waiting for broadwell, pointelss for a mid range pc build?

[Coollestersmooth]

so whilst asking about budget and cpu recomendations for a mid range build (£800 odd)
i had a few comments saying i should wait for Broadwell.

A little bit of research later and i find that whilst they will represent a slight performance increase, the fact that launch prices are likely to be sky high means that what you'll get in that kind of budget range probably wouldn't represent a huge jump in performance.

Combine this with the fact that there sticking with the 1150 socket right up until the release of skylake next year and it seams like it would make sense to look at upgrading to Broadwell at around this time, when prices plummet due to the new cpu architecture with the all new sockets.

So about the only advantage i can see in waiting for Broadwell is the fact that the prices for the current Haswell chips will drop.

but would the savings really be worth the wait? or have i massively underestimated the power increase for Broadwell?

From what i've read they don't outperform Haswell by that much, unless i was willing to shell out for a top end Processor, which again, would be far cheaper to upgrade to when Skylake arrives.

 

[Shneiky]

If you wait for Broadwell - either you are getting better performance, or you are getting better price for Haswell. We ca not be sure until it comes out. I got a 2700K for 200 instead of 330 when Haswell was few months away. The price was irresistible. And I got a Z77 when Z87 was out for 120 instead of the 250 launch price. Worth it. Anyway, you won't lose much by waiting for Q1 of 2015. But then again, if you get good offer - just jump on it.

 

[Coollestersmooth]

but are the price drops really going to be that significant on mid range cpus? i mean an i5 4690k is only £160 now, surely it wouldn't get that much cheaper, if your talking £40 saving that's 10 pounds a month for instant satisfaction.

would something like an overclockable i7 drop significantly enough to put it in a budget build price range?

 

[Eximo]

Q1 of 2015 is when the laptop Broadwell processors come out. A few Broadwell Y chips out there already, but they are really part of the Atom series. Desktop LGA1150 might be much later.

Keeping my hopes up for BIOS revisions for Z87 to support Broadwell, but Intel's roadmap says they don't...

Not sure I want to wait for Broadwell-E or Crystalwell for DDR4. (Haswell-E seems like a sideways move)

 

[capt_taco]

I'm not interested in Broadwell at all. It's just a die shrink of the same architecture, which in the past has meant slightly faster but much hotter and less efficient. With all of the reports of production issues, I am not exactly thrilled about it. The fact that Skylake is set to release a mere 6 months later tells me it's a throwaway.

In any case, even the current generation CPUs, and even last generation's, will still be good for gaming for a long time. Not much point in jumping on Broadwell IMO.

 

[Coollestersmooth]

this was pretty much along the lines of what i was thinking, waiting for broadwell seems a bit pointless when compaired to just buying an i5 for a mid range rig. since they really won't provide that much bang for buck performance increases. If i was getting a laptop sure, but for a desktop gaming rig, no.

About the only plus side i can see is going to be the drop in haswell prices, and if the i7 broadwell is a while off im guessing im not going to be able to snap up an i7 for what an i5 costs currently for a loooong while....
and whose that patient when in comes to gaming ^^

 

[capt_taco]

So you know, there is basically no difference between an i5 and an i7 for gaming purposes. i5 literally gives you the same performance for less money.

The Haswell price drop is probably the major benefit that I see. Right now Sandy Bridge processors are still overpowered for most games, Nehalem is pretty good, and even the Yorkfield quad-cores are adequate. Those came out in 2008. So rushing to buy the very latest CPU for $350 instead of the last-generation one for $200 doesn't strike me as a good investment the way it does with video cards.