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i7 980x or wait for Sandy Bridge?

B

BigVeg

n00b
Joined
Dec 17, 2007
Messages
55
I decided to forgo upgrading my current system and am looking to upgrade to a 980x, and Rampage III. Money is not a real issue here as I tend to buy a pretty kick ass system then upgrade only the video incrementally. I do a fair amount of video encoding a family movies so the faster I can get them done the better. I only game occasionally as time permits.

So the questions is do I pull the trigger now or is the next architecture that intel is offering really look to provide a leap like the i7 did over the core 2?

Your thoughts and responses as always are greatly appreciated..
 
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My opinion isn't as well researched as some I'm sure, but given the amount of time that Intels recent offerings (ie. the 1156 socket items came out WAY later than originally planned) take getting to market, I'm not sure I'd wait if I found myself CPU limited now. The next upgrade for 1366 is a "Tock" and though useful, "Ticks" are the BIG jump like the Core i's.

You already have a top of the line video card, but if you were interested in upgrading now I'd suggest a modified plan. If you want the best of the best, stick with 1366 (this will of course mean you'll need tri channel RAM kit). The 980X is the only hex-core offering at the time and it is expensive as hell. If you really have unlimited funds pretty much its the best you can do. However, you'll get 80% of the performance spending MUCH less on an i7 920 or 930 quad and overclocking it significantly (even under good air you can hit 3.8 to 4.0!). Recent benchmarks I've seen show a lead going to a 980X (versus non-OCed i7 quads), but when OCed the lead diminishes and I don't feel its enough to warrant the price. Intel has been stingy with their 6-core models, and if you really want one of those, I say wait for the "Tock" which will spawn the non-extremes. If you want to upgrade now, grab a 920/930 and go to town!

Motherboard wise, if I recall correctly the Maximus III is 1156 "consumer level" socket board, and wouldn't fit the 980X or any of the 1366 high end gear. What you want instead is the Rampage III Extreme! The Maximus line is the best of the intel consumer models, but the "prosumer/enthusiast" line is Rampage. Rampage III Extreme is cutting edge right now and will be a great board to last you for a long time. The downside is of course the cost of around $400, but such is what Rampage Extremes cost when they first come out. I have its predecessor, the Rampage II Extreme that I bought a year or two back and its still the best board I've owned.

If you decide to upgrade either way to a 1366 platform, you're going to need RAM. Unlike most other models, the 1366 platform is configured for tri-channel memory. Corsair Dominator GTs top the list, but any high-binned RAM will do so you get a good OC. If you're sticking to air cooling, DDR3 1600 is "good enough" as it will allow you to easily hit 4.0ghz which is sort of the max for stable, constant use air anyway.

Hope this helps!
 
First off, if we go by Intel's description of the "tick-tock" model, the ticks are the new manufacturing processes (such as the current 32 nm of Westmere). The tock is the architecture designed around said process.

As far as I can tell, there will not be much of a tock (new architecture) on the LGA1366 socket. Westmere (including the 980X) was the 32 nm shrink of Nehalem (i.e. it was the tick). Sandy Bridge is going to be a "tock" with a new architecture. What I can find is that Sandy Bridge will use different sockets: LGA 1155 and LGA 2011 and maybe LGA 1356 (the last I can't find any particularly reputable source for).

In other words, LGA 1366 will probably be made obsolete as a high end socket when they roll out the entirety of Sandy Bridge, although that may not be until near the end of 2011.
 
The 980X will be good until 2012. By then, Ivy Bridge (2011 Sandy Bridge die shrink to 22nm) and Haswell (2012 Sandy Bridge replacement) eight core chips will be on the market.

Sandy Bridge will only last a year or so. I'll stick with 1366 until Ivy or Haswell.
 
WorldExclusive said:
The 980X will be good until 2012. By then, Ivy Bridge (2011 Sandy Bridge die shrink to 22nm) and Haswell (2012 Sandy Bridge replacement) eight core chips will be on the market.

Sandy Bridge will only last a year or so. I'll stick with 1366 until Ivy or Haswell.
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By the same argument, a year after that the next architecture may or may not be in (by the usual "cadence" it will), so honestly, it's just an argument of which switch is a bigger impact. I'm waiting on Sandy Bridge on a financial standpoint as well as waiting for a new chipset (which, unfortunately, probably still won't have USB 3.0)
 
Seriously I would hold out until something more significant comes along. Why not just buy core 2 quad and wait? Q9550 is just shy of i5 750. It's just as good. You wouldn't need to upgrade your motherboard, ram, etc..

You have a nice x38 board. Might as well put it to good use.
 
You could wait a month or 2 and get a i7 970. That is also a possibility. I'm guessing it'll be around $800 or so. You'd then have maybe 4-6 months at the minimum using a kick ass hex core and have people like me hating you a little bit less than if you bought a 980x :D
 
I remember reading that the high end sandybridge processors that would replace the 6 core processors were coming out in 2nd half of next year so you have a while to wait.
 
Grab the 980x use it for a bit and sell it before the price drops.
 
Problem is SandyB isn't hitting till sometime 2011: You'll have to survive for some more time on that dualcore Conroe.

As posted above your best options are
1) Buy the $1000 6core 980X and call it a day.
2) Wait a bit for the rumored 6core 970 which may or may not be significantly cheaper
3) Buy a 4core 930 and OC it. You're missing 2cores but real world performance isn't a direct 2/3 of 6core. Depends on your apps but this is a much more cost effective solution.

You said you do a lot of video encoding so its better to just say goodbye to that Dualcore right now.
I wonder how much those X6800s would go for anyways.
 
Since the OP already knows what it's like to buy an extreme cpu and is willing to do so again I think buying the 980x now is worth it. It will be a massive upgrade over the x6800 and it will probably be the top dog of Intel cpu's for at least 12 to 18 months.
 
If you need something faster now, buy now. If you can wait, then wait. Problem with waiting is you'll wait and then wait some more and it could be even longer before you decide to bite the bullet and buy something.

I was going to wait for SB, I was happy with my q9450@3.6...then I caught the f@h bug and wanted -bigadv points, now I have 2 i7's + the q9450 and e8400 systems I already had. Can't really say my i7's are light years ahead of my q9450 in terms of speed I notice day in and day out...but they're definitely fast.

You're on a dual and doing encoding - I'd bite the bullet now. You honestly don't need the hexa though especially not with a high oc on a 920/930 with HT on.
 
Yeah if you do a lot of video encodes, then the 980X is flat out fastest on the market right now. Just get it and cut your encode times in half or more. Conroe is so last gen.
 
Wait and see what price the 970 comes out at, I've heard that its going to be around $500 from some high-up sources.
 
Wait Sandy Bridge is totaly new architecture?
I though Sandy bridge to current i7 is what Penryns were to Conroe ?
 
people who buy extreme cpus generally dont wait and you said money isnt an issue.

my friend recently moved from q9650 to 980x and hes quite happy.
 
the 980x is really for those early adopters, i like to wait a few months

better off waiting for more 32nm i7 chips i think
 
MrXROK said:
That pic hand drawn? lol. Sandy is nothing more than i7 with GPU on die. It isn't a new architecture. It's basically an i3 with 4 and 6 cores with on die GPU.
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That is not correct. Sandy Bridge is in fact a new architecture. Will include new instruction sets also.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Sandy_Bridge_(microarchitecture)

and if you don't like wikis, here is another link:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/di...ors_New_Infrastructure_in_Q1_2011_Source.html

Now, I suppose it may be debatable as to how "new" the architecture may or may not be, however, Intel has said that it will not be just a mere rehash of Nehalem.

Also, it appears that Sandy Bridge will appear on a different socket than the I5s and I7s are on now. Initially, the chips will be on the new socket, LGA1155.

I am still skeptical to see what adding an on-die GPU will do in terms of overclocks and performance. Most of us on this forum have no need for integrated graphics...
 
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Definitely Warmonkey. AVX appears to be a good advancement. I'm wondering how much real world performance that might mean for us in the audio/video/encoding/archiving/data processing/etc apps.
 
I think the claim is a theoretical increase of 50% in maximum GFLOPS for all that's worth
 
Good information everyone! I'm down to getting a i930 or the i980x, thought here is I might go crossfire with the 5870 if I do not get the i980x. For memory for this pig what is your guys best experience with DDR3 (1333, 1600, 1866, 2000)?
 
BigVeg said:
Good information everyone! I'm down to getting a i930 or the i980x, thought here is I might go crossfire with the 5870 if I do not get the i980x. For memory for this pig what is your guys best experience with DDR3 (1333, 1600, 1866, 2000)?
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RAM speed doesn't really matter *too much* just because depending on your bclk and divider it will run slower or faster than advertised.

IME 1333 will oc to 1600, and 1600 runs 2:8 divider with a 200bclk. Personally I see no reason to get anything other than 1600 especially because it will go higher than 1600 in most cases and I doubt you're going to run much above 200bclk with the oc anyway...most people run max multi and then run between 180-210bclk.

In other words - don't pay extra for 1866 or 2000. If it's the same cost as 1600....then get 1600 with tighter timings.
 
I'm not so sure that I understand this thread if money isn't an issue. There is always something better right around the corner.

I think that there are much better investments for the vast majority of people out there but if money is no issue I guess 790x is the way to go.
 
I think the 980x is a better investment, it'll last a lot longer and you can get a better video card further down the road.
 
Unless you're mostly doing work that will take advantage of 6 cores the 980X isn't a good value. An overclocked 930 will do just as well.
 
devil22 said:
I think the 980x is a better investment, it'll last a lot longer and you can get a better video card further down the road.
Click to expand...

By the time that most people need 6 cores or even 12 threads a better product will be on the market. You can also pick up a Phenom 2 X6 for less than a quarter of the price for the cpu alone never mind the rest of the platform cost.

Darksword said:
Unless you're mostly doing work that will take advantage of 6 cores the 980X isn't a good value. An overclocked 930 will do just as well.
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QFT
 
I notice you have a SSD. Maybe I'm wrong, but getting one or two more and putting them in RAID 0 might get you some noticeable speed.

Of course a kick ass proc works too :)
 
BigVeg said:
Good information everyone! I'm down to getting a i930 or the i980x, thought here is I might go crossfire with the 5870 if I do not get the i980x. For memory for this pig what is your guys best experience with DDR3 (1333, 1600, 1866, 2000)?
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Dude, I got some ripjaws 1600 and they absolutely rocked.


I don't know much about this, but have you looked into encoding using video cards for encoding? I thought I heard they are million times faster than stuff done by the proc.
 
I got a 980x for the same reason, video encoding and it rocks. Read any of the reviews out there and when it comes to video encoding nothing touches a 980x, even at stock. Yes, GPU based encoding is faster, but barely and you are limited to the applications that can use it. Now if money is not an issue, then you should look at the EVGA SR2 and two Xeon 6-core processors for some real fun and power. 24 threads should encode quite fast.
 
BababooeyHTJ said:
By the time that most people need 6 cores or even 12 threads a better product will be on the market. You can also pick up a Phenom 2 X6 for less than a quarter of the price for the cpu alone never mind the rest of the platform cost.



QFT
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1. He said he was deciding between a i7 930 and an 980x.

2. In response to your QFT, he said he was doing video encoding, which can use 6 cores.
 
devil22 said:
1. He said he was deciding between a i7 930 and an 980x.

2. In response to your QFT, he said he was doing video encoding, which can use 6 cores.
Click to expand...

How much video encoding? You are talking about a workstation/server cpu. Doesn't sound like he's doing it professionally to me. In no way is that chip for the vast majority of people a good value especially when ATI is selling a six core chip where the entire platform would cost less than a third of this cpu alone.

But like utnorris said if money isn't an issue the choice is clear and I don't understand the point of the thread.
 
If cost really is no issue then the 980X is as good as it gets. However, if you are looking for the best bang for the buck, the 920/930's present very good value in your price range.

I used to do a lot of video rendering/encoding in Adobe Premiere myself. I upgraded from a Q6600 overclocked to 3.6GHz to the i7 920 in my sig, and while I saw pretty big improvements in rendering times, it really wasn't THAT big of an improvement. I had to create small videos on a semi-professional level that ranged anywhere from as little as 3 minutes to 10 minutes tops, with the average video length being around the 5-6 minute mark. To render these videos on the i7 over the Q6600, we're talking about an average savings of anywhere from 1-2 minutes. Don't get me wrong, that's a profound improvement, but for my usage the time savings barely equaled the amount of money spent upgrading, and that's only because I offset my costs by selling my old hardware.

The point I'm trying to make here is that you should take a serious look at what your needs are and then decide if it's worth the money and effort to upgrade. If you're only a leisure gamer that dabbles with family videos here and there an i7 920/930 is more than capable of serving your needs. If you are a serious gamer that is looking to squeeze out every last bit of performance from a Crossfire/SLI setup, and is churning out new video content every other day then the 980X is worth every penny.

But let's face it, for the majority of people on this board, a 980X is moreso for bragging rights than it is for actual work purposes. It is the Lamborghini or Ferrari of CPUs. Only few can comfortably spend that much money and not starve, lol. :p There's absolutely nothing wrong with that and if you fit this category you're among the privileged few... and I hate you.

Just kidding. ;)

Do post pictures up regardless of what direction you go though. :D
 
Currently dealing with a pretty sizable backlog of Family Video's in Hi Def (1080i) 60 min tapes that I am just trying to get burned to DvD in the least amount of time possible. If the 980x really does not provide that big of a difference than the 930 then that would make my decision easier.
 
You don't need triple channel memory to run an i7 anymore. Most motherboards that have come out in the last 3-4 months now support both Dual-Channel and Triple-Channel memory when paired with an i7 processor.

I should know, because when I went from my i7-1156 860 CPU to the i7-1366 965EE, I used my Dual-Channel ram for a month before I purchased another 4GB of Ram to go to 12GB. When it was reading 8GB according to CPU-Z, it showed Dual-Channel. When I added the additional 4GB of Ram, CPU-Z showed 12GB Triple Channel. Ram is Ram...Just purchase the same memory and it will go either dual or triple channel.
 
BigVeg said:
Good information everyone! I'm down to getting a i930 or the i980x, thought here is I might go crossfire with the 5870 if I do not get the i980x. For memory for this pig what is your guys best experience with DDR3 (1333, 1600, 1866, 2000)?
Click to expand...

Wow if your choice is between i930 + Crossfire 5870 vs i980x and a Single 5870, I'd pick the first combination everytime, particularly if you ever plan to game on that system. If your ONLY use is video/decoding/encoding, etc. than the 980x is the fastest. But if you intend to game, having two GPUs will affect your performance more than having a 6 core processor. In fact most reviews show very little FPS difference between quad core i7s and the 980x in gaming use.

Check the benchmarks below. There's usually less than a 10fps difference between the 980x and other i7 processors. Sometimes it is less than a 2 fps diffeence.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2960/12

Now compare the performance of 1x 5870 vs 2x5870 in Crossfire! The difference in FPS is HUGE.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-5870-crossfirex-test-review/7

For memory go with DDR3. Either 6GB or 12GB is fine. I'd say anything between 1600mhz and 2000mhz is more than sufficient. Some people even use 1333. I don't think you would notice much of a difference honestly except when running Everest Bench. ^_^
 
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