Viewing Thread:
"processors do they ever stop?"

processors one of the main things in your computer but do you ever think how fast these things are getting these days.once upon a time a computer with a 300mhz processor could get you quite popular play every game and basically do everything modern.i bought my p.c about a year ago and it has a 1.8ghz p4 processor.But now chips are going up to speeds of about 2.4ghz.Then theres the cost processors dont come cheap.Ask yourself do home computers need to be this fast???

Turbonutter wrote:
> I have to wait 6 seconds for Photoshop 7 to load. That isn't good
> enough.

very true. however I was under the impression that was down to lack of RAM and HDD access speeds more than the processor. im probably wrong seeing as i know jack s**t about hardware

We'll always need/want faster processors though.

I have to wait 6 seconds for Photoshop 7 to load. That isn't good enough.

xy2k wrote:
> Processor power doubles every 12/18 months (apparently). So by around
> 2005 we'll see 5GHz PCs. We're already half way there.

no. surely if they double every 12/18 months and we're at 2.5Ghz now, we should see 5Ghz PCs in 12/18 months - i.e. mid-2003 to early-2004.

you said it yourself, "We're already half way there"

:P

Processor power doubles every 12/18 months (apparently). So by around 2005 we'll see 5GHz PCs. We're already half way there.

fair enough

Loads of stuff.

Eg: I take it at some point you've seen my snakeskin background? On my 333mhz I can make and drink a cup of tea while that's processing.

1.75ghz: About 20 seconds

Installing Gentoo?

333mhz: Forget it (probably a few weeks)
1.75ghz: About 5 hours

Compiling new kernels?

333mhz: Around an hour
1.75ghz: Just under 2 minutes, *with* -O3

I'm usually doing so much stuff my CPU graphs resembles the Alps with a big flat bit v=cut off the top of all the mountains.

Turbonutter wrote:
> I learn fast about things that concern me. Hardware now concerns me.
> So now I'm learning fast about hardware, and in particular, how do get
> my chip to go faster without destroying my AGP and PCI bus :)

Rob, what exactly is this real work you do that requires so much processor power? If it's SETI and UD, that's very noble of you, but it doesn't warrant spending all that money. At the end of the day, pushing computer limits is your hobby...

I learn fast about things that concern me. Hardware now concerns me. So now I'm learning fast about hardware, and in particular, how do get my chip to go faster without destroying my AGP and PCI bus :)

You overclocked it? that would explain why it was sat without it's case for so long then :D
Nah, it's cool, I didn't know you knew so much about the actual PCs, just thought you were a software scientist thingy.

Exactly.

Oh, and Phil chose the CPU, but I bought, paid and oveclocked it :)