I don't have any hard facts to hand but I have been doing my research on the matter. Broadwell is 100% compatible with Z97 motherboards, it's down to the manufacturer to release BIOS updates, so make sure that they have before you take the plunge. Broadwell is going to be released into the wild in April according to Hexus and Skylake, which will be on a different platform using the Z1** chipsets, and running with an LGA 1151 socket. Skylake is said to be ready for release in June some time, with compatibility for both DDR3 and DDR4 - again, dependent on the motherboard. If you can hold off the upgrade, Skylake is definitely the one to go for. That's what I am doing. I'll be selling my Z97 board after my next overclocking session with a good friend of mine and then waiting for Skylake, and its counterparts.
Do Intel ever announce when they are going to release a new CPU ? I thought they normally only let people know on the day of release.
I think the only concrete thing to come out from Intel was during IDF in September, when they announced that volume shipments of Skylake CPUs are scheduled for the second half of 2015.
I'm still running a first-gen i5 760 and can't bring myself to pull the trigger on Haswell/Broadwell now. The performance difference just isn't THAT big (unless overclocking) and I don't need as much raw performance I used to... I'll pull the trigger on Skylake, I think. By then, there should be a cumulative +50% gain per clock and a good saving in power consumption... I'm trying to convince myself it'll be worth the wait! I'm a bit surprised by the lack of "buzz" on Skylake here on BT... I've definitely got the upgrade bug...
For me the lack of buzz about Skylake comes down to the last two or three generations of Intel CPUs all promising much, but (for me) ended up being a little disappointing. I think people are being a little cautious in case Skylake turns out to be just another incremental increase over previous generations.
I feel that the lack of a buzz is also due to the lack of information. Is anyone else going to get a release day chip? If Haswell is anything to go by, they will be the better overclockers. Although it can obviously be a very hit and miss situation. I'll get a broadwell chip just to bench it but after that I'll be done. Skylake is where it's at, and as it's out in June (apparently), there isn't much of a wait.
There is plenty of information about Skylake, well that's if you count rumors as information. Such as needing a new socket (LGA 1151), removal of the fully integrated voltage regulator, support for both DDR3 & DDR4, 20 PCI Express 3.0 lanes, and integrated GPU supporting Direct3D 12. How much trust you place in the rumors is up to you, but the wiki article about Skylake has some references to slides that were shown at IDF.
That's just it. There's no release info, and it is mostly rumours based around the IDF conference. I need a release date, so I know when to hit the 'net to buy some parts.
Still rockin my 2500k, but the upgrade itch hasn't been scratched since the HD 7950 was brought home over a year ago. Going with my usual criteria (My OCd chip <= new chip stock), if skylake can do sub 8.365s on super-pi 1M, I'm buying. Oh, and assuming the extra 4 PCIe lanes hanging off the CPU are for M.2 SSDs (4x v4.0 lanes...omfg almost 64 gbit/s), I will be a very, very happy man.
Bloody tempting! Had it since 2011. It was initially a Asus P9 X79pro board when I built it.. now a Asus Rampage IV Extreme... upgraded the RAM from 1600 to 2133... Had three changes of GPU.. from GTX580SLI, to GTX670SLI and now GTX980.... Everything else seems to move along... but over 4 years and still nothing worth upgrading to.
That's because Intel have absolutely no competition in that league. AMD have no chance in giving them a good run for their money so there's very little need to focus on performance gains compared to their favourite thing to tweak at the moment - power consumption.
The following may give us a clue as to why so little information is forthcoming. http://wccftech.com/intel-preparing-dirsuptive-skylake-microarchitecture-morphcore/
I keep reading more about GTA:V and am definitely getting the itch to upgrade. I also need a new PSU soonish, there's a slight reverberation coming from the tower and I think that's the PSU... Has anyone got any firm info on whether straight DDR3 (not DDR3L) will be supported? I am not liking the prices of DDR4 at the moment, but I currently own 2x4GB standard DDR3 in two machines...
Intel are still holding the cards extremely close to their chest, and aren't letting anything out of the labs unfortunately. They *should* support both DDR3 and DDR4, but the odds are that the DDR4 motherboards will come first and DDR3 ones will pop their heads up later to try to tempt some of the market into the next generation. That's my take on it. I don't see why Intel would try to let you off cheaply, that's not really how they roll these days.
I'm also running an i5-2500k. I"m waiting for something new to come up so I can pick up a z97 miTX+i5-4690k combo on here.
