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It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

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Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#351

Post by crazygringo »

npn wrote: post #187

I find it crazy that some people only use a single laptop for their dev work. Meanwhile I have 3 PCs, 5 monitors, keyboards and mouses, and still think they are not enough. There are a lot of jobs that should run in a home server running 24/7 instead of abusing your poor laptop. Remote dedicated servers work, but the latency is killing your productivity, and it is pricey if you want a server with a lot of disk space.

I dunno, alt+tab works as fast for me as moving my head to look at another monitor.

And I'm not particularly concerned with "abusing" my laptop. I paid for its chips and all of its cores, I'm not going to not use them...

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#352

Post by bullen »

chupasaurus wrote: post #304
bullen wrote: post #293

Is it worth to keep your old CPU? I still run a 6600 (65W peak) from 2016 as my daily driver. I have replaced the SSD once (MLC lasted 5 years, hopefully forever with SLC drive from 2011?), 2x 32GB DDR4 sticks (Kingston Micron lasted 8 years, with aliexpress "samsung" sticks for $50 a pop) and Monitor (Eizo FlexScan 1932 lasted 15! years RIP with Eizo RadiForce 191M, highly recommend with f.lux/redshift for exception…

You could buy a SSD with SLC cache that is bigger than in 2011 pure SLC one, and probably cheaper.

We have gone through this if you look at my comment history.

Yes you can do everything, but not without added complexity, that will end up failing faster.

We have peaked in all tech. Nothing will ever get as good as the raw peak in longevity:

- SSDs ~2011 (pure SLC)

- RAM ~2013 (DDR3 fast low latency but low Hz = cooler = lasts longer)

- CPUs ~2018 (debatable but I think those will outlast everything else)

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#353

Post by david38 »

joshka wrote: post #315

At my former job at a FAANG, I did the math on allocating developers machines with 16GB vs 64GB based on actual job tasks with estimates of how much thumb twiddling waiting time that this would save and then multiplied that out by the cost of the developer's time. The cost benefit showed a reasonable ROI that was realized in Weeks for Senior dev salaries (months for juniors). Based on this, I strongly believe that if…

No doubt you mean well. In some cases it’s obvious- low memory machine can’t handle some docket setup, etc.

In reality, you can’t even predict time to project completion accurately. Rarely is a fast computer a “time saver”.

Either it’s a binary “can this run that” or a work environment thing “will the dev get frustrated knowing he has to wait an extra 10 minutes a day when a measly $1k would make this go away”

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#354

Post by nazgul17 »

svantana wrote: post #319
joshka wrote: post #315

At my former job at a FAANG, I did the math on allocating developers machines with 16GB vs 64GB based on actual job tasks with estimates of how much thumb twiddling waiting time that this would save and then multiplied that out by the cost of the developer's time. The cost benefit showed a reasonable ROI that was realized in Weeks for Senior dev salaries (months for juniors). Based on this, I strongly believe that if…

No doubt the math checks out, but I wonder if developer productivity can be quantified that easily. I believe there's a lot of research pointing to people having a somewhat fixed amount of cognitive capacity available per day, and that aligns well with my personal experience. A lot of times, waiting for the computer to finish feels like a micro-break that saves up energy for my next deep thought process.

This is true, but I find my train of thought slips away if I have to wait more than a handful of seconds, let alone two minutes.

Tying this back to your point, those limited hours of focus time come in blocks, in my experience, and focus time is not easily "entered", either.

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#355

Post by nazgul17 »

vondur wrote: post #343

I suppose it depends on the programming tasks you do. If you are working on stuff like recompiling large codebases all day- then yes, a fast CPU and and lots of RAM will really help. If you are working more on scripting stuff, then maybe the fastest CPU isn't really needed, rather more RAM. I just bought myself a Ryzen 9950x deal from a local Microcenter. I will run handbrake on ripped files which this CPU is really…

I worked on a Spring Boot application that would take more than a minute to start. Not Spring's fault, IIUC, but nevertheless a focus killer.

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#356

Post by Havoc »

poink wrote: post #11

I generally agree you should buy fast machines, but the difference between my 5950x (bought in mid 2021. I checked) and the latest 9950x is not particularly large on synthetic benchmarks, and the real world difference for a software developer who is often IO bound in their workflow is going to be negligible If you have a bad machine get a good machine, but you’re not going to get a significant uplift going from a goo…

Yup. Occasionally I wonder whether it's time to upgrade (5800X3D / 3090), do a back of envelope calc on cost vs incremental gains and very quickly decide I'm good for now

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#357

Post by kelnos »

WalterBright wrote: post #287
lukan wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"$1,000 chairs" Not an expert here, but from what I heard, that would be a bargain for a good office chair. And having a good chair or not - you literally feel the difference.

I've been using the same $25 chair I bought 45 years ago. I've always thought the "ergonomic chair" was a scam.

I think ergonomic chairs are good for people who have poor posture. If you have a strong core and sit up straight all the time, you can probably sit on just about anything and be fine.

(I'm not saying you're wrong. I think the real solution is that people should take better care of their physical selves. Certainly there are also people with particular conditions and do need the more ergonomic setup, but I expect that's a small percentage of the total.)

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#358

Post by MBCook »

nazgul17 wrote: post #355
vondur wrote: post #343

I suppose it depends on the programming tasks you do. If you are working on stuff like recompiling large codebases all day- then yes, a fast CPU and and lots of RAM will really help. If you are working more on scripting stuff, then maybe the fastest CPU isn't really needed, rather more RAM. I just bought myself a Ryzen 9950x deal from a local Microcenter. I will run handbrake on ripped files which this CPU is really…

I worked on a Spring Boot application that would take more than a minute to start. Not Spring's fault, IIUC, but nevertheless a focus killer.

A minute? What was taking so long? Spring itself is only a few seconds (as you said that’s not the issue).

That sounds horrible to work on.

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#359

Post by theYipster »

My 5 year old Threadripper with 128GB RAM is still going strong. A 9950x would probably be faster (especially for single thread,) but moving to AM5 would be a massive downgrade on IO. Can't really see spending $10K now for a TRX50 or WRX90 build... Maybe when Zen 6 Threadrippers come out.

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#360

Post by Cyan488 »

delusional wrote: post #31
2shortplanks wrote: post #3

This article skips a few important steps - how a faster CPU will have a demonstrable improvement on developer performance. I would agree with the idea that faster compile times can have a significant improvement in performance. 30s is long enough for a developer to get distracted and go off and check their email, look at social media, etc. Basically turning 30s into 3s can keep a developer in flow. The critical thing…

I wish I was compiler bound. Nowadays, with everything being in the cloud or whatever I'm more likely to be waiting for Microsoft's MFA (forcing me to pick up my phone, the portal to distractions) or getting some time limited permission from PIM. The days when 30 seconds pauses for the compiler was the slowest part are long over.

The circuit design software I use, Altium Designer, has a SaaS cloud for managing libraries of components, and version control of projects. I probably spend hours a year waiting for simple things like "load the next 100 parts in this list" or "save this tiny edit to the cloud" as it makes API call after call to do simple operations.

And don't get me started on the cloud ERP software the rest of the company uses...

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