I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to give AMD my money for a 5900 (in the US), so maybe I'll be lucky enough to contribute to their upcoming record Q2 sales
I've seen the 5950X more frequently on NewEgg's shuffles...
It doesn't quite hit my sweet spot for single core peek during multicore (you know, Minecraft and other old single player games) system use. The 5900X looks like a good mix of single, multi-core, and value budget.
Which is also the same reason I want a 6800 XT GPU to go with it, 16 GB of videoram to throw at games or just way too damned many tabs being open.
That's a bit like asking if GPUs help with running multiple applications or how long a rope it, it really depends on what in those tabs. WebGL, some graphical rendering, Canvas API and more is powered by the GPU in a modern browser, but websites like HN won't have any need for the GPU.
I was in the same boat and finally caved and bought one from antonline.com. They have them in stock but they're bundled with a $300 monitor (total price of $1,178.98, which includes tax and shipping). I resold the monitor for $275, so my losses weren't too bad.
Anyway, if anyone's been waiting for a 5950X for 6 months like me and doesn't want to pay a scalper, this might be something to consider. Bundling sucks and I hate that so many retailers are basically forcing you to buy random stuff you don't need. Almost as bad as the scalpers. Almost.
Can somebody explain why scalpers are a thing here? Why aren't the original vendors just raising prices to what the scalpers are charging, i.e. the market clearing price? If it's what's going to happen regardless then better that they get the money than some crummy middle man.
The companies expect some memory from the community, and want to continue selling to them in the future. Gamers are very price sensitive, and will resent them for that.
