A $2500 PC in 1992 would cost $4137 in 2013 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Thinking about upgrading, or replacing, an i7-920 system when Haswell comes out, I wondered what a gaming system should be by now for relatively equal cost.
Looking back at the evolution of the PC over the last two decades, I was stunned by what seems like a lack of evolution. Should we not be running applications from a super-computer feeding every terminal in the house from our basement?
So, to the true experts and those with the most active imaginations, I ask, "What should a gaming system look like by 2013 given Moore's Law and other measures of manufacturing evolution? Several things stand out in my mind as being out of place.
First, I wondered at why there are so few pixels. Single monitor setups are still pretty common, though many are starting to use multiple monitors. I am honestly excited by 4kx2k and think one of those new TVs will be my next gaming monitor but I may still want a side display or two.
Can the GPU market support 10M pixels? DVI, HDMI, DP, multiples of those data buses, or some successor would need to carry all that data, too.
Thinking of the GPU, it seems multiple processing units, or cores, is pretty common. Why then are the CPUs still 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 cores? It seems strange to me that the old PS3 and new PS4 have more cores and what seem like better integrated graphics in a lower-cost system.
I remember when clock rate for a CPU was the defining performance specification. Then, there were "threads" followed by a second core, followed by clock rate (again), followed by more cache and another core or two... Somehow, PC performance seemed like it has not followed Moore's Law. I will admit that an electric typewriter is still a handy feature to have in a PC but does not tax it particularly hard. Still, I feel like there should be more expected of what should be the main computer in a home.
What do you imagine you should have in your house as a "PC" right now and what might the architecture look like? What should a PC do?
Thinking about upgrading, or replacing, an i7-920 system when Haswell comes out, I wondered what a gaming system should be by now for relatively equal cost.
Looking back at the evolution of the PC over the last two decades, I was stunned by what seems like a lack of evolution. Should we not be running applications from a super-computer feeding every terminal in the house from our basement?
So, to the true experts and those with the most active imaginations, I ask, "What should a gaming system look like by 2013 given Moore's Law and other measures of manufacturing evolution? Several things stand out in my mind as being out of place.
First, I wondered at why there are so few pixels. Single monitor setups are still pretty common, though many are starting to use multiple monitors. I am honestly excited by 4kx2k and think one of those new TVs will be my next gaming monitor but I may still want a side display or two.
Can the GPU market support 10M pixels? DVI, HDMI, DP, multiples of those data buses, or some successor would need to carry all that data, too.
Thinking of the GPU, it seems multiple processing units, or cores, is pretty common. Why then are the CPUs still 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 cores? It seems strange to me that the old PS3 and new PS4 have more cores and what seem like better integrated graphics in a lower-cost system.
I remember when clock rate for a CPU was the defining performance specification. Then, there were "threads" followed by a second core, followed by clock rate (again), followed by more cache and another core or two... Somehow, PC performance seemed like it has not followed Moore's Law. I will admit that an electric typewriter is still a handy feature to have in a PC but does not tax it particularly hard. Still, I feel like there should be more expected of what should be the main computer in a home.
What do you imagine you should have in your house as a "PC" right now and what might the architecture look like? What should a PC do?
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