Nehalem: Just A Stop-gap?

[MINDSCI]

If you Wiki & Google Intel & Intel Bloomfield, Intel "Tick-Tock" it seems clear that Bloomfield is going to be very short lived...

Also, Software is not even out that can take advantage of the new intel AMD like CPU architecture, not to mention the multiple cores.

32nm chips are coming in Q4 of '09 and 8 core nehalem based chips are coning around that time too unless Intel delays it to sell off inventory...

Do you all think it is worth diving in to Intel's new chips yet? and how soon do you think software will become available to make these new chips worth the investment?

[malmsteenisgod]

8 core Nehalem chips? Games can't even take advantage of 4 yet, so if it's gaming your doing, then no. I won't be upgrading to i7's anytime soon. In fact I probably will skip i7 altogether as they have little to no performance increase in games over any of the previous quads or dual cores.

[Guest ajmatson]

Agreed with malmsteenisgod

 

BTW I was just by the University of Texas Austin a week ago

[MINDSCI]

Agreed with malmsteenisgod

 

BTW I was just by the University of Texas Austin a week ago

 

My thinking is the same as you guys.

My little brother got his Architectural Engineering degree there at Austin, but I never got to visit there even though I was close by at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. I know UT Austin is a great school... There are some of the nation's best Neuroscience researchers there- eg. Eric Nestler.

[SpeedEuphoria]

I feel the same as ya'll. For me I have been doing just fine on an old AMD x2 setup. Dual core is plenty for most people ,gaming/whatever. If you have a quad I deff dont see that becoming limiting anytime soon, I mean who really needs more than a quad@4GHz?

[MINDSCI]

I feel the same as ya'll. For me I have been doing just fine on an old AMD x2 setup. Dual core is plenty for most people ,gaming/whatever. If you have a quad I deff dont see that becoming limiting anytime soon, I mean who really needs more than a quad@4GHz?

Nifty trick getting all my Ip info! I feel violated!

[Angry_Games]

For my server, or a media machine, I could see the i7 platform as very viable but not until DDR3 comes down in price (along with cpu's doing the same...and I suppose motherboards).

 

For gaming, I'm still using dual core cpu's on all the gaming rigs in the lab. I've tried a Q6600 and Phenom 9850 Black and while great for 'workstation' stuff, they actually kinda suck for gaming. 939 X2 3800+, AM2 X2 4800+, and E6300 Core2 and all rock for ANY game since they all have 8800 or better cards.

 

Another thing that is an important rule for me and a lot of old Street guys is the fact that i7 is 1st-generation technology from Intel. Sure Intel rocks and will fix any problems, but they are susceptible to the same manufacturing/engineering problems that all other manufacturers are, which is technology is still pretty iffy during first and sometimes even second generations of a 'new technology'. Good example is the Apple iPod and iPhone. First and second generations of these devices left a lot to be desired (ie they downright sucked!). First generation of A64 cpu's were decent, but the technology surrounding them (Nvidia chipsets *cough*) wasn't really all that great. Remember Nforce1 boards? Yeah, neither do I because nobody bought one after a few risk-takers took the plunge and found out eating broken glass was more enjoyable (and provided a richer computer experience honestly).

 

i7 looks nice, but I'm going to just watch from the sidelines until second generation chipsets, processors and such are out, sometime mid-2009 maybe. By then prices for DDR3, motherboards, and processors should be about where current-gen stuff is right now...very affordable and more powerful than ever.

[WhenKittensATK]

For my server, or a media machine, I could see the i7 platform as very viable but not until DDR3 comes down in price (along with cpu's doing the same...and I suppose motherboards).

 

For gaming, I'm still using dual core cpu's on all the gaming rigs in the lab. I've tried a Q6600 and Phenom 9850 Black and while great for 'workstation' stuff, they actually kinda suck for gaming. 939 X2 3800+, AM2 X2 4800+, and E6300 Core2 and all rock for ANY game since they all have 8800 or better cards.

 

i7 looks nice, but I'm going to just watch from the sidelines until second generation chipsets, processors and such are out, sometime mid-2009 maybe. By then prices for DDR3, motherboards, and processors should be about where current-gen stuff is right now...very affordable and more powerful than ever.

 

I agree, i7 would be kickass for a media machine. Being able to cut down encode times greatly with x264.

 

Also agree with the older CPUs still rocking out to the lastest games with ease with a mid range video card. This PC does fine with every game I throw at it, but it falls beind in encoding tremendously vs any quad core.

[Rodneyho]

If your just one system on the network and playing games or very little other things going on don't even worry about it. A dual core is for you.

 

If your....Gamming, Running Vent, Have a Sidebar full of streaming updates, manage your network, and push Blu-Ray 1080P to your TV all at the same time while pumping out 48+ FPS

 

Then you want Quad and pending on your encoding needs might want the I7. Also when the virus scan, or defrag kicks off I don't even skip a beat.