Currently looking into upgrading my PC for better performance streaming games, as well as 'future proof' my system (as much a possible) for at least another 3-5 years. 1080/1440 will be the highest I'll be gaming at, and the system will mostly be used for gaming (and streaming MMO, MOBAs, and less graphically demanding games like Overwatch, CS:GO, etc.), light video editing, and non-taxing day-to-day workflow.
Current graphics card = 560 Ti
Current CPU = 2500k
I'm still not sure whether to wait it out till August to see if AMD has something worthwhile to offer, or even just to see if it'll drop the price on other gfx cards. I'm currently eyeing up a 1060 (possibly 9Gb is there's any sufficient reason to fork out the extra £) and 1050Ti, given the intended purpose/possible system demands.
It'd be nice to switch to back to an AMD system, too - having not opted for an AMD CPU, since Athlon XP 2k.
Also, I'm not sure if the whole HBM2 VRAM is overhyped (and not necessarily the future standard for VRAM) and worth adopting, either.
A few succinct pros and cons, as well as advice would very much be appreciated.
"Future proofing" is usually pretty hard to do, but on the CPU side more cores will definitely be benificial. Ryzen really is great at that. I recently just got myself the R5 1600 for the same reason and am quite happy with it. I overclocked it to 3.9 Ghz fyi. In case you don't feel comfortable with overclocking the 1600x is a good choice as well.
Of course the R7 gives you even more cores, but given that only about 2% of all users have more than 4 cores (according to steam survey) it will take a long time until it will actually be adopted by the game industry.
With the AM4 socket you also have a possible upgrade path available, as it will be used for at least another 4 years for new CPU launches by AMD. So you shouldn't get the cheapest mainboard. I bought the ASUS B350 Plus which already is entry level.
The 2 extra cores of the hexacore will serve you well in streaming. Also consider fast memory (ideally dual rank) with it (>2666Mhz).
Regarding Vega: Personally I'm waiting for it, but possible for different reasons. I'd advise against anything lower class than the 1060, if you are considering 1440p (I am as well) and rendering. Vega will have some great architectural improvements over Polaris which will help it a lot in the future. (Radeon cards are already known for aging well). Also consider the benefits of the freesync technology you have with Radeon cards. Compared to Pascal (or it's refresh that's likely going to be released alongside Vega) which is basically still Maxwell. Thus the Vulkan and DX12 support isn't that great....
The 1060 still is a good choice for today (especially since the RX 580 is ludicrously overpriced due to high demand atm). 6GB of VRAM are plenty
Wait for prices (supply & demand) to stabilize and purchase the hardware later when the technologies are also more mature.
As for upgrading your current system, buy a 1060 (any VRAM size) and call it done. That CPU will already bottleneck with lower cards depending on the game/application.
Heck you could even buy some older 900 series and be pretty much maxed.
For 1080p/1440p Vega might be an overkill. A RX580 or a 1070 will be more than enough to cover the gaming part. There is really no reason to wait for Vega. For streaming definitely a Ryzen 5 1600X or any Ryzen 7 (depending on your waller) is a great choice for multitasking on a price that makes sense. Plus the AM4 platform should be a nice platform for future upgrades.
Depending on how much money you have could wait for Threadreaper. Otherwise the Ryzen should be fine for you.
Threadripper doesn't make sense for the use case. Ryzen is the sweetspot. Ryzen 7 1700 with overclock is still the best value for a gaming + streaming rig, if streaming isn't high on the list, the R5 1600 running the same overclock is the absolute price/performance beast.
For GPU ... well, it's complicated right now. I guess that might change in a few weeks with nvidia releasing their mining GPUs (they might wait with that for a while since the regular cards are flying off the shelves right now... 'cause nvidia.) and AMD launching the RX-Vega cards. I certainly hope so. Also the whole crypto bubble could burst any day and with that happening there would be A LOT of GPUs on ebay in no time.
For the games you'll play and resolution Ryzen 1600 with an RX480 or 580 (if you can get your hands on one (will be sufficient). Hopefully you can find it at retail price plus not more than 15%. Vega shouldn't even be on your radar IMO.
I managed to stream mobas and rust with an fx 8350 and an R9 390 pretty decently so Ryzen and a newer gpu will be just great for you.
