[citation][nom]icemunk[/nom]Yes, because why would we upgrade for a measly 5-10% speed increase? We want the big gains back. Moore's law needs to make a comeback. I'm talking to you Intel[/citation]
5-10% gains... ok, thats bad if you upgrade on a yearly basis, but really how many people do that, or i should say do that sense the core do and athlon x2?
lets look at a 4-6 year cycle.
at 5% yearly increase the power difference is
5%
10.25%
15.76%
21.55%
27.63%
and
34%
or on a 10%
10%
21%
33.1%
46.41%
61.05%
77.15%
at the same time, the chips are getting smaller, cheaper (should be) and more power efficient so you don't need that big eff off cooler any more.
what i see more than anything else is that we should be moving away from conventional cpu types.
programs should be built with threads in mind...
tell me the program that CAN NOT function at all with threads and requires 1 cpu, and could not be re written to use more than one thread.
and on that note, show me the program that needs cpu power exclusively and can not run off a gpu, yes i know there is code that cant run off a gpu, im not stupid, but how much of that software is consumer? how much of those applications aren't either server or academic (supper computer) based needs?
the way i see it, more cores and theading is the future, not insane single core speeds, and right now, the hardware is here, but the software is seriously lagging.