Features - QOTW: Which upcoming tech will persuade you to upgrade your PC?

[Taniniver]

Gotta be a 4k monitor with Gsync support, c'mon manufacturers, make one already, take my money! Plus a couple of high end GPU's to drive it.

I've been wanting to replace my current 30" Dell for about a year since it developed a fault, but can't bring myself to replace it until there is something better to upgrade to. I thought that "something" would be just a 4k monitor, but since seeing the difference Gsync makes I wouldn't want to upgrade to a monitor without it.

Other than that, 8 core Intel processors with DDR4 look pretty tempting.

[Judge888]

for me its 4k or gsync (120hz) at this point, either way it will require dual gfx cards to play at 1440p or above.

[outlander18]

DDR4 is the big attraction for me, with the new intel processors soon coming out a new build will be in order.

[amdavies]

Oculus Rift, even despite Facebook assimilating it.

[mercyground]

I'm looking at a new gfx card. this 4770 ATI Radeon is showing its age. The AM2+ mb and AM3 quadcore i have is more than fast enough, especially with a SSD.

Wont touch Nvidia thou. Not surprised in the slightest they are sticking with 28nm chips.
They have also canceled two major projects. Less than a year ago the Tegra roadmap went Tegra 3, Tegra 4, Logan, Parker. As of this year? Logan is renamed K1 and Parker is gone. In its place Erista (based off Maxwell).
The GPU roadmap went Kepler, Maxwell, Volta. Now Volta is gone with not a mention (and before Volta Einstein went in a similar fashion.) Now you have Pascal replacing them both. If i was an investor i'd be asking some questions...

Oh and for bonus giggles? Their new SoCs that are touted as going to be the new mobile kings? (as long as you want a mobile phone that looks like an 80's brick and you have to lug a truck battery around with it.) It was demo'd with a massive heatsink and fan attached, powered by a 60W laptop adaptor. Wonder how thats going to perform in terms of battery life.

There is PR and then there is blatent lies. (and then there is woodscrews. For those that dont know the original Fermi cards were complete fakes with woodscrews)

Its time Nvidia fired more of its PR crew and got back to engineering instead, and till they do, I'm not touching them.

[iworrall]

Star Citizen. Whatever it takes to play it in 4K when that puppy arrives.

+1 See you in the 'verse!

[JefUK]

Haswell-E, for video editing.

[Plasmastorm]

Going for 2-3 new screens I think.
Running an i5 3570k @ 4.5Ghz with 16gb ram and a 660ti FTW+ will last ages yet. Still deciding if I want to keep using the 25" screen I have and have a new one either side or get t3 the same though.

[KeyboardDemon]

4K sounds tempting but low refresh rates are putting me off the idea, right now I am really excited about 120hz+ 1440p monitors like the Asus ROG Swift as that could be the perfect monitor for my 780Ti.

[kalniel]

The ball's in Microsoft's court for me actually. An integrated phone/desktop experience via Windows 9 and full vendor agnostic DX12. For the latter I'm waiting for more than just 'some' D3D components as in current cards.

Also high refresh rate and colour accurate 4k displays, DDR4 and cheap PCI-E SSDs. I've had a theoretical build in my head for ages But until then, my current computer (4 years?) is more than fast enough. And I want to keep lots of PCI-E lanes please Intel...

[ghost_florian]

I have been upgrading my PC gradually during the years. My main platform is a p55 motherboard and an Intel Core i5-750 (socket 1156). I've had it since 2009, and I don't feel it is in any way slow or behind the times.
I have upgraded the following during the years:
- Case: Antec 300 -> Coolermaster Enforcer
- Added SSD: Sandisk Extreme
- GPU: Radeon 5770 -> EVGA GTX 560Ti 448 Cores Classified-> Radeon 7970 Direct CU2 TOP
- CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer rev2 -> Coolermaster Hyper212+
- PSU: OCZ Stealthxtream -> OCZ Modxstream -> XFX Pro Series
- RAM: 4GB Corsair -> 8 GB Corsair

As you can see, I haven't waited for the ONE improvement/breakthrough to update my rig. I've been adding items as I went along, or as I discovered points of improvement. I guess the next thing I will upgrade is the motherboard+CPU package. I'll probably go with the upcoming Devil's Canyon CPU and a nice Z97 motherboard. I am still waiting for performance parts to get smaller, so they can be better integrated.

[DemonHighwayman]

I have been upgrading my PC gradually during the years. My main platform is a p55 motherboard and an Intel Core i5-750 (socket 1156). I've had it since 2009, and I don't feel it is in any way slow or behind the times.
I have upgraded the following during the years:
- Case: Antec 300 -> Coolermaster Enforcer
- Added SSD: Sandisk Extreme
- GPU: Radeon 5770 -> EVGA GTX 560Ti 448 Cores Classified-> Radeon 7970 Direct CU2 TOP
- CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer rev2 -> Coolermaster Hyper212+
- PSU: OCZ Stealthxtream -> OCZ Modxstream -> XFX Pro Series
- RAM: 4GB Corsair -> 8 GB Corsair

As you can see, I haven't waited for the ONE improvement/breakthrough to update my rig. I've been adding items as I went along, or as I discovered points of improvement. I guess the next thing I will upgrade is the motherboard+CPU package. I'll probably go with the upcoming Devil's Canyon CPU and a nice Z97 motherboard. I am still waiting for performance parts to get smaller, so they can be better integrated.

I think you have the right method in upgrading, a bit at a time so your wallet doesn't feel the pain so much ! That is the way I used to upgrade too but the last 3 years of on/off temp work really put a spanner in the works for me. Anyway I'm back on a regular wage now and hope to resume your way of upgrading after my new system is built.

[peterb]

I usually only upgrade when I need to do something that I can't already do with my existing computer or there is a significant return on investment in that I can be more productive or save a significant amount of time. I am rarely an early adopter - early adopters usually pay a price premium and assume a larger share of risk (if for example, the technology doesn't live up to expectations, or fails in some other way) so I generally wait until something is mainstream.

[ed^chigliak]

Waiting for newer forms of non-volatile memory that do not require wear leveling. MRAM to replace NAND based SSDs. Something that is inherently durable and with much better long term data retention.

[Dareos]

I was 7 years between builds, and that now 9 year old machine, still runs pretty sweetly, cant see an upgrade for a few years yet other than maybe doubling the ram to 16GB, or possibly popping another 670 in. As most of my gaming is console these days, it probably wont be a new build till 2019

[directhex]

Haswell-E