What happens when we dont need more CPU power?

Alright, we`ve come pretty far as processing power goes.

You can now get the PC-Power you need for no money at all.

In a couple of years or so we will probably see 8 Core processors running at 3 GHZ, and programs and games that use multicore technology. It is in my understanding, that already the GPU is the bottleneck in many systems, and will be more so in the future. I predict the need for CPU power will stop completely, as software developers simply cant keep up the pace of technology.

What will happen when the need for power is gone ?

Or Microsoft will release an OS that will need more CPU power than the previous version.

There's never enough processing power!! Actually, it more like there's a constant game going between the hardware and software companies. Someone builds a better processor, and a game company comes out with a game that slows the processor to a crawl. And if that doesn't happen, M$ comes out with a new version of Word that takes up everything. A couple decades ago, you could run M$ Word very well on a 286 style chip and 64 kb of ram. Now M$ demands as fast chip and a gb or more of ram. Top that off, and FSX demands as much power as you can feed it from a quad chip.

Software developors are the ones that really test the limits of hardware. Every year or so another new game comes out that renders the last video cards obsolete and ups the processor demand while its at it. So new vieo cards come out, new processors, and the cycle repeats. When we finally get to having holodecks like on Startrek, then maybe I'll be satisfied. No guarentees there, just a maybe.

For now, I eagerly await the next installment of Starcraft, the new Yorkies, a X48 motherboard with some cheap and fast DDR3 ram, and well, you get the picture.

Yeah i got the answer which makes me stop thinking about it.

It will be smaller, and consume less power.

There's plenty of room for growth - imagine sitting down at your computer and having the application already loaded because the AI built into your OS decided that, at 6pm on a tuesday night, you were most likely planning on using whatever program you usually use.

NMR is going to get crazy, too - expect to see devices that can map out all of the atoms in your body simply with one brief scan. It will happen in our lifetimes, if progress isn't hampered by something unpredictable. Your computer might be able to read your thoughts, one day, via this or some other technology. In terms of the science, it's definitely a possibility.

I didn't read other poeple answer, so sorry if I'm repeating what as already been said.

For me there will always be a need for more power, just not for all people. With the coming of HD video, we already need more power to encode anything in a reasonable time. We'l probably get HD-HD (high definition high definition) in 5 years from now, so it'll keep on getting worse. Add games engine that are getting physics, AI, and many more thing and I see a need for even more power.

It's only my 2 cents, but the end of the need for more power isn't near.

The reason we need faster processors is all down to one thing..

The software we run on our pcs...

Who would of dreamed the power we have now, when we were running Pentium 200 MHz on Windows 95 and thought these were the best and fastest things ever.....

At the beginning i had a 1MB Trident ISA Video Card, since then we have had MCI, PCI, AGP, PCI Express 1 and now 2 each faster than the previous with memory on a 8800gts reaching 1GB and putting 3 together gives you 3 GB of Video ram....

We had 3000 nm process on Intel's 8088 to the 32nm - bear in mind a nanometre is a 1,000,000 of a milli metre - so a 32nm is 32 millionths thick of a millimeter - devide a millimetre by 1,000,000 and work how big 32nm is

Processors will move on from 4,8, 16, 32 cores within the next 5 years as Windows Vista will receive more patches to make it bigger...needing more processing power like xp has done. Antivirus programs get bigger....

Games will be true HD will Pixar quality animation, and even hollywood block buster games.... you wont be watching the film, youll be playing it with real live actors polygonned ( i hope thats right ) on your screen or what ever the new term is...

Your only limitation is your imagination...all technology advancements are based on..(peoples imagination) .....

Holograms will be out next screen masterpiece looking around characters backs as well as their fronts......

Video players built in to contact lenses with transmitters from a watch which is the video player sending signals to the lenses...
The lenses will be powered by the salt in your eyes and the watch by static electricity in your body....

Nanobots will kill cancer and other ailments. ....


So for you to say how fast do we need is putting the breaks on progress... With all progress in technology the older versions get smaller and more powerfull.....

We will see things in our lifetime we didnt know was possible due to old stuff being miniturised....

A AMD 64 power in the size of a watch for example, mobile phones now have more processing power than pcs in the 60's that took up whole rooms..


Just look forward to whats comming and enjoy what you got.... Ive been in computers for 25 years machines have been getting faster and faster

At the current rate of growth this will never be an issue. The only case where we wouldn't need more power would be if we suddenly switched to one of those 1000x faster processor types... and then we'd only be in that situation for about a year or 2 as programmers discovered how to maximize that power. Then the speed war would continue as it always has.

Cpu processing power is for the sciences, servers, or video editors and such things as that. The home user has never needed a great deal of cpu processing power. When really diving into computers, the average consumer wants better gaming power. Therefore, I feel, the gpu will be what fuels the processing market in days to come.