Wait for Bulldozer or upgrade to Sandybridge?

MichaelM · 5 Aug 2011 at 00:27

treehouse786 said:
there are reports that bulldozer slaps sandybridge silly

http://news.softpedia.com/news/AMD-FX-Bulldozer-CPU-Gets-Benchmarked-210699.shtml

and that was with an engineering sample...

Well that would be rather pleasant

David2655 · 5 Aug 2011 at 07:17

personally im quite soon just going to bite the bullet and get an i5 2500k, never heard of anyone whos regretted it, and the "next gen tech" is always going to be just around the corner, if i wait for bulldozer i "might as well" wait for ivy bridge, and by that time something else will be just around the corner etc....

dazzerd · 5 Aug 2011 at 07:36

treehouse786 said:
there are reports that bulldozer slaps sandybridge silly

http://news.softpedia.com/news/AMD-FX-Bulldozer-CPU-Gets-Benchmarked-210699.shtml

and that was with an engineering sample...

I think it's best to wait for real results:

All in all, the 3DMark11 score was P6265, the Fritz Chess result 29.58,14197 kn/sec, PCMark 7 performance was of 3045, Cinevench R10 scored 24434 and, finally, X264 reached 45.39 fps (P2), 136.29 (P1).

In other words, the price rival Intel Core i7 2600K is completely outperformed while the 6-core Gulftown only barely bests it. Then again, that very same Gulftown loses in less multi-threaded applications (3DMark 11 and X264) because of the Bulldozer's 1 GHz Turbo Core.

Doesn't really tell us anything; what was the speed of the intel chips, what was the speed of BD what actually were the results of the intel tests? I also never trust a source where the English is poor. Also in the majority of tests sandy bridge really does destroy gulftown so it makes no sense to say that BD beats SB but only just beats gulftown.

Hope BD is great but let's wait and see. My experience suggests it's going to be a mixed bag.

Nightglow · 5 Aug 2011 at 08:03

Worth waiting I think, you will see the 2500K price drop a bit, if Bulldozer is as good as they say it is.

Greboth · 5 Aug 2011 at 09:26

With Bulldozer this close there really isn't any point in my opiniong going for sandy bridge right now. Unless there are any more delays we should have some official information for BD in a few weeks. Yes there will be new tech out soon with Ivy Bridge and Second gen BD (have they named it yet?) but that at the earliest is months away so seems a bit pointless to me waiting for then as afaik the dates we have are only estimates anyway so could be even longer.

Mik3 · 5 Aug 2011 at 13:15

It depends on what you use it for, if its just gaming I would get the SB as there will probably be little difference. If your number crunching then I would wait as the bulldozer with its 8 cores will probably be faster.

gareth170 · 5 Aug 2011 at 13:33

Greboth said:
WitYes there will be new tech out soon with Ivy Bridge and Second gen BD (have they named it yet?) but that at the earliest is months away so seems a bit pointless to me waiting for then as afaik the dates we have are only estimates anyway so could be even longer.

TBH i would say the Second gen BD will be late, maybe Q4 2012 or even Q1-Q2 2013.

King Damager · 5 Aug 2011 at 13:33

I went for Sandy Bridge when I chose to upgrade... I'm glad I did with the amount of delay on Bulldozer...

kd

Jony27 · 5 Aug 2011 at 14:03

@jennidc
get alteast a GTX560Ti, and get the Silver Arrow, best air cooler at the moment(unless space is an issue)

gurusan said:
Go Sandy Bridge...you won't regret it....and if you do you can always upgrade to Ivy Bridge. Bulldozer is going to be a fail just like Phenom.

i agree that getting an i5 now will keep you going for quite a while but saying the the phenom wis/was a fail?
comon now, before Sandybridge came out the Phenoms had the best price/performance ratio,

shuffle · 5 Aug 2011 at 14:10

Then theres the second round of Sandy Bridge to appear, the E series and another socket, 2011. These are supposed to be out November, hopefully sooner if Bulldozer impresses.

Jony27 · 5 Aug 2011 at 14:19

then theres whatever coming after that, and something after that.
the thing is, you just have to bite the bullet at some point, things just move so fast and sometimes you never notice that youve been waiting for over 5 years.

Greboth · 5 Aug 2011 at 14:47

gareth170 said:
TBH i would say the Second gen BD will be late, maybe Q4 2012 or even Q1-Q2 2013.

Worded it rather badly but was in a bit of a rush. I meant that while there is always something new round the corner BD is immenent while the next upgrade of cpu's to come out (ivy bridge) is at the earliest months away (vaguely remember reading it possibly being Q1 2012.) So while you can wait forever, waiting a few weeks seems sensible as only going to be advantages to you.

gareth170 · 5 Aug 2011 at 15:08

Greboth said:
Worded it rather badly but was in a bit of a rush. I meant that while there is always something new round the corner BD is immenent while the next upgrade of cpu's to come out (ivy bridge) is at the earliest months away (vaguely remember reading it possibly being Q1 2012.) So while you can wait forever, waiting a few weeks seems sensible as only going to be advantages to you.

true.

i'd say just buy when you want to upgrade, whats already out. don't wait for the next release because you'll be keep waiting..

SeeKified · 5 Aug 2011 at 16:02

SB-E has supposedly been delayed to early 2012 according to various news channels. Guess they're curious as to how Bulldozer performs.

RiseAgainst · 5 Aug 2011 at 16:30

if you can wait for BD then I you may as well and if it doesn't beat SB then just grab an i5 , no sense being this close to the launch and not waiting

ATIorNvidia · 5 Aug 2011 at 17:02

jorzeh said:
Well he did say what we're all thinking, Over the last 15 years i've had a lot of AMD Cpu's, I was a massive fan, My PC used to break down often under AMD's CPU's. Soon as i switched to Intel i've got had a problem, Ever. How i see if AMD are cheap and made cheaper abit slower, Intel you pay more but you get more.

*looks at her broken X2 4400 she paid £350 for in the day* *kicks it*.

No, we're not all thinking such rubbish. Speak for yourself.

gurusan said:
Go Sandy Bridge...you won't regret it....and if you do you can always upgrade to Ivy Bridge. Bulldozer is going to be a fail just like Phenom.

TBH I think most Intel fanboys here are afraid of Bulldozer being better than Sandybridge. Buyers remorse, maybe?

ByMRK1 said:
Waiting for what?? The Bulldozer MAY be better than sandybridge, but what about when Intel's Ivy range come out?

You're conveniently forgetting about BD-E.

gareth170 · 5 Aug 2011 at 17:08

gurusan said:
Bulldozer is going to be a fail just like Phenom.

lol.

BD isn't even out yet, nobody as seen any benchmarks from a retail chip......

Bleek · 5 Aug 2011 at 17:37

jorzeh said:
Well he did say what we're all thinking, Over the last 15 years i've had a lot of AMD Cpu's, I was a massive fan, My PC used to break down often under AMD's CPU's. Soon as i switched to Intel i've got had a problem, Ever. How i see if AMD are cheap and made cheaper abit slower, Intel you pay more but you get more.

*looks at her broken X2 4400 she paid £350 for in the day* *kicks it*.

You're talking utter, utter nonsense.

Matterez · 5 Aug 2011 at 17:50

gurusan said:
Go Sandy Bridge...you won't regret it....and if you do you can always upgrade to Ivy Bridge. Bulldozer is going to be a fail just like Phenom.

Phenom wasn't a fail...

wannabedamned · 5 Aug 2011 at 18:03

Matterez said:
Phenom wasn't a fail...

from a technological standpoint it was, its behind the current leader, with regards to performance, heat and power usage.

Which is a fail

BD could easily be a "win" though, We just have to wait and see.

In answer to the OPs question. I'm buying sandybridge i5 2500k, Why? Because I want a gaming rig, and for gaming Sandybridge i5 is brilliant, I'm not too bothered about waiting on unknowns.