undefined | Better HN

0 pointsp-e-w3d ago0 comments

It just boggles the mind how you can simply write a 3D program with a ready-made library today, instantiate tens of thousands of objects in 3D space, and the whole thing will render in real time on a phone without you ever having to worry about how that incredible performance is possible.

The power of computers comes at least partly from the fact that for many practical problems, they let you effectively pretend that resource constraints don’t exist at all.

0 comments

noir_lord3d ago

It does, it helps to stop and smell the roses occasionally and remember how far we’ve come.

My first proper computer (defined by programming on it) was a 3.5MHz single core processor with 48KB of RAM.

My current one is 16C/32T that can boost to 5.7GHz and has 64GB of RAM.

Considerably more than a million times the RAM and about a million times the processing power (if you factor clock speeds, core count, OOE, branch prediction, memory width and depending on workload etc).

I have more RAM in my house than every ZX Spectrum ever sold (about 5 million which comes out to ~240GB).

Adjusted for inflation a million spectrums (175 at 1982 prices) comes out to about 640 million quid.

My PC cost ~4000 in late 2022.

A million times faster for 0.000625% of the price, it’s been a hell of a ride.

jz3911d ago

Definitely agree with the sentiment (also a Speccy 48K guy), but at the risk of being pedantic, I think you're double-counting: "million times faster" is for one Spectrum, the "0.000625% price" is for a million...

narag3d ago

My pet realization: most of the power increase has been spent on graphics at an ever growing resolution, including in resolution not only the number of pixels, that's a squared number, but also color depth and FPS.

Dealing with graphics has shadowed how hugely powerful the modern computers are. We're noticing now because of AI.

noir_lord2d ago

For a general user I suspect that is true.

That said I think programmers do notice the performance outside of AI when they use software that surfaces how fast modern machines are which we do more than most.

I can remember when compiling a Linux kernel was “start it and go watch star gate” now I barely have time to boil the kettle for a cup of tea.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse