Not just cores and threading but implementation efficiency, which is a couple of orders of magnitude better today than it was in the late 90s. Clock speeds wer

Not just cores and threading but implementation efficiency, which is a couple of orders of magnitude better today than it was in the late 90s. Clock speeds were always more about marketing than actual performance. There are a few power-user applications where a 10X to 1000X speed bump would be very welcome - mostly video, audio, and AI. For example - if you generate/process audio at 32X or 64X oversampling you can eliminate all of the usual DSP and conversion artefacts, even for difficult processes like non-linear distortion. But for most applications, most users have more cycles than they need.