Should I buy a 5820k now or wait for AMD Zen?

[BackwardSoldier]

Hi all

Just asking should I buy an i7 5820k now or wait for AMD's Zen for my gaming and editing PC to replace the FX 8350 that I'm currently using?

 

[DonkeyOatie]

The Zen will require a new motherboard. At the same performance as the 5820K, Zen is likely to be lower power or somewhat cheaper (or a little of both), at best.

If you upgrade today, how much money/hassle will you save before Zen comes out?

You know what the Intel will do today, predictions of future developments are usually optimistic, full of hope.

 

[GhislainG]

How do you know that an AMD Zen will be competitive with the 5820K? Because it will use Simultaneous Multithreading which is similar Intel's Hyperthreading?

 

[Supernova1138]

Zen isn't going to be out for over a year, since apparently it won't start coming out until Q4 2016. Unless you think you can live with what you have for another year, you might as well get something now if you're not happy with your current performance.

As for whether Zen would be competitive vs. Haswell-E, it's hard to say as there's virtually no concrete information out about Zen right now. In any case Zen will be going up against Skylake-E and Skylake Refresh chips by the time it comes out, and comparing it against any Haswell chip wouldn't be relevant unless you already have a Haswell chip and want to see if it's worth upgrading or not.