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[Rabid Wolverine]

Still rocking a 2500k @4.4ghz. No desire to upgrade until the new 16nm cards release.

By then if zen is not great the skylake mbs and cpus would mature, new revisions and all. Then buy!

 

[Wag]

I will upgrade my Ivy Bridge 3770k @ 4.4GHz to a Skylake build because my motherboard is fried. Otherwise I wouldn't bother.

 

[tokkun]

Not worth it strictly for games. You are going to need new RAM as well if you switch to Z170. You're looking at $500-800 for a marginal improvement. Spend that money on a GTX 980 Ti (even if adding in SLI) and you will see a much bigger improvement in games.

For years, the performance increase in the majority of games has been sublinear with respect to the performance increase in other single-threaded applications for new CPUs. This suggests that most games are simply not CPU-bound, and with DX12 claiming to reduce the demands on CPUs through multi-threading and more gamers transitioning to 1440p and 4k resolutions, I don't see any reason for that trend to reverse in the near future.

 

[LittleBuddy]

I'll probably be upgrading mainly for m.2 pci-4x though, I really want that Samsung SM951 and don't really have room for a pci-e m.2 card between my Titan X's. Hopefully Skylake brings atleast a 10-15% improvement over Haswell or has better overclocking otherwise I probably won't upgrade until Broadwell-E, I will be waiting for benchmarks for sure since my 4670k already gets 4.6ghz, would really like to see Skylakes come near 5ghz and a 15% more performance per clock, but I think I'm getting my hopes up.

 

[Terra Firma]

That graph is so deceptive.

 

[Boss Mog]

Not worth it strictly for games. You are going to need new RAM as well if you switch to Z170. You're looking at $500-800 for a marginal improvement. Spend that money on a GTX 980 Ti (even if adding in SLI) and you will see a much bigger improvement in games.

For years, the performance increase in the majority of games has been sublinear with respect to the performance increase in other single-threaded applications for new CPUs. This suggests that most games are simply not CPU-bound, and with DX12 claiming to reduce the demands on CPUs through multi-threading and more gamers transitioning to 1440p and 4k resolutions, I don't see any reason for that trend to reverse in the near future.

I can probably get like 400 bucks for my old CPU/mobo/ram though. so it wouldn't cost me that much to have new components with the latest tech all under warranty again.

 

[ShyGuy0504]

I just built a new pc with an i7 5820k last month.

I won't be upgrading for a long time.

 

[Kudo]

I have i5-750 @ 3.33ghz and GTX 770, guess who's building Skylake computer?
Love upgrading computers with many year gaps, feels so fast and new again. Skylake, SSD, Windows 10, it'll be like I'm on this decade again.

 

[Evo X]

I'm in a similar situation. Been rocking an i5 2500k@4.7Ghz since 2011. Great CPU, but I've started to get the upgrade itch. Sometimes I get the feeling that my Titan X is being held back, and I've had to steadily increase the cpu voltage over time to keep it stable with that OC. Running about 1.44v now, so not sure how much longer it's gonna last.

Kind of disappointed that we aren't getting 8 core Skylakes for another year though. I would have definitely jumped on those, regardless of cost.

Will wait for benchmarks and reviews before jumping ship, but probably will. Feel like it's a great time to upgrade with the new 14nm CPU architecture, Windows 10 and DX 12 in the mix.

 

[Exuro]

Only reason I really want to upgrade my 920 is that the mobo I'm using has a total of two USB 2.0 ports with the rest being 1.1.

 

[Crazymoogle]

Not worth it strictly for games. You are going to need new RAM as well if you switch to Z170. You're looking at $500-800 for a marginal improvement. Spend that money on a GTX 980 Ti (even if adding in SLI) and you will see a much bigger improvement in games.

Bingo. Why spend a premium on first gen Skylake CPU, motherboard, and DDR4 RAM parts, when you can get far more affordable (and flexible) options on Haswell and spare the extra money for a GPU (or monitor)?

I just went from a Q6700 to a 4690K and I'm pretty sure I won't feel the difference between that and the Skylake 6700K. But I will notice the difference between a GTX 960 and GTX 980ti. Or a $199 TN panel and a $500 144hz Gsync panel. And I had a ton of options at full size, mATX, mITX, more RAM variants than I can think of.

 

[Phionoxx]

Going to try to get another year or so out of my 2500K @ 4.5 Ghz. As long as the MoBo doesn't bite the dust!

 

[Kudo]

Checked local stores and the DDR4 prices have dropped here too.
This 5 year gap I hope it has been worth the wait (Not that I've really "waited" as I still feel like I could go on with this computer), planning to go with i7-6700K for maximum lifetime.
Already have Antec P280 case ready for this.. I assume all Skylake motherboards should be Windows 10 supported?

 

[byropoint]

Yeah, I'm going in, currently on a i7 920 no OC, it's still decent but I wanted a mITX build for a while now and really need a new GPU so I'll go for a completely new build with Skylake.

 

[Bowl0l]

Keep your hopes low for AMD Zen. It will be delayed again. Performance wise, I doubt it will reach Sandy Bridge level.

 

[tokkun]

I can probably get like 400 bucks for my old CPU/mobo/ram though. so it wouldn't cost me that much to have new components with the latest tech all under warranty again.

Then it's $300 that you can use toward a GPU upgrade in the future. Or an Oculus Rift. Or anything else that could provide you with some more readily apparent utility.

"Latest tech" and warranty seem like you are reaching for a reason to upgrade. I know the feeling; I'm on a 2500K myself, I'm a hobbyist, and I enjoy doing new builds. I have been trying to come up with a reason to switch to Skylake or Haswell-E myself. But to be honest, I can't find much in the new platform that would justify spending $100 for my use cases, let alone more. Maybe your use cases are different, and you are certainly free to spend your money in whatever way makes you happy, but I would encourage you to think carefully about what your real reasons for buying it are. It is easy to become a consumer zombie who buys things just for the sake of the temporary dopamine rush that comes from clicking that purchase button, like these guys who own 500 games on Steam and have never even booted most of them.

 

[Diablos]

AMD has literally zero chance of ever being performance competitive with Intel again. Literally zero.

 

[tensuke]

lol people have been playing the "intel now or wait for next amd" game for ages. And honestly, if you're going for straight performance, AMD still won't deliver. Sorry. But they will be a lot cheaper and usually "good enough" if that's important. If you want to upgrade from a 2600K, yeah, stick with Intel.

 

[Raticus79]

I have an i7 2600k and need more PCI-E lanes to feed my GPUs. Really hoping they'll have a 6 or 8 core Skylake. If not, I'll probably still go for the 4 core and upgrade it later.

 

[big_z]

if youre on a 2600ish or better cpu theres no point in upgrading until intels next gen chips come out. it sucks that they were delayed but there is little advantage in upgrading right now. doing so would be more of a sideways step than a step forward.

 

[exmachina64]

It's true.

 

[greyskull]

You kids and your 2500k's. I'm rocking a six year old D0 i7-920, clocked at 3.8GHz. Still have very little reason to upgrade.

Funny thing, the only thing that has made me want a more powerful CPU is that I couldn't emulate Ratchet & Clank software mode (GPU acceleration had problems for this title on PCSX2).

I wish this wasn't the case, as I have a massive urge to build a new rig. Maybe 2016 with Skylake or its successor.

 

[mackieken]

Got myself a i5 750 and a GTX 760. I am definitely upgrading myself :3

I have i5-750 @ 3.33ghz and GTX 770, guess who's building Skylake computer?
Love upgrading computers with many year gaps, feels so fast and new again. Skylake, SSD, Windows 10, it'll be like I'm on this decade again.

 

[thuway]

Just gonna be 100 with ya'll- the i5 2500k OC'd has literally no reason to upgrade itself. I guess I can thank console manufacturers for their weak CPU's because the only real bottleneck I have is my 8 GB of RAM and my R9 280X.

 

[Xisiqomelir]

Skipping Skylake.

 

[cartman414]

I've been holding off on buying a new PC (that I desperately need) until Skylake comes out.
If Skylake CPUs are too expensive for now I guess I'll have to pass, can I get a 1151 mobo and a broadwell CPU to be more future future proof and use DDR4?

You're not likely to find Broadwell CPUs for cheaper. They never significantly mark down old chips, especially in this case so soon after release.

DDR4 support IIRC is new as of Skylake.

 

[tuxfool]

It should be noted that there is little reason to get Skylake just for DDR4 support. Currently it isn't that much faster than some of the faster (and cheaper) DDR3. I doubt that the skylake memory controller will even scale up to clock frequencies where the difference is noticeable.

 

[The Abominable Snowman]

Not a big enough jump to make me dive in. Still trying to find a game that would really benefit from having the latest and greatest CPU.

 

[IJoel]

I'm way overdue to build a new pc. The last build I made was about 5 years ago. That said, I'm really out of the loop with the best components so I'll be looking forward to GAF's suggestions for builds.

 

[npa189]

Sticking with my 3570k until it can't cut the mustard in the newest games, which won't be for a very long time. I have a friend that still has an i7 from 2009 that still kills in most games and its only at 2.6ghz. Intel chips have been so good for so long now I don't think AMD is going to catch up, they just don't have the R&D budget anymore.

 

[Spacecowboy77]

Yep, think it's time to finally upgrade my aging i7 860

Had a good run with it but you can feel the strain on newer titles

 

[The Goat]

Had my trusty 2600k oc @ 4.5 for a couple years now. Thing is bulletproof. I did add water cooling for the cpu, but I'm really not sure that's even necessary.

Skylake is currently what I'm eyeing for an upgrade though. 4 years is a long time for a pc build IMO. I'm overdue, so Skylake will get the nod. AMD offerings never even cross my mind as an option.

 

[Chanser]

I do like MSI new board.

http://www.techpowerup.com/214775/msi-to-fuse-oc-and-gaming-lines-with-z170-family.html

 

[Odrion]

From the benchmarks I've seen there's not even a performance boost with Skylake this time. It's what, DDR4 ram and a new USB speed?

And 4970k's successor won't even have that awesome 4.4 ghz stock speed.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

lol another terrible, classic unknown soldier AMD post.

lmao, did you forget how right I was about Fury
Win10 is out, did Fury start destroying Nvidia cards yet
did DX12 revolutionize Fury performance yet
AMD Zen is not going to close the performance gap, the only question is how much it will lose by

 

[sirap]

You kids and your 2500k's. I'm rocking a six year old D0 i7-920, clocked at 3.8GHz. Still have very little reason to upgrade.

Funny thing, the only thing that has made me want a more powerful CPU is that I couldn't emulate Ratchet & Clank software mode (GPU acceleration had problems for this title on PCSX2).

I wish this wasn't the case, as I have a massive urge to build a new rig. Maybe 2016 with Skylake or its successor.

Bruh, I almost cried when my 920 died. Best CPU ever.

 

[Odrion]

I wouldn't buy anything from AMD right now considering how long they've been circling the drain for. Do you really want to invest hundreds in a product of a company whose future is really shaky?

 

[Shenmue]

Damn it I just got my i7 4790k! Are these going to be way better?

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Damn it I just got my i7 4790k! Are these going to be way better?

No.

 

[XBP]

Damn it I just got my i7 4790k! Are these going to be way better?

No they're not. They're rumored to give 5-10% performance boost. Real world usage should be exactly the same.

lmao, did you forget how right I was about Fury
Win10 is out, did Fury start destroying Nvidia cards yet
did DX12 revolutionize Fury performance yet
AMD Zen is not going to close the performance gap, the only question is how much it will lose by

Not sure if you realize but there are no dx12 games out yet.

 

[Shining Sunshine]

So is the coming skylake really that bad?

My mobo is dying and I do have my 2600k, but my rig is overall pretty bad. I don't want to replace my mobo only. I'd rather upgrade everything at once.

 

[Rosur]

Gonna stick with my 4690k setup for a while (probably next 2 years). Then DDR4 ram will be more mainstream

 

[DiscoShark]

Reading a lot of these posts has me questioning my decision to wait for Skylake to build my computer. Short of the thing somehow becoming an overclocking monster / being priced extremely reasonably is there any merit to going with the i5 6600k over the Haswell stuff if I'm almost literally upgrading from nothing?

 

[Boss Mog]

Reading a lot of these posts has me questioning my decision to wait for Skylake to build my computer. Short of the thing somehow becoming an overclocking monster / being priced extremely reasonably is there any merit to going with the i5 6600k over the Haswell stuff if I'm almost literally upgrading from nothing?

Well if you're starting from scratch there's pretty much no reason not to go with Skylake since the CPUs and motherboards will be priced pretty much the same. Skylake is a new architecture and a die shrink (to 14nm from 22nm) compared to Haswell. If you can get the the new gen of tech for pretty much the same price why would you go with older tech? Plus DDR4 RAM has dropped a lot and isn't that much more expensive than DDR3 anymore.

 

[Grassy]

I've had my 2600k for over 4 years now. It runs fine @ 4.7ghz on air, but I think I'm going to get an AIO water cooling unit and try and hit 5.5ghz.

If it melts then I'll upgrade to Skylake.

 

[Kudo]

Reading a lot of these posts has me questioning my decision to wait for Skylake to build my computer. Short of the thing somehow becoming an overclocking monster / being priced extremely reasonably is there any merit to going with the i5 6600k over the Haswell stuff if I'm almost literally upgrading from nothing?

Well, Skylake is coming this/next week and it's definitely going to perform better, even if marginally. DDR4 price coming down now and if the CPU/Motherboard is reasonably priced then probably not much difference to what you will be paying for Haswell, if you're buying them new that is.
As far as I know, I don't think Intel has habit of cutting prices that much but I could be wrong.

 

[Oublieux]

You kids and your 2500k's. I'm rocking a six year old D0 i7-920, clocked at 3.8GHz. Still have very little reason to upgrade.

Funny thing, the only thing that has made me want a more powerful CPU is that I couldn't emulate Ratchet & Clank software mode (GPU acceleration had problems for this title on PCSX2).

I wish this wasn't the case, as I have a massive urge to build a new rig. Maybe 2016 with Skylake or its successor.

Same, I have been running an i7 920 at 4.0. Coincidentally, I have had the urge all day today to just try and push it further as it is still on a low voltage.

It is a trooper of a CPU. I was waiting for Intel's successor, Cannonlake, but as that has been delayed 2H 2017, I may shoot for the Skylake variant coming out '16.

 

[Durante]

I upgraded from a 920 to my current 5820k late last year. I think I'm set for at least half a decade.

 

[DiscoShark]

Well if you're starting from scratch there's pretty much no reason not to go with Skylake since the CPUs and motherboards will be priced pretty much the same. Skylake is a new architecture and a die shrink (to 14nm from 22nm) compared to Haswell. If you can get the the new gen of tech for pretty much the same price why would you go with older tech? Plus DDR4 RAM has dropped a lot and isn't that much more expensive than DDR3 anymore.

Well, Skylake is coming this/next week and it's definitely going to perform better, even if marginally. DDR4 price coming down now and if the CPU/Motherboard is reasonably priced then probably not much difference to what you will be paying for Haswell, if you're buying them new that is.
As far as I know, I don't think Intel has habit of cutting prices that much but I could be wrong.

Thanks for the responses guys, the wait continues!

 

[con-ca-te-nate]

I just bought i5 4590 last May.