Why should you....

[JCNiest5]

Upgrade to Haswell if you already own a top performing CPU (ie: 3770K, 2600K/2700K, etc...)?

Are there new features on the Haswell that IB/SB don't have? The process is smaller and should run at lower vcore, but featurewise....what's new/added?

 

[Tsumi]

Process is the same, just more mature. It's the different architecture that increases efficiency and performance.

And no, there really is no point. Haswell will have AVX2, which should theoretically double FPU throughput, but only for applications that support AVX2. And applications that properly support AVX2 are rare. There's also FMA3.

If you owned a 920 at 4 ghz, there wasn't much of a reason to go to SB or IB for gaming purposes, unless you were running tri/quad SLI/crossfire. 920 to Haswell seems to be pretty much the same story, and SB/IB to Haswell is going to be harder to justify.

 

[Concentric]

Firstly, we don't know exactly how Haswell will perform yet, so we can't say.

Secondly, it's the same situation for every new generation. The dilema - to upgrade or not to upgrade.
It's very rare that a new generation offers vastly more performance than the one before it. Usually it's a relatively small, incremental performance increase in general, with perhaps a few new features that will benefit certain applications but not others. If you want to know what those features are then just Google it...?

Whether someone should buy the latest thing entirely depends on their situation. It's not a simple yes or no.
If they can afford it and they want the best performance, then great - go for it. They probably won't be disappointed. Some people don't mind shelling out for the latest tech, even if what they already have is good enough.
Most people who already have Ivy or Sandy won't feel the need to upgrade, and in fact some of us are still managing perfectly well with our Core 2 Duos and Quads!

In short, if you need more performance than what you currently have, get one. If you don't, don't.
If you want to know more details then look at reviews and benchmarks so that you can decide for yourself what constitutes a worthwhile upgrade.

 

[DeathFromBelow]

what's new/added?

Double GPU performance seems to be the big thing.

It's probably not going to be worth upgrading if you currently have a good Sandy or Ivy Bridge setup and you don't use the onboard GPU, but we won't know how it performs until it's available.

 

[atarione]

i will have a compelling reason to go from my i5-2500K to haswell unless it has some major flaw (having watched the Sandy bridge launch and motherboard recall debacle) I shall probably wait 1 to 2 months.

but then I shall likely upgrade...

why?


because my wife's computer is a rather long in the tooth E5200 / GA-P35-DS3L rig atm, I shall give her my i5-2500K and move to Haswell for my rig most likely.

if you have multiple rigs it is easier to justify these sorts of upgrades ...