What do you need your CPU for?

[Dinkydau]

Everyone always wants faster and faster CPUs, so I was wondering what kind of special stuff people are doing here on their CPU. What is it that you use your CPU for?

 

[jhu]

Image rendering

 

[Turbonium]

I always thought it was kinda funny how people spend hours/days researching and looking into faster CPUs and bang-for-buck purchases, and spend extra hours working to buy those CPUs, to save what is sometimes only a few dozen minutes (at most) here and there in rendering time or whatnot.

Please don't flame me. I'm just making an observation. I could be wrong, obviously, but I don't think most CPU upgrades = huge savings in time. It's like a net loss of time.

But yea, there is extrinsic value there. Some people just like having fast machines (as do I).

 

[Ken g6]

Software development and video encoding. Plus see my sig.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

power consumption

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Video rendering and digital place-and-route.

 

[Dinkydau]

Software development and video encoding. Plus see my sig.

Sorry software development is not in the poll. I didn't realize that required much compute resources too. I'm pretty sure there's more missing though, because the possibilities are really endless.

Prime numbers are very interesting!

 

[nickbits]

Software dev. Poal fail.

 

[rgallant]

sli

 

[wsaenotsock]

I always thought it was kinda funny how people spend hours/days researching and looking into faster CPUs and bang-for-buck purchases, and spend extra hours working to buy those CPUs, to save what is sometimes only a few dozen minutes (at most) here and there in rendering time or whatnot.

Please don't flame me. I'm just making an observation. I could be wrong, obviously, but I don't think most CPU upgrades = huge savings in time. It's like a net loss of time.

But yea, there is extrinsic value there. Some people just like having fast machines (as do I).

This depends. If you are just going to be encoding a large file and come back to it later, then sure it doesn't matter as much. Only a professional is going to fully realize these gains. But consider these scenarios:

Lets say you are working on a video project and need to render a preview of, say, 30 seconds of footage. This would be a scenario when you are going to be sitting at your computer and waiting for that render to complete. The increased processing speed is a big benefit here. It increases how many edits you can make and previews per hour.

Also, the quality of your 'real time' previews increases. Premiere pro (not sure about others) can deliver a real time preview that automatically downscales the quality of your footage to be able to preview it without requiring you to wait. Having a more powerful processor will directly increase the quality of your real-time preview, because more effects are able to be processed.

 

[Turbonium]

This depends. If you are just going to be encoding a large file and come back to it later, then sure it doesn't matter as much. Only a professional is going to fully realize these gains. But consider these scenarios:

Lets say you are working on a video project and need to render a preview of, say, 30 seconds of footage. This would be a scenario when you are going to be sitting at your computer and waiting for that render to complete. The increased processing speed is a big benefit here. It increases how many edits you can make and previews per hour.

Also, the quality of your 'real time' previews increases. Premiere pro (not sure about others) can deliver a real time preview that automatically downscales the quality of your footage to be able to preview it without requiring you to wait. Having a more powerful processor will directly increase the quality of your real-time preview, because more effects are able to be processed.

That makes sense.

 

[2is]

I always thought it was kinda funny how people spend hours/days researching and looking into faster CPUs and bang-for-buck purchases, and spend extra hours working to buy those CPUs, to save what is sometimes only a few dozen minutes (at most) here and there in rendering time or whatnot.

Please don't flame me. I'm just making an observation. I could be wrong, obviously, but I don't think most CPU upgrades = huge savings in time. It's like a net loss of time.

But yea, there is extrinsic value there. Some people just like having fast machines (as do I).

If your job is dependent on those tasks, it equates to working a little bit more ONE time to make up for the cost of the CPU vs losing a bit of time every single time you do said tasks, which adds up. The extra time spent on projects has to come from somewhere. It's either cutting into time you could be spending on other projects, so it's costing you money. Or it's cutting into time you could be spending with family/friends which for most people, is even more valuable. Gotta look at the big picture.

 

[Maximilian]

To execute x86 code

 

[ShadowVVL]

I voted 3D models but I didn't realize I could have selected multiple options.

Gaming
3D modeling
Digital art


Programming too but I don't need my C2Q, I could use my Athlon x2 systems.

 

[pcunite]

Software development, some light image rendering.

 

[jimbob200521]

uhh a little video rendering and a little gaming; otherwise the Internets.

 

[Durvelle27]

Video rendering/encoding, Gaming, & 3D modeling

 

[Drsignguy]

Distributed computing, some gaming and my finances seem to be the majority of what I do with my rigs. Fun building them. Boring as hell watching them work though. I surf the web with my Surface pro, not to bother the pc's while they crunch.

 

[crashtech]

To compensate for low self-esteem?

 

[frozentundra123456]

I voted for games, although what I really need is a stronger video card than the HD7770 that I am running. I got it at a good price and it uses little power though, so I am satisfied for now.

 

[UaVaj]

can someone elaborate on the choices. got lost after the first choice of gaming.

 

[jhu]

Where's the porn option? Or was that implied?

 

[UaVaj]

Where's the porn option? Or was that implied?

that must be the chemistry option. :biggrin: thank for elaborating.

 

[ShadowVVL]

that must be the chemistry option. thank for elaborating.

I shoulda voted chemistry

 

[NTMBK]

This poll needs "Software Engineering". Compiling template heavy C++ is hard work for the CPU...