IMHO things haven't changed much in terms of CPU in the last three years. I will preface this with the fact that I am NO expert on this stuff. I am simply looking for opinions from people who are (or think they are). When I built my current machine it was somewhat mid - low end three years ago, and I am still playing all the new games with it (albeit with low settings). It just seems like Moore's law stopped being true in relation to cpus (maybe still with gpus). I mean, my machine, xp 2100, 5400 2meg HD, 9500 pro, gig pc2100, is a BEAST, I know, but I still can play everything, BF2, WoW, Planetside, etc. Black and White 2, however, beats my poor machine down.

I just haven't seen much happen with processors in the past few years. Sure they are moving to lower power, 65nm cpus with an emphasis on multiple cores versus one big one.

Is this the future? Multiprocessing at low power?



Also, as a complete change of topic, are Raptor 76 gig's loud? I am thinking of making it part of my next system, but if it was as loud as my old 7200 SCSI drive (think jet engine startup), then I will pass.

10/17/2005 12:09:47 PM

it does seem like the current p IV and Athlons have had a really long life, but there've been lots of major changes within the lines. My 2.4 ghz P4 from 3 years ago or so is a completely different animal from a dual core P4 extreme edition.

But yeah, it does seem like we should be seeing new lines and another jump in the tech soon shouldn't we? Could always check out arstechnica or anandtech.

10/17/2005 1:40:00 PM

BW2 has FPS issues with ATI 9xxx series cards. Check the lionhead studios forums for a fix.

10/17/2005 1:41:56 PM

the future is multicore

and Raptors are fluid dynamic bearing, they shouldn't be as loud as older SCSI drives. You can check http://www.storagereview.com for noise level comparisons, I ain't searching it up for you

[Edited on October 17, 2005 at 2:06 PM. Reason : *]

10/17/2005 2:05:14 PM

^ multicore and multi processor on more than just the CPU too. performance of multi GPU single graphics cards are impressive and comparable to dual 7800 gtx setups but less expensive overall and take up less space. expect to see dual core and dual gpu graphics cards becoming the standard at the high end.

http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.cfm?articleid=736&cid=2

10/17/2005 2:34:49 PM

interview with AMD guy on architecture developement:

http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2565

intel mobile roadmap:

http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2554

corperate road map:

http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2528

more intel roadmap:



http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2445


some old roadmap stuff from AMD:

http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2476

some of this is dated, but you can always browse anandtech, arstechnica, or read slashdot.org for info on intel and AMD roadmaps.

10/17/2005 3:46:34 PM

Quote :

"IMHO things haven't changed much in terms of CPU in the last three years"

not really, dual-core and 64-bit are pretty big devopments

10/17/2005 8:04:50 PM

in single applications dual-core has either lower or no advantage to single core Pentiums/AMDs. besides not that many folks multitask that often to justify an upgrade.

im waiting at least another year to see what happens

10/17/2005 8:51:56 PM

my dual core with RAID 0 raptors was the best thing for me...productivity wise. Using photoshop, maya (rendering with mentalray) and macromedia studio has never been better. Mainly with photoshop and maya though.

10/17/2005 10:59:16 PM

argh, I want a dual dual core opteron setup

10/17/2005 11:07:14 PM