Intel's 2005 paper Platform 2015: Intel® Processor and Platform Evolution for the Next Decade is still very much relevant, technology-wise.
Yup. Those problems are all still pretty significant. Single-threaded CPU clocks have been virtually flat for years now. We've been able to paper over it with increased transistor counts, more cores, and more/faster memory, but that only does so much.
There have been gains in terms of making the architecture more efficient--that's what drove Intel away from Netburst and toward the Pentium M architecture (which was the basis for Core, and which was derived from the old Pentium III micro.) The last couple CPU generations have focused on bandwidth and doing more work per clock, since the clocks aren't getting much faster.
There have been gains in terms of making the architecture more efficient--that's what drove Intel away from Netburst and toward the Pentium M architecture (which was the basis for Core, and which was derived from the old Pentium III micro.) The last couple CPU generations have focused on bandwidth and doing more work per clock, since the clocks aren't getting much faster.
My Mac Pro is 6 years old, almost 7. It's an early 2008 model, with dual 2.8 Quad core Xeon, 24 GB of 667 MHz DDR2, and a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB. Its still runs great, no slowdowns or hiccups. It seams just as fast now as it did when I first got it. I'm very careful of what I put on it and keep it clear and clean. I use it for work, video editing mostly. Some CGI with Lightwave and After Effects work. So render times are important to me, no issues what so ever. So to say I'm happy is an understatement. However I do plan on replacing it soon, within a year or two or three. That would put the machine at almost 10 years old, I imagine it will be working just as good then.
I've just had to upgrade my desktop as it wasn't capable of running a game that I'm fairly interested in playing.
I was running an Athlon X2 6000, 8gb of RAM, an AMD 5870 card with 1gb and for the most part it runs everything that I've chucked at it fairly well. I'm keeping the graphics card for now, but I did need to get a new motherboard and processor as the game required more cores.
For non gaming though, we still have some older hardware running. (I think the oldest PC currently running is an old single core 1ghz processor).
As for my Kindle, that's a 3 series keyboard and that's fine for me and gets used every day.
I was running an Athlon X2 6000, 8gb of RAM, an AMD 5870 card with 1gb and for the most part it runs everything that I've chucked at it fairly well. I'm keeping the graphics card for now, but I did need to get a new motherboard and processor as the game required more cores.
For non gaming though, we still have some older hardware running. (I think the oldest PC currently running is an old single core 1ghz processor).
As for my Kindle, that's a 3 series keyboard and that's fine for me and gets used every day.
As far as games go, I have a bunch of late 80's-early 90's stuff on 5-1/4" & 3-1/2" discs. I'm considering finding a working 486 or 8086 to run them properly.
I'm wondering, with 2-8 cores in CPU's, if a dual-CPU setup is even necessary anymore.
I'm wondering, with 2-8 cores in CPU's, if a dual-CPU setup is even necessary anymore.
I still have a (working) 386 laptop, though it doesn't get used much anymore. I think the first game I played on that was Heroquest though it was floppy only, not cd.
I don't think we still have my old 486 DX2-66 processor/Mboard any more or the Pentium 83mhz overdrive that you could stick in that board. When we got that computer, one of the upgrades the shop did was an extra 4 meg of memory to upgrade it to 8mb. (and I think that cost close to £100).
I don't think we still have my old 486 DX2-66 processor/Mboard any more or the Pentium 83mhz overdrive that you could stick in that board. When we got that computer, one of the upgrades the shop did was an extra 4 meg of memory to upgrade it to 8mb. (and I think that cost close to £100).
You mean separate physical CPUs? No, there's no real reason for that unless you're running a fairly beefy server.
You should be able to run those old games with DOSBox, too. Finding a USB floppy drive for them might be a little bit of a challenge, but I imagine somebody must make them.
The motherboard I had 7 years ago still had an FDD controller, but none after that did. Not to mention Win7 wouldn't even recognize the drive, it doesn't recognize Zip drives.
Maybe a USB one would be worth a try if cheap enough.
Maybe a USB one would be worth a try if cheap enough.
I don't even remember when I got my MacBook for my birthday all those years ago. It must've been at least 5, though I'm sure that it has been longer.
I probably would've kept using my older Dell if I didn't get my MacBook, which has suffered through viruses and malware, and is now way slower, and not everything works as it should. The fact that I've stopped trying to update or maintain it doesn't help matters. Now I just use it every once in a while to play older games that aren't compatible with my MacBook.
My MacBook isn't as fast as it once was. It has suffered through a hard drive crash, so any information that wasn't saved to the external hard drive was lost that time. And the interface for the external hard drive is buggy, ejecting itself at times, even though it says that I'm the one who did that, not the computer itself, and there are times that I can't save files to the external hard drive, such as now.
Some of the trim has also cracked or shed itself, the plastic cover for the battery case has started to pop out, making it difficult to fit in the battery if I remove that, and the recharge mechanism doesn't always work. Speaking of which, I've also had to replace the charge cord. The battery for my older Dell doesn't even recharge any more.
I guess that these are issues I should look into fixing, before forking over money for a new computer, because even though my MacBook can be quirky, I'm used to using it, and when it isn't a little, frustratingly slow, I actually love it.
There is nothing truer about me hesitating to get a new unit than my Game Boys and Nintendo DSs. I only got a Game Boy Advance when Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire came out. When Pokemon Diamond and Pearl came out, it was time for me to get a Nintendo DS. And I only sadly said adieu to my Nintendo DS when X and Y came out (which maybe I should've kept instead of selling. I don't even remember what that particular model was called. Oh well!
).
And I'm not going to stop using my beautiful metallic aquamarine 3DS until the generation when that inevitably becomes obsolete as well, and is not compatible with the latest Pokemon games, even though it has some dents from when it was sent flying-charging cradle and all, when I accidentally snagged my foot on the docking cradle's wire. Hell, I chose not to get the 3DS XL, and I'm not going to get the latest versions that have come out, because I have a saying: "need not, have not". In other words, I find it to be a waste of money, and a waste of my time.
Buying a new gaming system or computer to me just means having to input new settings, something I enjoy putting off until I have to do so.
I probably would've kept using my older Dell if I didn't get my MacBook, which has suffered through viruses and malware, and is now way slower, and not everything works as it should. The fact that I've stopped trying to update or maintain it doesn't help matters. Now I just use it every once in a while to play older games that aren't compatible with my MacBook.
My MacBook isn't as fast as it once was. It has suffered through a hard drive crash, so any information that wasn't saved to the external hard drive was lost that time. And the interface for the external hard drive is buggy, ejecting itself at times, even though it says that I'm the one who did that, not the computer itself, and there are times that I can't save files to the external hard drive, such as now.
Some of the trim has also cracked or shed itself, the plastic cover for the battery case has started to pop out, making it difficult to fit in the battery if I remove that, and the recharge mechanism doesn't always work. Speaking of which, I've also had to replace the charge cord. The battery for my older Dell doesn't even recharge any more.
I guess that these are issues I should look into fixing, before forking over money for a new computer, because even though my MacBook can be quirky, I'm used to using it, and when it isn't a little, frustratingly slow, I actually love it.
There is nothing truer about me hesitating to get a new unit than my Game Boys and Nintendo DSs. I only got a Game Boy Advance when Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire came out. When Pokemon Diamond and Pearl came out, it was time for me to get a Nintendo DS. And I only sadly said adieu to my Nintendo DS when X and Y came out (which maybe I should've kept instead of selling. I don't even remember what that particular model was called. Oh well!
).And I'm not going to stop using my beautiful metallic aquamarine 3DS until the generation when that inevitably becomes obsolete as well, and is not compatible with the latest Pokemon games, even though it has some dents from when it was sent flying-charging cradle and all, when I accidentally snagged my foot on the docking cradle's wire. Hell, I chose not to get the 3DS XL, and I'm not going to get the latest versions that have come out, because I have a saying: "need not, have not". In other words, I find it to be a waste of money, and a waste of my time.
Buying a new gaming system or computer to me just means having to input new settings, something I enjoy putting off until I have to do so.
I have machines with 8088's 8086's 80286, 386, 486, Pentium I, II, III, 4, Core Solo, Duo, Quad, AMD Duron, Sempron socket A and Socket AM2, Athlon 64, X2, Phenom II aaaaaaaaand my current main machine which is a 8 core FX 8350
My oldest machine is the original IBM XT with a 20 Mb Seagate harddrive which is from the early 80's and it still works like a charm, I even have a original Seagate 412 HDD... made in 1983 10 megabyte large and in good shape.
I replace my machine whenever it starts to fall behind enough to not do all that it needs to do.. which means it gets a place in my collection and will probably live on for a few more decades..
My oldest machine is the original IBM XT with a 20 Mb Seagate harddrive which is from the early 80's and it still works like a charm, I even have a original Seagate 412 HDD... made in 1983 10 megabyte large and in good shape.
I replace my machine whenever it starts to fall behind enough to not do all that it needs to do.. which means it gets a place in my collection and will probably live on for a few more decades..
It all comes down to what you're doing. I've said many times (even to clients), that if your computer does exactly what you want it's never obsolete though the day will come when parts fail.
I upgraded from an 5 year old Athlon X3 to a Haswell i5 earlier this year apart from the speed and having 16GB (I run a couple of VMs) the biggest advantage is it runs cooler and chews less power.
Oh and the ITX motherboard with 802.11ac in the Bitfenix Prodigy case is nice too
I upgraded from an 5 year old Athlon X3 to a Haswell i5 earlier this year apart from the speed and having 16GB (I run a couple of VMs) the biggest advantage is it runs cooler and chews less power.
Oh and the ITX motherboard with 802.11ac in the Bitfenix Prodigy case is nice too
(emphasis mine)
This seems to be where the advances have mostly gone the last few years - same power but cooler and more efficient with power consumption. And speaking of which....
Have you run the calculations on how much you might save on your electric bill over time with even a larger LED TV? It might pay for at least part of the upgrade.Scout101 said:
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My dual core 2.2ghz pc just wasnt running new software fast enough. My resource meter kept hitting 100% usage. So I upgraded to an 8 core, overclocked to 4.0ghz gaming computer. I had upgraded everything except the motherboard and cpu on the old system, and if it comes to changing both of those, then it's time for a new pc.
RAMA
RAMA
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Amaris
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You must like playing games with all the bells and whistles turned on.
I remembered when Crysis 2 came out, and my machine was two years behind at that point, and I played it on high settings without a hiccup. It's all in how you tweak. Hell, just keeping malware and spyware off your PC can keep things sprightly.
Just out of curiosity, I called a friend whom I built a computer for back in 2001. It was a 533 Mhz system with 64 MB of RAM. She had sold it to another friend, who had sold it to someone else. I called that person to see if everything still worked, and according to them, it still runs. They use it to surf the internet and watch movies. Built to last, baby!
This is why I went out of business.
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