Use based, like i had an i7 4770K then when I was overseas I was mostly on laptop (desktop replacement) with a 6820HK, upgraded my laptop to 9750H, then I built my rig with a 9700K, sold to a friend, built another rig with 10700K, sold to a friend, came back stateside built the latest and greatest at the time lol so 10900K, skipped 11th, didnt want early adopter 12th, got 13th. If the price is right, IPC is great, everything is good maybe a 15th gen but if you want everything ironed out after a new platform then it’ll be 16th if we go by the tick tock process.
8K/9K - went with 9K
10K/11K - went with 10K
12K/13K/14K - went with 13K, I could’ve gotten the 14700K for cheap but I got the 13K brand new for $280 so… $280 vs $400 lol
15K/16K - if stable platform 15th if theres any sales, 16th if i want most of the stuff ironed out
The difference with 11th -> 12th gen was DDR5, you can keep your good DDR4 kit if you didn’t want to jump ship, initial DDR5 was trash, no availability, no kits, barely to no kits with XMP… this was the early adopter phase and you had kits going for $300-400 now they’re what like $80-$100 for a good 32GB kit with a good xmp.
Now that DDR5 is has pretty much settled the transition to 15th/16th will probably be easier.
But to answer your question, sometimes I just line it up with GPU release:
Use based, like i had an i7 4770K then when I was overseas I was mostly on laptop (desktop replacement) with a 6820HK, upgraded my laptop to 9750H, then I built my rig with a 9700K, sold to a friend, built another rig with 10700K, sold to a friend, came back stateside built the latest and greatest at the time lol so 10900K, skipped 11th, didnt want early adopter 12th, got 13th. If the price is right, IPC is great, everything is good maybe a 15th gen but if you want everything ironed out after a new platform then it’ll be 16th if we go by the tick tock process.
8K/9K - went with 9K
10K/11K - went with 10K
12K/13K/14K - went with 13K, I could’ve gotten the 14700K for cheap but I got the 13K brand new for $280 so… $280 vs $400 lol
15K/16K - if stable platform 15th if theres any sales, 16th if i want most of the stuff ironed out
The difference with 11th -> 12th gen was DDR5, you can keep your good DDR4 kit if you didn’t want to jump ship, initial DDR5 was trash, no availability, no kits, barely to no kits with XMP… this was the early adopter phase and you had kits going for $300-400 now they’re what like $80-$100 for a good 32GB kit with a good xmp.
Now that DDR5 is has pretty much settled the transition to 15th/16th will probably be easier.
But to answer your question, sometimes I just line it up with GPU release:
4770K I had a 970
6820HK I had a 970M (laptop)
6820HK I had a 1070 (laptop)
9750H I had a 2060 (laptop)
9700K I had a 2080
10700K I had a 2080 Super
10900K I had a 3080
5800H I have a 3070 (AMD laptop)
13700K I have a 4080 (had a 4070Ti, had a 4090)