Get 7th Gen Intel or wait for 8th Gen?

Matthew Nasser

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Sep 10, 2014
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Currently I have a i5-4690k and have been wanting to upgrade my system. With 7th gen intel processors coming out next year I thought it was a good time to upgrade. But, Once the 8th Gen Intel processors come around, those will be a huge difference from what we are seeing right now, possibly on a 10nm, rather than 14nm.
What do you guys think, or what are you doing if your in similar situation as me?
This is open for a discussion, not a question/answer!
Thanks!
 

KR2

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Jun 9, 2015
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Well, it's going to be a while before the 8th generation comes out so if you want to wait a couple years for it then sure but I would definitely consider upgrading to the 7th generation now and when the 8th comes out, if it is significantly better than the 7th generation, sell off your CPU and buy yourself an 8th gen.
 

Matthew Nasser

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That is exactly what I was thinking! It is going to drive Intel prices down as well
 

Zerk2012

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Don't count on Zen to do anything Intel is so scared of it they are releasing a processor with a almost no performance increase and a simple K edition of the i3.
 

lifespill

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7th cpu gen are not really ''7th'' as broadwell wasn't really 5th gen.

What happens now is that all kabylake cpu will be just a better binned-higher clocked skylake cpu's just like it was with 4770k-4790k,just a revision.

Upgrading from a 4690k to a 7xxx at the time its just a waste of money,no one knows for sure what will happen with 8th gen,but at the moment all are just rumors.
 

yepayupi

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Dec 20, 2016
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I have the same situation here, deciding to wait/save for a cannonlake once it is out, or getting a 7th gen in January.
My current system is ancient, a second gen i5 (760) and a GTX 260

7th pro's:
- Motherboards and chipset are compatible (yet not the latest chipset), and since they've been out for some time, prices are reasonable.
- Mature platform, at end of cycle.
- Available soon

7th con's:
- Resale value
- Being "obsolete" too quick (?)
- Another dilemma here, getting a current MoBo or wait for one with updated chipset.

8th pro's:
- Getting the newest 10nm and any benefit over the last gen.
- Bleeding edge for longer time.
- Better resale value(?)

8th con's:
- To wait at least one year for it to come out and supplies and price stabilizes
- Will require newest MoBo, which will cost more.
- We don't know at this point the real differences between 7th and 8th.
 

Kai_12

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Jan 18, 2017
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i would wait.

8th gen will be coffee lake still on 14 nm processes. i think it will not be much improvement around 5-8% from 6/7th gen sky/kaby lake
 

Mangotango

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May 16, 2011
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In terms of performance, if you get the equivalent Skylake or Kabylake CPU as your 4690 your looking at 10-15% performance increase overall, so not much, probably not worth the £$£$ - the biggest saving is with power usage, and who needs that on a desktop PC!

Intel havent had much competition since AMD went down the pan with the FX series CPU's.

Personally i would wait to see how well AMD Zen does, if its competitive then it will force Intel to up their game and the next gen of intel CPU's will be much better.

Remember, Zen CPU's have a lot of cores, their top desktop one has 8 cores and 16 threads - Highest S1151 Intel CPU has 8 threads.

It wont be long before the standard i5 has 6 or 8 threads and the i7's have 12 or 16 threads to keep up with Zen.