Morning Discussion

2010 is over. Time to start clearing space on our shelves for the swarm of new titles hitting in 2011. In the first three months alone we're going to be bombarded with quality titles. Then a steady stream of other anticipated games are going to trickle out. In November we have Uncharted 3 landing and my personal "OMGOMGOMG" game of 2011, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, arrives. Then Gears of War 3 and, well, all those games that have yet to be revealed.

This generation makes me happy to be a gamer. You know who else is happy? Credit card companies and loan sharks; the only two options I use when making mass video game purchases. What I'm saying is, I make bad decisions.

Xav de Matos was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
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    January 3, 2011 5:04 AM

    Sandy Bridge? More like SAND IN MY VAGINA FOR JUST ORDERING AN OLD I5!

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      January 3, 2011 5:13 AM

      intel troll u

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      January 3, 2011 5:15 AM

      I can't believe how much shit AMD got for one socket change in something like 3-4 years yet intel has had something like 3 socket changes in 3 years.

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        January 3, 2011 5:38 AM

        Wouldn't that be 2 socket changes in 4 years? Tick-tock

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          January 3, 2011 6:14 AM

          It's more like 4 sockets in 4 years. Socket P, LGA 1366, LGA 1156, LGA 1155, not counting Itanium and Xeons.

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            January 3, 2011 6:53 AM

            I don't think that quite fits (1156 and 1366 are the same generation, just different market segments), but yeah, it seems every CPU they put out needs a new mobo.

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      January 3, 2011 5:20 AM

      They always seem to release new stuff right after christmas. Great way of clearing old stock I guess.

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        January 3, 2011 5:47 AM

        I am waiting for the Core i5 or i3 combos at microcenter

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      January 3, 2011 6:26 AM

      Oh well! I for one will give it a few more months, find the sweet spot, then upgrade my mobo/cpu/ram finally from the Core 2 Duo combo I'm currently rocking.

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        January 3, 2011 7:14 AM

        I don't the the C2D is any slouch, yet.

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        January 3, 2011 12:22 PM

        same, assuming i have the money. fucking e6400 is long in the tooth

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      January 3, 2011 6:34 AM

      I'm holding out I guess. if the prices suck on sandy, I'll be picking up a macbook air 13

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        January 3, 2011 6:48 AM

        I'm looking forward to possibly getting a Sandy Bridge MBP 15.

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          January 3, 2011 6:53 AM

          I have followed nothing at all about anything.... but will they go into MBP 13" too? I want a somewhat game capable but very portable laptop at some point...

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          January 3, 2011 6:56 AM

          sandy bridge dual gpu matte screened 13" ON MY FACE plz

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          January 3, 2011 7:49 AM

          I'm hoping for this too. Does the internet have any rumours about when it might be out?

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            January 3, 2011 12:15 PM

            I'm guessing (hoping real hard) in time for the next refresh which I previously read was April-ish.

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      January 3, 2011 6:59 AM

      Well I've been holding out for SB. That big, juicy Steam backlog is waiting for it.

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      January 3, 2011 7:11 AM

      Reviews make it look so tasty. Really excited to pick up a the 2500k or whatever.

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      January 3, 2011 7:15 AM

      [deleted]

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      January 3, 2011 7:25 AM

      I think I'm going to wait for Ivy Bridge or even Haswell as I've already got a high-end i7 system.

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      January 3, 2011 8:07 AM

      I thought I'd be more upset about it since I just did a big build a few months ago, but my PC plays everything on the highest settings and I'm rocking Blu-Ray and 3D without a care in the world.

      Guess I'll make an upgrade eventually, but I'm happy with my i7 950.

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      January 3, 2011 8:15 AM

      [deleted]

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      January 3, 2011 8:16 AM

      Okay, someone tell me what's so great about Sandy Bridge. Is it just fast? How much faster are we talking? Surely everyone's not excited about the integrated graphics, right?

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        January 3, 2011 8:20 AM

        a $200 SB chip beats a $1000 6 core 980X in a bunch of applications, a $300 SB chip beats it in almost all applications

        that's at stock (3.3 ghz and 3.4 ghz respectively for the $200/$300), they also trivially overclock on air to 4.5-5 ghz

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          January 3, 2011 9:34 AM

          Not from the review I just read... 980X is definately king of the hill still.

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            January 3, 2011 11:22 AM

            980x beats it in some heavily multithreaded tests - which makes sense since its 6 core vs 4 core but the SB one still wins in the majority of the tests. Once you OC it then it would definitely win all of them.

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        January 3, 2011 8:20 AM

        25% - 40% bump in performance at the same $200 price.

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          January 3, 2011 8:40 AM

          Hmm, so conceivably I could get away with a super-fast system for something like $350 (Motherboard, CPU, RAM)? Neato.

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            January 3, 2011 9:07 AM

            Yes. The i5-2500 is $200 and only marginally slower than the i7-2600. They both get comparable performance to a $1000 i7. It is pretty awesome.

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            January 3, 2011 9:08 AM

            possibly, depending on the memory and motherboard you choose, and all before tax.

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            January 3, 2011 9:15 AM

            let's just say sandy bridge is a new era in maximizing PC internals' utility

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        January 3, 2011 8:23 AM

        [deleted]

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        January 3, 2011 8:37 AM

        [deleted]

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        January 3, 2011 12:27 PM

        It averages 25% better energy proficiency vs. the prior CPUs in their respective price brackets, and beat the crap out of them performance/$ wise too.

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      January 3, 2011 8:30 AM

      So how long till i can buy a laptop from dell or hp with one of these in it, was just about to buy one but i guess ill wait?

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        January 3, 2011 8:35 AM

        I heard Asus has the first ones coming out in January, so the others should follow suit pretty soon also.

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      January 3, 2011 9:05 AM

      There was a LOT of Sandy Bridge talk here and on tech websites over the last month. Whenever someone would ask for advice, the answer was "wait". Was this a surprise for anyone?

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        January 3, 2011 9:20 AM

        No no, I know, but for a lot of reasons I decided not to wait - reviews are at least a bit better than I was expecting.

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        January 3, 2011 12:30 PM

        Yeah, February till Bulldozer should be pretty stable price wise. We'll see if AMD really has a game changer on their hands or not. Then we'll have the 1366 socket replacement Sandy Bridge parts at the end of the year which will likely exceed Bulldozer unless it's a runaway, in which case I expect it to match at a minimum.

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