Why all this computer power, and no applications that really need it?

[fury]

Here we are with multi-GHz CPUs, hundred-gigabyte+ hard drives that read hundreds of megs worth of data per second, water-cooling systems that cool your computer to below freezing temperatures, video cards that generate photo-realistic quality imagery in real-time, sound cards that generate true-to-life sounds, in an era where removable storage use is skyrocketing, having gigabytes of RAM (with gigabytes of bandwidth) is no longer a dream, broadband internet connections are no longer only for the corporate world, and all of this technology is becoming cheaper as days go by...

And how many applications exist today that could take full advantage of all this amazing hardware? A dozen? Two dozen?

There are only a handful of applications available that take advantage of all this stuff, and yet the hardware keeps rolling out day after day after day.

Why buy all this 1.6 ghz, 3 gb of ram, 180gb hard drive, 128mb ram video card stuff when a 1.0 ghz, 256-512mb of ram, 60-80gb, and 32-64mb video card costs 1/4-1/3 of the price of the more powerful system and can do most, if not all of what the more powerful system can do?

Buying just for bragging rights is a good way to break your wallet.

 

[HomeLAN]

I think you have to remember that the folks who post here are not, by and large, your average computer user. WE may have all that stuff, but most people don't bother.

I function as "tech support" for two large families (mine and my wife's). My family is using (on average) a K6-2 400 CPU, 128 MB PC100 RAM, and about a 6 gig HD. Tack on a basic sound card and a 16 MB vid card, and I built about 5 of those systems for family members about 2 years ago. Even then, that wasn't top of the line. That trend continues. I upgraded 2 machines for Karen's dad 6 months ago (both celly 333's), built around 800 MHZ T-birds. 1 gigs were available, but he didn't need 'em. I think that's more normal. Buy something just below top of the line, use it til it dies, replace with something just below top of the line.

Also, I don't think you're ever going to see software that "fully" utilizes hardware capabilities. Software, by its very nature, gorws to fit the capabilities of the platforms it runs on. i.e. the hardware has to come first.

Sorry for being a little long-winded.

 

[greenfreak]

My friend Vic is an architect. AutoCad alone requires good stuff... But he's the only one I know that utilizes his pc to that extent.

I plan on keeping my computer for a long long time-hence the reason why I paid for the 1.2 gigahertz processor and 768mb of RAM. I'll be glad I did in 5 years or so...

 

[Kruz]

It's not just computers, its everything humans do...
It all falls into the "bigger,better,faster,cheaper" category....
If it didn't there would be no progress. civilization would stagnate, we would still be waiting for lightning to strike and start a fire, so we could cook our meat, our calculators would still have beads in them... I for one am glad computers keep getting better... I just have to wait till they get cheaper before I hug the new technology

 

[Acid]

you'll bite your tongue when doom3/quake4 come out. then you'll be saying (yes you dennis) "I wish i had more power "

 

[Wetling]

I'm using my system for video editing, the faster the processor, the more RAM, the better.

 

[Inkara1]

When my other system died, I needed one RIGHT NOW, and the T-bird 1.2 was the best price/performance tradeoff at the time. I could have gotten a cheaper processor, but I decided since I was being forced to get a new one I might as well get one that will last for a while. One side benefit is 350 units of genome a week.

 

[Deanril]

this is why! 2048x1536

 

[fury]

Good point there, Dean.

I can do 1600x1200, but if I go to 2048x1536, I can't get higher than 16 bit color which looks nasty in Q3 and 60hz refresh, which hurts my eyes

 

[fury]

I think the refresh being no more than 60hz is actually a limitation of my monitor, but even if the vid card could do 32 bit at 2048x1536, I wouldn't want to do it, because it wouldn't be as smooth as in lower resolutions. I like smooth gameplay