake or Kaby Lake if they can get ~40% more bang-per-buck with Coffee Lake or Ryzen.

 

[dalauder]

Beats me but I've never been big on changing out bits of an existing build. I might use previously untapped resources, like empty RAM slots but I've never had the urge to change out for a different CPU or other major changes if it isn't broken. I'd rather plan a new build if there is interesting new stuff to work with. OTOH, I generally don't go in for really expensive builds either, so I don't have great sunk costs to recover.

It works now and then if you plan it ahead. I had some spare parts, so I decided to build an extra desktop. I bought an i3-6100 from Micro Center with the motherboard discount and had a solid new computer for under $200.

In a couple years, I'll drop in a Kaby Lake i5 or i7 and this build will have life through 2025.

In general though...no, I mostly only upgrade RAM or storage.

 

[dalauder]

I spent 200$ for my z270 board, knowing I have no upgrade path to coffeelake, despite it being the same socket, upsets me, I might just consider AMD this time around, sorry Intel you've lost it.

As far as I know, most enthusiasts are going with AMD now. There's just no loyalty from Intel and AMD seems to do everything they can to maintain compatibility. Intel wants my money. AMD wants me as a customer. Go Team Red.

 

[InvalidError]

There's just no loyalty from Intel and AMD seems to do everything they can to maintain compatibility.

Even if you have compatibility, using a new CPU on an old motherboard or vice-versa usually comes at the expense of forgoing some if not most of the new CPU or chipset's benefits and most people aren't going to do that. I know I'd have persistent nagging in the back of my head if I knew the CPU I put on a board is stunting the board's functionality in some significant way or vice-versa.

I expect Zen 2 to have a faster chipset link to support PCIe 3.0 on chipset lanes instead of 2.0 on current AM4 chipsets to close the IO gap with Intel's 170/270 chipsets. If that happens, you'll need a new motherboard and CPU to get many of the refreshed platform's benefits. Yes, it may be compatible, with an increasing number of caveats for each generation in-between.

 

[ibjeepr]

There's just no loyalty from Intel and AMD seems to do everything they can to maintain compatibility.

Even if you have compatibility, using a new CPU on an old motherboard or vice-versa usually comes at the expense of forgoing some if not most of the new CPU or chipset's benefits and most people aren't going to do that. I know I'd have persistent nagging in the back of my head if I knew the CPU I put on a board is stunting the board's functionality in some significant way or vice-versa.

I expect Zen 2 to have a faster chipset link to support PCIe 3.0 on chipset lanes instead of 2.0 on current AM4 chipsets to close the IO gap with Intel's 170/270 chipsets. If that happens, you'll need a new motherboard and CPU to get many of the refreshed platform's benefits. Yes, it may be compatible, with an increasing number of caveats for each generation in-between.

I agree, I never upgrade the cpu without the motherboard which usually means new ram as well. I found a good cpu, mobo combo is good for 4-5 years before just replacing all of it. I upgrade the GPU about every 2 years. Doing the CPU, mobo and ram (and probably storage) all together keeps things congruent with all the new chipset features.