Well, my current system specs are as follows:
Phenom II x4 970 BE @3.5
Sapphire Radeon HD 6950
620w Seasonic PSU
8gb DDR3 RAM
M5a97 mobo socket AM3+ (obviously)
and yeah that pretty much sums up the important specs. However, here is my dilemma:
While my system really doesn't have any problems playing any of the games I personally play (and I don't game THAT much, but I do like having power and no problems when I DO play), I really like having top-of-the-line, and of course my CPU has bottlenecks right now. Comparing it with my friends less-powerful GPU, he still gets more FPS and better gameplay with his Sandy Bridge i7. (For the "I like having top-of-the-line" comment, yes, I bought an AMD, but I didn't really know much about computers when I built it in Q4 2011/Q1 2012).
Now, I am thinking of upgrading basically everything. I don't know whether I should buy Ivy Bridge now and a 7970 while it's cheap now, or wait until Haswell and the new GPUs come out. I don't know exactly when it will be coming out, however my question is more about price/performance. I am NOT planning on getting Broadwell (the next CPU after Haswell). I AM planning on getting Skylake however. So, with my current specs in mind, do you think I should buy stuff now while it's cheap (yes, I know the Ivy/Haswell price difference won't be meaningful at all, but I'm taking the GPU price into consideration. The 7970 was around $550 at launch; compared to about $400 now.)
So, once again I am not going to be upgrading again until Skylake. You could argue that I can get the 7970 when Haswell comes out, however I probably wouldn't look into doing that since more expensive cards would come out (8000/700 series), and I'd just be tempted.
And no, I don't have money growing on a tree, so I won't be doing Ivy and then Haswell or Broadwell.
Short version:
With my current specs in mind, should I upgrade to Ivy and then to Skylake (while GPU price is low) or should I wait until Haswell and then upgrade to Skylake?
Thanks to anyone who answers.
Phenom II x4 970 BE @3.5
Sapphire Radeon HD 6950
620w Seasonic PSU
8gb DDR3 RAM
M5a97 mobo socket AM3+ (obviously)
and yeah that pretty much sums up the important specs. However, here is my dilemma:
While my system really doesn't have any problems playing any of the games I personally play (and I don't game THAT much, but I do like having power and no problems when I DO play), I really like having top-of-the-line, and of course my CPU has bottlenecks right now. Comparing it with my friends less-powerful GPU, he still gets more FPS and better gameplay with his Sandy Bridge i7. (For the "I like having top-of-the-line" comment, yes, I bought an AMD, but I didn't really know much about computers when I built it in Q4 2011/Q1 2012).
Now, I am thinking of upgrading basically everything. I don't know whether I should buy Ivy Bridge now and a 7970 while it's cheap now, or wait until Haswell and the new GPUs come out. I don't know exactly when it will be coming out, however my question is more about price/performance. I am NOT planning on getting Broadwell (the next CPU after Haswell). I AM planning on getting Skylake however. So, with my current specs in mind, do you think I should buy stuff now while it's cheap (yes, I know the Ivy/Haswell price difference won't be meaningful at all, but I'm taking the GPU price into consideration. The 7970 was around $550 at launch; compared to about $400 now.)
So, once again I am not going to be upgrading again until Skylake. You could argue that I can get the 7970 when Haswell comes out, however I probably wouldn't look into doing that since more expensive cards would come out (8000/700 series), and I'd just be tempted.
And no, I don't have money growing on a tree, so I won't be doing Ivy and then Haswell or Broadwell.
Short version:
With my current specs in mind, should I upgrade to Ivy and then to Skylake (while GPU price is low) or should I wait until Haswell and then upgrade to Skylake?
Thanks to anyone who answers.