Saying someone is a drug user is an insult if it is stated just because someone has a different opinion. It's called manners, etiquette, or respect to not resort to name calling. I am guessing they didn't teach that where you went to school or are currently enrolled. Making strange antic scenarios in an attempt to discredit others is also insulting to just about anyone. Unchecked behavior like that is exactly what is wrong with our youngest generations in the United States. Although I would credit you with one thing, hiding behind a computer is much smarter than taking to people that way out in the world.
Wow. Apparently the use of drugs is a touchy subject. I'll keep that in mind for the future.
So we're clear, I supply products to tobacco growers in the state of North Carolina. If your signature is to be believed, you're from the central Piedmont area, which means that a substantial chunk of the local economy includes the revenue from tobacco growers. Tobacco is harvested, dried, and smoked.
If you want to take it as something more illegal, consider that a good chunk of our states have decriminalized marijuana, and some have even legalized it (despite the federal laws issue). You want to credit my generation with something, perhaps it's dealing with a long standing prison and legal system issue that previous generations created with the "War" on drugs. A war we lost when we said throwing people into jail was better than rehabilitating them. A war that has cost us more than Afghanistan. A war we are still fighting 30+ years after is began in earnest. A war which is bigger today than it ever has been, despite all of the arrests and busts.
I've dealt with plenty of people from Greensboro who still thump their bibles, and believe drugs are the devil. The same people who get drunk off their backsides and drive home from the bar on Saturday night. Perhaps the generational gap you cited is less about age, and more about how much we buy into other people telling us what to do. Alcohol and Tobacco alter perception, and they're legal; why is that acceptable but other things are regulated or illegal?
*rant over*
Your opinion is as good as it can be supported. The arguments counter to my opinion are:
1) You get DDR4 and DDR3 on a mainstream offering
2) Overclocking has been improved with FIVR being retired, so you're looking at near SB level overclocks with about a 25% performance increase due to better IPC and other improvements.
3) New instruction sets.
4) Reasonable pricing, for mainstream users.
5) A better iGPU.
6) A future upgrade path.
7) Better interconnection (SATA III, M2, etc...).
I've made your argument for you, which is somehow beyond your ability to simply cough up. Now allow me to destroy it.
1) DDR4 is still at an artificially inflated price, and it doesn't yet show appreciable improvement over DDR3 performance.
2) That 25% improvement is great. Unfortunately, it's about a 5% generational improvement. What you're telling me is that my previous upgrade options we basically buy a mostly new system (CPU or motherboard and CPU) to get a 5% improvement. Kinda seems like waiting until something proves itself out was the financially responsible choice. It also seems like pressure from the outside world made Intel retire FIVR. So tell me, what will Intel bring to the table during the next upgrade cycle? Will it be genuinely better than this, or will people buying up a minor improvement lead them to think minor improvements are accepted every generation? I can't really say anything as new as SB is letting me down, so what exactly is the impetus to go out and buy an entirely new system, and tell Intel 5% per generation is acceptable?
3) Interesting, but largely pointless to users. Gaming could use better instructions, but the larger focus in the coming years will be DX12, and graphics cards. This is a mainstream offering, so it's not like compute heavy users are rushing out to buy up chips that can run a new instruction, whenever they've invested in GPGPU calculations. New instructions are great, but largely pointless outside of niche applications.
4) Reasonable my aching behind. Yes, Intel has offered the chip with DDR3 and DDR4 memory options, but try finding a DDR3 board out there. The last time I checked the options were...minimal. That means a $300 CPU, a $200 Motherboard, and a $200 set of RAM to entirely populate the board. None of this includes an upgrade on the GPU, PSU, Storage, or the new OS to run the thing. We come down to brass tacks, and ask "is $700 a 'reasonable price' for a 25% CPU performance and substantially greater iGPU performance?" I said it wasn't, but if somebody walked up to me with an SB based laptop running on the iGPU I'd say they were going to do well with Skylake. Thing is, Skylake isn't yet available in laptops, so that point is moot.
5) If you're using the iGPU it's on a laptop or with a low end CPU. As such, you're not even getting the best iGPU Intel offers. Kinda seems backwards to be forced to pay $300 for an iGPU, when you could spend $200 for a CPU and get a discrete GPU for about $100 that outperforms the iGPU. Again, this is targeted at laptops, and not desktop users. A segment of the market that Skylake has yet to bring to bare.
6) Interesting, and I can't argue with it. Socket 1155 and 1150 are dead.
7) Assuming you own more than 2 SSDs this argument is worth while. Assuming you have the need for a RAID of more than 4 disks this argument holds water. Back in reality, mainstream offerings aren't meant for people like that. If they wanted, they could get a RAID card. If they needed more than 2 SSDs they really aren't just gaming. The argument is true, but again the divisions within the market make it a moot point.
So after all that the remaining argument is that you've got an upgrade path. The largest block in your path is that Skylake is functionally only out in the mainstream offerings, with enthusiast, server, and laptop implementations being some time off. Why then are you such a staunch defender of what you are?
You argue that enthusiast offerings are compromises, because they are too expensive for mainstream and don't offer better performance in mainstream applications. You argue that server focused loads don't run well on enthusiast offerings, chalked up to the raw number of cores server parts bring to bare. You follow this up without ever considering that somebody might use a system in a way that you can't fathom, because your perspective is, as your wording indicates, the only one which is correct. Tell me, why is that? The market says there is a use for enthusiast offerings. In fact, the market says that Intel has done a very good job segmenting its business. Their recent acquisitions basically say "we've successfully dominated the market, and it's time to splash some cash around." Despite apparent success, continued offerings, and a list of programs which demonstrate that other users can see a very real benefit to the enthusiast offerings, you've decided to stand your ground and "blame the youth" because they don't have your "correct" perspective.
I'm half way between thinking you're a Mailman style master troll, and just somebody who's gone rigid with age. Inflexibility has been the death knell for too many people's ideas. I'll try one last time here with an olive branch. Is there a reason to upgrade to Skylake? Demonstrably there is. Will I be upgrading to Skylake? No. As I stated, Skylake-e is the first genuine improvement to SB-e that will come, We aren't talking about that here, so Skylake (mainstream offerings) is a stupid upgrade for me. Whenever Skylake-e comes to the table we can talk. There's room for Skylake to exist, but to me it's another IB. You spend a good chunk of money, that you really won't see back in 5 years due to better gaming performance or lower power draw. If your only metric is gaming, go with Skylake. Otherwise, Skylake is a performance hop what is probably more expensive than it can ever return.
If you take umbrage, perhaps we can go back to the original argument. It wasn't whether Skylake-e had a purpose, it was whether you were going to upgrade to Skylake.
Edit:
Minor spelling changes.
Edit:
One last go here, because this has bothered me all weekend. I have basically been called a coward, because I supposedly wouldn't talk to people like this is real life. Allow me to counter.
In real life I've picked verbal fights with the people who believe in the Zionist conspiracy. I've had discussions with fundamental Christians and militant Atheists. I've spoken with orthodox Jews, and devout Muslims. Whenever people have strong beliefs it's your job to argue with them. It's the only way you can test the merits of your ideas, and to do anything less makes your argument indefensible. The mark of a truly great person is to have these arguments, and never allow them to have you. I've yet to master that, but so few people do in entire lifetimes.
You seem to want this to become an echo chamber. If that's the case, I recommend facebook and youtube. They both allow censorship to any conflicting ideas, without measure of their merit. This forum has always been different. If you can argue an idea, and make the point clear, you have had a voice. You can be wrong, but as long as you rectify your errors you've had a place.
It's a long diatribe, but let me boil this down. Argue a point, and speak your mind. When someone disagrees, answer the challenge. If you cannot answer the challenge, and must infer that the one making the argument is somehow deficient, you've lost already.
Tell me, exactly how old am I? What generation do I belong to? Where do I live? As none of this is apparent, your attempted attack on me is a failure. If I were prone to such asinine thoughts, I'd ask if "those damn kids should get off your lawn." Seems appropriate, after being called both a coward and a child, no?
I love my FX 8350 but it would not overclock worth a crap. Also, I would be upgrading within a year anyways so I went ahead and upgraded my home computer. I figured that the 6700k will last me at least 3 years where the FX 8350 is already 3 year old tech and was not going to satisfy me 3 more years.
