Does your computer usage actually need all that RAM/MHz? :P

[Exophase]

Recently I am using my netbook again for coding and it's not unpleasant so... yes I do see the point, do we really need all those MHz...?

For me, coding on the netbook was less pleasant mainly because of the decreased resolution, but the low power got in the way sometimes. I ran a distro called Eeesy Peasy and it was remarkably slow. Windows XP on the same netbook was not nearly as slow. Another thing I've noticed on that netbook - but also on every other machine I've tried - is that SDL is sickeningly slower in Linux (targeting pretty much anything, but especially X11) than in Windows (targeting DirectX). Sometimes there's just a lot of hidden bloat to account for..


In addition to compile speeds, one thing I like having more CPU speed for is for testing during development. This is especially true for emulators but can apply to game development to, or so I would imagine. When writing an emulator, especially for a relatively powerful system, I want to be able to emulate it as fast as I can while testing. And in the earlier stages, or when testing requires less optimized paths for comparison, that sometimes means just getting a higher percentage of real time speed.

 

[Stradian]

You somewhat answered yourself in your topic. You need a moderate cpu and two gigabytes to play today's winblows games. I calculate rainbow tables, so the more spec I get, the faster they can fill my hard drives. Anything that requires alot of number crunching, or flexibility: the better the spec, the merrier.

 

[Dark_Link]

6 year old pc and its fine for general stuff but when it comes to photo and video editing its time to bring out the quad core imac

 

[elwing]

My PC definately needs all it's ram/Mhz... 5% of the time...

 

[mattman]

you know the more i think about this topic the more i realise how much of a waste anything more than 2 gig of ram for everyday use such as broswing the internet and such is for a system built for gaming...


most pc games i play never need or use more than 4 gig of ram. so im essentially wasting 2/3 gig of ram if i include the gig on the gpu.


infact most of my daily computer usage happens on this laptop that it self has more ram than i need. (3 gig) and running 9 v just to power it and type seems now excessive.


i believe its time to consider a smaller less power hungry alternative to pc/laptop well for me at least.


also the noise a gaming pc gives out is extremely annoying definatly a silent option is on the cards.

 

[TrashyMG]

MattMan pretty summed up what I was about to say..


It's funny I have a deskop I set up to play 3DFX era games ( AMD K6 III 450mhz with 512Megs ,windows 98, 3dfx Voodoo 3 3500 TV ) and it seems just as snappy for web browsing and everyday things as a typical Quad Core AMD / Intel with 8 gigs of ram running windows 7..

 

[Stephane Hockenhull]

I got a quad core dual-threaded i7-2670QM and I could still use more cores to speed up compilation.


high res screen is important to fit everything I need on screen.


however I rarely ever over 2GB of ram.


and 3D cards wont be fast enough until we get realtime >60FPS life-like raytracing FSAA in better than HD