5 ms·
You care about the process node as a main feature? Really? I mean, it's nice and all, but the MAIN FEATURE?
by helf 4y ago
You care about the process node as a main feature? Really? I mean, it's nice and all, but the MAIN FEATURE?
- mhh__ 4y agoCaches are important, caches are mostly a question of the transistor wizards (between paradigm shifts at least)
- adolph 4y agoMost systems have similar IO, OS, runtimes. It makes sense for folks to be primarily concerned with Watts per MIPS.
- cubefox 4y agoI first thought it was sarcasm. (Like someone who says: "the main thing I like about iPhones is their single core performance")
- helf 4y agoI briefly thought that. Then posted my comment anyways and.. wasn’t disappointed. Lol
- saiya-jin 4y agodon't take random internet people's saying at face value, some folks state 1000 things a day of which maybe 5 are still valid tomorrow
- karolist 4y agome too, I love my 2019 Intel MBP, it keeps me warm in the evenings.
- xiphias2 4y agoYes, as computers don't really get faster anymore, and I travel all the time (right now writing this from a hotel restaurant), the biggest change I notice is in battery time, which depends on energy efficiency improvements that usually come with process node change. I'm not being sarcastic.
- tambourine_man 4y agoThe M-series is way faster than previous generations even in single treaded general purpose code. “Computers don’t get faster anymore” was Intel’s inability to innovate for many years, not an inevitability of physics. We will reach the end of Moore's law someday, but it’s not there yet.
- dahfizz 4y agoComputers get faster in benchmarks. If anything, regular computer tasks like checking your email or editing a file has more latency than 5 years ago. Software bloats to fill whatever container you put it in.
- tambourine_man 4y agoIf you use the proper software, it doesn’t. Vim is still as fast as it was 40 years ago if not faster. IO is also getting a lot faster. The SSDs these days are what RAM used to be.
- HPsquared 4y agoSoftware gets slower faster than computers get faster.
- Someone 4y agoWhy then don’t you say “I generally care about battery life as the main feature of a computer.” ?
- xiphias2 4y agoI trust more TSMC process numbers (for large changes, not the 4nm bulls*t) more than battery life published by a PR/marketing team for my buying decisions. They are much harder to fake. And sure, performance/watt is what matters generally, which is again hard to compare between brands and marketing teams.
- modeless 4y agoYes. TSMC 5nm was incredible. Everything fabbed on TSMC 5nm/4nm has seen a huge generational leap in performance and energy efficiency after years of relative stagnation. It directly improves single-threaded performance and battery life which are two of the absolute most important metrics for user perceived performance.
- hajile 4y agoProcess node is HUGE here. M2 is pretty close to just M1 with higher clocks and higher power consumption. This is largely because they didn't get to add transistors. The N3 shrink doesn't help SRAM one bit, but it does give them more room to improve the CPU.