Something seems a bit suspicious about them there "Computer Speeds"

noproblems

Senior member
Mar 11, 2000
617
0
0
How is it that Computer chips go up in speed at only a snail's pace. I mean, o.k., we now can buy a 3.2 GHZ Pentium or equiv from AMD. But why is it that I know damn well that the next chip and speed to appear on the market will be no more than a 3.4 GHZ? Why doesn't AMD just do a leapfrog past Intel by releasing a 6 GHZ Chip?

I am sick and tired of this conspiracy that seems to exist between these two companies. And this problem isn't just between AMD and Intel. The same thing goes for video cards, cdroms, dvd's, cdrws, sound, etc.

Is there a more sound explanation than consumers are being ripped off and playing victim to a conspiracy of 'planned obsolescence' by the manufacturing sector?
 

Shockwave

Banned
Sep 16, 2000
9,059
0
0
I still have an 800 T-Bird.
How am I suffering from them making slow jumps??
The point is dont buy into the marketing silly. Wait till you NEED to upgrade.
 

Excelsior

Lifer
May 30, 2002
19,047
18
81
Originally posted by: noproblems
How is it that Computer chips go up in speed at only a snail's pace. I mean, o.k., we now can buy a 3.2 GHZ Pentium or equiv from AMD. But why is it that I know damn well that the next chip and speed to appear on the market will be no more than a 3.4 GHZ? Why doesn't AMD just do a leapfrog past Intel by releasing a 6 GHZ Chip?

I am sick and tired of this conspiracy that seems to exist between these two companies. And this problem isn't just between AMD and Intel. The same thing goes for video cards, cdroms, dvd's, cdrws, sound, etc.

Is there a more sound explanation than consumers are being ripped off and playing victim to a conspiracy of 'planned obsolescence' by the manufacturing sector?

This "consipracy" is their only way of making money and continuing their business.
 

dmurray14

Golden Member
Feb 21, 2003
1,780
0
0
Because I don't think that's really possible. Think about it - do you really think that if AMD COULD make a 6GHz and blow past intel that they wouldn't? Of course not, they would do it in a heartbeat. I'm pretty sure that they can't reach speeds like that using their current materials for conductors. I believe there has been some talk about using diamond or gold for conductors, which is supposed to give them a lot more speed.

Dan
 

Koing

Elite Member <br> Super Moderator<br> Health and F
Oct 11, 2000
16,843
2
0
I use to be on a PIII 650 a year ago. I've been on a P4 2.4@ 2.7 for about 9 months now. Much better. Still a pain to edit though. Probably need 10GHz to edit real time and get the previews fast.

Koing
 

XZeroII

Lifer
Jun 30, 2001
12,572
0
0
They must plan their business or they wouldn't make money and they would go bankrupt. You also have to look at the fact that they can only go up in small amounts w/o changing something on the chip, or improving their mfg. process.

A fabrication plant for CPU's usually costs a few billion dollars to build. It takes quite a few CPU's sold to pay that thing off.
 

Rob9874

Diamond Member
Nov 7, 1999
3,314
1
81
You must not remember the computing days back in the early-mid 90's. I remember when 100MHz Pentiums came out. I couldn't believe they broke the 100MHz mark. Several months later, I was proud that my parents bought us a 120MHz PC. Top of the line, and a full 20MHZ faster than the blazing 100MHz I was so impressed by. Then came the 133's, 166's, and then the almighty 200MHz!!!

Now we're making 200MHz advances. I think that's pretty good.
 

zCypher

Diamond Member
Aug 18, 2002
6,115
171
116
Originally posted by: Rob9874
You must not remember the computing days back in the early-mid 90's. I remember when 100MHz Pentiums came out. I couldn't believe they broke the 100MHz mark. Several months later, I was proud that my parents bought us a 120MHz PC. Top of the line, and a full 20MHZ faster than the blazing 100MHz I was so impressed by. Then came the 133's, 166's, and then the almighty 200MHz!!!

Now we're making 200MHz advances. I think that's pretty good.
exactly. i think this guy just is new to this world and doesn't really know what he's talking about. the computer world moves at an increasing pace. It is NOT slow. I bought a 2GB drive for $245. I also bought a 20GB drive for that price, and I bought two 80GB drives at $140-160 each. Now you can buy an 80GB drive for around 100cdn. Processors... they have 3GHz+! That's just insane. I have 1.3GHz and I see no need to upgrade at all. I have a GIGABYTE OF MEMORY! I remember when 4MB was $200-300+! I remember having 96MB (and posting on it here, and posting about that system at the time)... that wasn't that long ago. I had a 233MHz Cyrix processor.. FIC motherboard, etc etc. now Ihave an MSI KT4V, I have all kinds of stuff. and time has barely moved.

There is no conspiracy.
 

jfall

Diamond Member
Oct 31, 2000
5,975
2
0
If they make a big jump in speeds, it only hurts them.

Think about it, they are selling a 3.2, and all of a sudden they release a 4ghz with nothing in between.. they are missing all the sales from 3.4's, 3.6's 3.8's etc.
 

XZeroII

Lifer
Jun 30, 2001
12,572
0
0
Originally posted by: zCypher
Originally posted by: Rob9874
You must not remember the computing days back in the early-mid 90's. I remember when 100MHz Pentiums came out. I couldn't believe they broke the 100MHz mark. Several months later, I was proud that my parents bought us a 120MHz PC. Top of the line, and a full 20MHZ faster than the blazing 100MHz I was so impressed by. Then came the 133's, 166's, and then the almighty 200MHz!!!

Now we're making 200MHz advances. I think that's pretty good.
exactly. i think this guy just is new to this world and doesn't really know what he's talking about. the computer world moves at an increasing pace. It is NOT slow. I bought a 2GB drive for $245. I also bought a 20GB drive for that price, and I bought two 80GB drives at $140-160 each. Now you can buy an 80GB drive for around 100cdn. Processors... they have 3GHz+! That's just insane. I have 1.3GHz and I see no need to upgrade at all. I have a GIGABYTE OF MEMORY! I remember when 4MB was $200-300+! I remember having 96MB (and posting on it here, and posting about that system at the time)... that wasn't that long ago. I had a 233MHz Cyrix processor.. FIC motherboard, etc etc. now Ihave an MSI KT4V, I have all kinds of stuff. and time has barely moved.

There is no conspiracy.

That's nothing. I bought a 250MB hdd for $250 back in the day.
 

prvteye2003

Diamond Member
Jun 19, 2003
3,876
1
0
Originally posted by: Excelsior
Originally posted by: noproblems
How is it that Computer chips go up in speed at only a snail's pace. I mean, o.k., we now can buy a 3.2 GHZ Pentium or equiv from AMD. But why is it that I know damn well that the next chip and speed to appear on the market will be no more than a 3.4 GHZ? Why doesn't AMD just do a leapfrog past Intel by releasing a 6 GHZ Chip?

I am sick and tired of this conspiracy that seems to exist between these two companies. And this problem isn't just between AMD and Intel. The same thing goes for video cards, cdroms, dvd's, cdrws, sound, etc.

Is there a more sound explanation than consumers are being ripped off and playing victim to a conspiracy of 'planned obsolescence' by the manufacturing sector?

This "consipracy" is their only way of making money and continuing their business.

 

wyvrn

Lifer
Feb 15, 2000
10,074
0
0
Companies spend tons of money on research and development on each and every new chip iteration. Of course they are gonna sell more than one speed per. Otherwise, they would go out of business. I know a guy who works in a fab for TI. It takes a looooooong time for them to develop and cement a new chipmaking process. It's nice to think that we could just jump forward in technology whenever we wanted, but we are already moving at a lightning pace. If you compare advances now with 100 years ago, you realize that historically we are on top of the mountain speed wise.
 

dnuggett

Diamond Member
Sep 13, 2003
6,703
0
76
That's like saying why doesn't Ford jump over Chevy and introduce a 1200 hp production car.
 

Lucky

Lifer
Nov 26, 2000
13,126
1
0
Originally posted by: XZeroII
Originally posted by: zCypher
Originally posted by: Rob9874
You must not remember the computing days back in the early-mid 90's. I remember when 100MHz Pentiums came out. I couldn't believe they broke the 100MHz mark. Several months later, I was proud that my parents bought us a 120MHz PC. Top of the line, and a full 20MHZ faster than the blazing 100MHz I was so impressed by. Then came the 133's, 166's, and then the almighty 200MHz!!!

Now we're making 200MHz advances. I think that's pretty good.
exactly. i think this guy just is new to this world and doesn't really know what he's talking about. the computer world moves at an increasing pace. It is NOT slow. I bought a 2GB drive for $245. I also bought a 20GB drive for that price, and I bought two 80GB drives at $140-160 each. Now you can buy an 80GB drive for around 100cdn. Processors... they have 3GHz+! That's just insane. I have 1.3GHz and I see no need to upgrade at all. I have a GIGABYTE OF MEMORY! I remember when 4MB was $200-300+! I remember having 96MB (and posting on it here, and posting about that system at the time)... that wasn't that long ago. I had a 233MHz Cyrix processor.. FIC motherboard, etc etc. now Ihave an MSI KT4V, I have all kinds of stuff. and time has barely moved.

There is no conspiracy.

That's nothing. I bought a 250MB hdd for $250 back in the day.


Bah! I bought a 20MB hard drive for my 8 MHz mac SE for $800 back in the day. :D

 
Jan 31, 2002
40,819
2
0
Originally posted by: Lucky
Originally posted by: XZeroII
Originally posted by: zCypher
Originally posted by: Rob9874
You must not remember the computing days back in the early-mid 90's. I remember when 100MHz Pentiums came out. I couldn't believe they broke the 100MHz mark. Several months later, I was proud that my parents bought us a 120MHz PC. Top of the line, and a full 20MHZ faster than the blazing 100MHz I was so impressed by. Then came the 133's, 166's, and then the almighty 200MHz!!!

Now we're making 200MHz advances. I think that's pretty good.
exactly. i think this guy just is new to this world and doesn't really know what he's talking about. the computer world moves at an increasing pace. It is NOT slow. I bought a 2GB drive for $245. I also bought a 20GB drive for that price, and I bought two 80GB drives at $140-160 each. Now you can buy an 80GB drive for around 100cdn. Processors... they have 3GHz+! That's just insane. I have 1.3GHz and I see no need to upgrade at all. I have a GIGABYTE OF MEMORY! I remember when 4MB was $200-300+! I remember having 96MB (and posting on it here, and posting about that system at the time)... that wasn't that long ago. I had a 233MHz Cyrix processor.. FIC motherboard, etc etc. now Ihave an MSI KT4V, I have all kinds of stuff. and time has barely moved.

There is no conspiracy.

That's nothing. I bought a 250MB hdd for $250 back in the day.


Bah! I bought a 20MB hard drive for my 8 MHz mac SE for $800 back in the day. :D

$1500 = Apple IIc

:p

- M4H
 

Lucky

Lifer
Nov 26, 2000
13,126
1
0
well that goes back to my itty bitty kid days but I remember having one of those too. We could only afford the dual floppies, i think. :(
 

Howard

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
47,982
11
81
Originally posted by: dmurray14
Because I don't think that's really possible. Think about it - do you really think that if AMD COULD make a 6GHz and blow past intel that they wouldn't? Of course not, they would do it in a heartbeat. I'm pretty sure that they can't reach speeds like that using their current materials for conductors. I believe there has been some talk about using diamond or gold for conductors, which is supposed to give them a lot more speed.

Dan
Gold conducts worse than copper.
 

Kadarin

Lifer
Nov 23, 2001
44,296
16
81
If it weren't for AMD's competition with Intel, we'd probably still be stuck with 600Mhz Pentium IIs..
 

PoPPeR

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 2002
6,993
0
0
the fact that AMD lost so much money in the couple past quarters should negate any conspiracy charges against them (unless it's an accounting scam, something we've never witnessed before :roll;)
 

Ryan

Lifer
Oct 31, 2000
27,519
2
81
Bacause it wouldn't be a smart move, financially, even with the remote possibilities that AMD or Intel could do it. With the current system, AMD and Intel can wring out the most dollars from their consumers (which is all that really matters)
 

beer

Lifer
Jun 27, 2000
11,169
1
0
Originally posted by: noproblems
How is it that Computer chips go up in speed at only a snail's pace. I mean, o.k., we now can buy a 3.2 GHZ Pentium or equiv from AMD. But why is it that I know damn well that the next chip and speed to appear on the market will be no more than a 3.4 GHZ? Why doesn't AMD just do a leapfrog past Intel by releasing a 6 GHZ Chip?

I am sick and tired of this conspiracy that seems to exist between these two companies. And this problem isn't just between AMD and Intel. The same thing goes for video cards, cdroms, dvd's, cdrws, sound, etc.

Is there a more sound explanation than consumers are being ripped off and playing victim to a conspiracy of 'planned obsolescence' by the manufacturing sector?

You have absolutely no clue how a CPU works, or is even designed, do you?
Do you think they can just increase the clock speed 50% in a year at their free will? Do you really think it's a matter of a little switch and boom, you have a 3 GHz processor running at 6 GHz? You probably couldn't tell a pipeline from your asshole. God the sheer rampant stupididty of some people on these boards is mind-boggling.
 

beer

Lifer
Jun 27, 2000
11,169
1
0
Originally posted by: rbloedow
Bacause it wouldn't be a smart move, financially. With the current system, AMD and Intel can wring out the most dollars from their consumers (which is all that really matters)

^ read my message above this.