AMD Zen 3 (5000 Series), rumored 17% IPC gain.

[Perfect_Chaos]

Rather than buy an 8 core you don't need now for 'long term' (if such a thing exists in PC hardware), it's far cheaper on a whole-life basis to buy at the current optimal point for price / performance depending on what you need it to do.

At the extreme end of this, there are many comments about regrets from 3950 purchases from people that would have been fine with a 2600.

I'll be going with a 6 core 4000 series and spend the difference on a better GPU. I'll be interested to see some 6 core vs. 8 core benchmarks for next gen games to see what difference it actually makes for the casual gamer at 4K.

I could've done with the 3600 tbh, but have no problem moving from 3700x to the next 8 core if the chip performs that much better, and due to the layout the 8 core may have better latency which would help at those games Intel has advantages in.

We'll see once benchmarks hit, but it looks as if i might already have a new Nvidia GPU before these CPUs even come out. Was hoping to have both around the same time

 

[Doobedoo]

Rather than buy an 8 core you don't need now for 'long term' (if such a thing exists in PC hardware), it's far cheaper on a whole-life basis to buy at the current optimal point for price / performance depending on what you need it to do.

At the extreme end of this, there are many comments about regrets from 3950 purchases from people that would have been fine with a 2600.

I'll be going with a 6 core 4000 series and spend the difference on a better GPU. I'll be interested to see some 6 core vs. 8 core benchmarks for next gen games to see what difference it actually makes for the casual gamer at 4K.

Not for me it isn’t. I’m not a compulsive upgrader and will easily make a rig last me 5 years. The next gen Ryzen will require a complete upgrade of motherboard, cpu and ram. That will cost me much more than either not upgrading or just switching out a 3600 for a 5800?

 

[new boy]

I'm also planning to go with the 8 core and with 32gb ram. I expect to keep this platform for years, and I think the cores / ram will be beneficial before the single core speed is slow enough to be worth another upgrade.

You can make an arguement for it saving money by upgrading later instead, but I'm not convinced it would be worth the hassle, and how much are you really going to save by the time you have lost value on your existing CPU and paid for postage etc, and ram prices tend to go up once the new tech comes out and the old ones go out of production.

I'd rather just have that extra warm happy feeling and enjoy the pointless overkill from the start if you know what I mean lol.

 

[eeek]

What did you pay for it?

When I bought it £148 or so via an ebay 10% code..

 

[CuriousTomCat]

Not for me it isn’t. I’m not a compulsive upgrader and will easily make a rig last me 5 years. The next gen Ryzen will require a complete upgrade of motherboard, cpu and ram. That will cost me much more than either not upgrading or just switching out a 3600 for a 5800?

Yeah but regular upgrades are sometimes cheaper than a rig that lasts 5 years. Some people buy a high end GPU and keep it for 5 or 6 years. It's actually cheaper to do more regular smaller upgrades.

 

[HACO]

Yeah but regular upgrades are sometimes cheaper than a rig that lasts 5 years. Some people buy a high end GPU and keep it for 5 or 6 years. Regular upgrades actually cost less money.

Regular upgrades of parts that retain their value well within 18-24 months is almost always cheaper than running a rig into the ground for 5 years and more.

 

[Doobedoo]

Yeah but regular upgrades are sometimes cheaper than a rig that lasts 5 years. Some people buy a high end GPU and keep it for 5 or 6 years. It's actually cheaper to do more regular smaller upgrades.

Some people do buy high end gpus but not me. I brought mine second hand and it’s done me proud.

It depends on the individual but I don’t run high res, high refresh monitors so I don’t need the latest and greatest.

 

[nzaptx]

Talking strictly gaming, I've found that more recently I'm pushing 12+GB Ram usage, compared to CPU being fully utilized (playing MMOs), so I do feel that 16GB is close to being on the way out. 6 Cores will still be good in the foreseeable future and by the time you "need" to upgrade, we will have 8 cores as standard that will be much better than the 8 cores we have now.

 

[Dave2150]

Talking strictly gaming, I've found that more recently I'm pushing 12+GB Ram usage, compared to CPU being fully utilized (playing MMOs), so I do feel that 16GB is close to being on the way out. 6 Cores will still be good in the foreseeable future and by the time you "need" to upgrade, we will have 8 cores as standard that will be much better than the 8 cores we have now.

Yeap, noticed the same. Had 16GB DDR4 since August 2015 (with my Skylake i7), in the last year or two I'm regularly at 11-14GB usage.

Not spending any more money on old hat DDR4, I'll be opting for 32GB of DDR5 to go with my LGA 1700 or AM4+ motherboard, whichever is best at gaming. Looking at just over a year to release, fun times ahead

 

[Tetras]

Talking strictly gaming, I've found that more recently I'm pushing 12+GB Ram usage, compared to CPU being fully utilized (playing MMOs), so I do feel that 16GB is close to being on the way out. 6 Cores will still be good in the foreseeable future and by the time you "need" to upgrade, we will have 8 cores as standard that will be much better than the 8 cores we have now.

What MMOs are that?

 

[nzaptx]

What MMOs are that?

WoW/FFXIV, but I should clarify its total system usage not the game itself, other things running are os stuff/discord/browser (either youtube/twitch)/obs.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

If I’m buying I’ll buy 8 core as this will likely be the last upgrade for about 5 years. 6 cores is plenty but 8 core will be the sweet spot for a long term rig.

Logically to me makes zero sense.

Buy what's actually required and cost effective.

By the time 8 cores is needed there will be better 8 cores available.

It's a bit like saying I'm going to buy a 7 seater car when there are only 3 of you. But in the future I plan on having more kids so best I buy the 7 seater now rather than in 5 years time.

It's such a waste. My 3600x doesn't break a sweat I'm still waiting for the day games can use 6 cores.

 

[Doobedoo]

Logically to me makes zero sense.

Buy what's actually required and cost effective.


By the time 8 cores is needed there will be better 8 cores available.

It's a bit like saying I'm going to buy a 7 seater car when there are only 3 of you. But in the future I plan on having more kids so best I buy the 7 seater now rather than in 5 years time.

It's such a waste. My 3600x doesn't break a sweat I'm still waiting for the day games can use 6 cores.

If I’m buying I’ll buy 8 core

 

[new boy]

Logically to me makes zero sense.

Buy what's actually required and cost effective.

By the time 8 cores is needed there will be better 8 cores available.

It's a bit like saying I'm going to buy a 7 seater car when there are only 3 of you. But in the future I plan on having more kids so best I buy the 7 seater now rather than in 5 years time.

It's such a waste. My 3600x doesn't break a sweat I'm still waiting for the day games can use 6 cores.

But it's the end of the line for the platform, so you would have to buy new ram / motherboard too or just get what you could have got on day 1 anyway. I doubt people who bought a 2600k/3570k and 16gb of ram regretted it even though a i5 and 8gb ram was enough at the time. I don't think you would have even saved any money by upgrading later as DDR3 prices went through the roof once they were discontinued.

 

[Martini1991]

There's a balance to be struck.
People said the FX series 8 cores was meant to be future proof, but they're getting slapped around by the 3600 etc.

I do think there's a practical advantage to getting the 8 core CPU's today though however at the higher end.

 

[Smiffy-UK]

There's a balance to be struck.
People said the FX series 8 cores was meant to be future proof, but they're getting slapped around by the 3600 etc.

I do think there's a practical advantage to getting the 8 core CPU's today though however at the higher end.

Haha I love that line in bold! I could think of a word or two to go in front of slapped but I don't want another ban.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

But it's the end of the line for the platform, so you would have to buy new ram / motherboard too or just get what you could have got on day 1 anyway. I doubt people who bought a 2600k/3570k and 16gb of ram regretted it even though a i5 and 8gb ram was enough at the time. I don't think you would have even saved any money by upgrading later as DDR3 prices went through the roof once they were discontinued.

No its not am4 still has another revision of cpus launching.

Also buy a 3600 for £140.

Then in 3-5 years if 8 cores is needed. You will be able to sell it for £75 and get a second hand 3700 for £100.

Or even better a 4700 for £120.

Using the car analogy it's pointless buying something you don't need until you actually need it. Because better cpu and revision available in future.

I have already went from a 1700x to a 3600x and if my mobo gets a bios update I'll get the 4600 if it's a worthwhile upgrade or I'll wait a few years and pick one up second hand.

 

[KompuKare]

I can't help but think that people are being a bit optimistic about DDR5. The spec was only just finalised (14 July on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR5_SDRAM).
Even if memory manufacturers release it as the next big thing next year, I would imagine that it will command a serious premium for long while.
That's what happened DDR3>DDR4 and the times before that.
DDR4 spec was released in 2014 and widespread adoption was 2017 or so with Ryzen and 2nd gen Skylake (Kabylake although even CoffeeLake still supports DDR3 in some scenarios https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_Lake#Architecture_changes_compared_with_Kaby_Lake).
So I would expect DDR5 to become widespread in 2022 onwards. Leaving Zen4 in a bit of a dilemma. The last thing AMD would want to suffer from is a RAMBUS type thing where their platform is expensive due to only supporting DDR5 so they'll have to invest in a memory controllers able to handle both probably until at least 2023 (Zen5?).

As for 6 cores: well while it is true that the consoles will probably only allow a game to use 6C/12T with 2C/4T being reserved for the OS, it's not like Windows doesn't need resources too. Not sure if anyone aside from competitive FSP gamers actually game with a gaming profile in Windows where most background tasks are killed, but I would be cautious about going for only 6 cores now unless with the intent of upgrading to say a Zen3 8-core later.

 

[Joxeon]

I can't help but think that people are being a bit optimistic about DDR5. The spec was only just finalised (14 July on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR5_SDRAM).
Even if memory manufacturers release it as the next big thing next year, I would imagine that it will command a serious premium for long while.
That's what happened DDR3>DDR4 and the times before that.
DDR4 spec was released in 2014 and widespread adoption was 2017 or so with Ryzen and 2nd gen Skylake (Kabylake although even CoffeeLake still supports DDR3 in some scenarios https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_Lake#Architecture_changes_compared_with_Kaby_Lake).
So I would expect DDR5 to become widespread in 2022 onwards. Leaving Zen4 in a bit of a dilemma. The last thing AMD would want to suffer from is a RAMBUS type thing where their platform is expensive due to only supporting DDR5 so they'll have to invest in a memory controllers able to handle both probably until at least 2023 (Zen5?).

I doubt they will go down that rabbit hole of trying to support both ddr4 and 5 on the same platform and you say it will more expensive but bear in mind that just 1dimm will be able to work in dual channel so maybe it won't be as expensive as you think unless you want a quad channel 2 dimm set up.

 

[new boy]

No its not am4 still has another revision of cpus launching.

Also buy a 3600 for £140.

Then in 3-5 years if 8 cores is needed. You will be able to sell it for £75 and get a second hand 3700 for £100.

Or even better a 4700 for £120.

Using the car analogy it's pointless buying something you don't need until you actually need it. Because better cpu and revision available in future.

I have already went from a 1700x to a 3600x and if my mobo gets a bios update I'll get the 4600 if it's a worthwhile upgrade or I'll wait a few years and pick one up second hand.

I'm on about buying the 8c zen 3 chip so there will be no in socket upgrade. I would likely make a small saving if I took the 6c and then upgraded to the 8c in a few years, but I don't think it would be much after I've paid fees / postage on selling the old chip. + I'd have someone else's second hand chip unless I bought an new chip which would probably erase all the savings