Good afternoon all,

I have been pondering building a new computer. (Yes I build my own systems) Up until recently I have been putting this off due to the prices of components, especially video cards, and availability. However over the last few weeks prices of components have been dropping significantly. A video card that was going for over $2,000 a couple of months ago can now be had for $1,200 or less. You can now get 8 core processors for under $300 and a 16GB stick of 3200 speed RAM can be had for $60. Also the components are now readily available. So with these costs being so much less than a couple of months ago it would seem to be a great time to get a new computer. But it may not be.

Why would it now be a good time to buy a new computer if you can get one now for a lot less than just a few months ago and don’t have to wait for weeks on end to get one? That is a great question. The first reason I would say wait is AMD, Intel and NVIDIA have or will be announcing their next generation of product launches.

·         AMD late last week that they will be releasing the next generation of their flagship Ryzen CPUs at the end to this month. They are saying this new 7000 series of CPUs will have a 15% performance increase over the current 5000 series. For more information about the new Ryzen 7000 series CPU go to  https://www.amd.com/en/press-releases/2022-08-29-amd-launches-ryzen-7000-series-desktop-processors-zen-4-architecture-the

·         Intel is expected to announce the release of their new 13^th generation CPU, also called Raptor Lake, on September 20.  This new generation CPU from Intel will have more cores and higher clock speeds than current 12^th generation CPUs. Unlike the new AMD 7000 series CPUs, the new Intel chips will continue to support DDR4 RAM allowing for lower cost builds. For more information about Intel’s 13 generation CPU you can go to https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-13th-gen-raptor-lake-release-date-specifications-pricing-benchmarks-all-we-know-specs

·         Intel has been working on developing its own line of video cards called ARC. (I know we have never seen anything called Arc before) They have been working on these for a while now. Intel is planning a series of ARC GPUs to compete with both NVIDIA and AMD GPUs. Intel has delayed release of these new graphics cards several times and has had driver issues with the couple of models they have released to date.  Currently, Intel is indicating a release of their higher end ARC video cards later this year. For more information on these GPUs from Intel you can go to https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-arc-alchemist-release-date-specs-pricing-all-we-know

·         NVIDIA is expected to release the next generation of their RTX video cards also later this year. These new RTX 4000 series cards are expected to have higher clock speeds, up to 70% more CUDA cores and increased VRAM over the current 3000 series. No verified bench marks are out yet so performance is hard to judge yet. For more information about the new RTX 4000 series GPUs go to  https://www.pcgamesn.com/nvidia/rtx-4000-release-date-price-specs-benchmarks

·         AMD is also planning to release a next generation GPU, RX 7000 series. This will be built on their update RDNA 3 technology. These should be released around the same time as NVIDIA’s new RTX 4000 series and should, if the past is any indication, compete well against NVIDIA for gaming and other graphics applications. However, not sure this will be true for ArcGIS. Esri appears to have optimized performance for NVIDIA.  Go to https://www.gpumag.com/amd-rdna-3/ for more information on AMDs new GPUs.

So as you can see all the current top of the line technology will soon be supplanted with newer more powerful tech. This leads to my second reason for suggesting you hold off on a new computer. The release of the new technologies should also push down prices of the current latest generation even more. This should allow to still get a very powerful computer for less money even though it will not be top of the line.  Another advantage of going with the previous generation is those platforms are well tested. Hardware is like new software. When it is first released, there is a period of instability as the vendors try to patch all  the bugs and incompatibilities that crop up. So it will take a couple of months before software runs smoothly and reliably on these new platforms.

With all this said, I would strongly recommend waiting until November or December of this year before you actually purchase a new computer. By then prices on the current generation should have leveled out at a good low point, many sales will be running to get old inventory off the shelf and we should be able to see if the new tech provides enough improved performance and stability to warrant what will surely be a bigger price tag. I hope this helps for those considering a new system.

Tripp Corbin, MCP, GISP

Business Development Manager – GIS & Aerial

SAM, LLC

470-998-8944 (Cell)

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