Future Hardware

[ethugholla]

In terms of processors and video cards, what's on the way? The last time I built a computer was three years ago, and I sort of fell behind the times. I've been trying to find as many articles and posts that delineate a roadmap for Intel and AMD but have not had any luck.

It seems like the latest round of processors to be released by Intel are here to stay around for awhile (Sandy Bridge). But that's as much as I could come up with.

 

[mnewsham]

Sandy bridge was released in January AMD's Bulldozer is looking like June 20th or so. Next up is Sandy bridge EP and socket 2011, followed by Intel's ivy bridge in early 2012. GPU's are testing 28nm right now, looking at a late summer (august?) for a release from AMD of a possible HD 7770 akin to what happened with 40nm and the HD 4770. A suspected release of higher end 28nm parts in Q3 and Q4 of this year for the holiday season. Hope that covers what you wanted to know.

 

[ethugholla]

Yeah, that just about covers it. Seems like nothing ground-shattering is due soon. Does this mean that it's a good time to build a PC? I see a ton of deals for Sandy Bridge processors.

 

[dma0991]

Bulldozer is pretty 'ground shattering' sort of if it does deliver a completely new architecture with much needed competition to Intel. The deciding point is when Bulldozer comes out around June 7th. By that time you can decide which direction is best for you as you can decide to get a Bulldozer or get an Intel SB rig with price cut due to competition. Intel Z68 motherboards are only coming out May onwards.

 

[ethugholla]

Good point. I'll do some research on Bulldozer. But I must admit, the new i5, i7 processors look extremely tempting.

 

[gorcorps]

The new processors have been pretty good tech compared to how stagnant things were in the CPU market. Sandybridge is great and Bulldozer should also be quite awesome. Are you looking at things to buy or just trying to keep up on news?

 

[ethugholla]

Just trying to keep up on news. If prices stay competitive for the high-end processor market I'll have to build one.