It is worth it to buy the fast CPU • Hacker News Board

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#421

Post by bullen » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 6:07 AM UTC

Mawr wrote: post #419

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…

If you don't care about power efficiency, sure ;)

When it comes to: "is it better to throw away the 6600 and replace it with a 5600, than keep running the 6600" I'm torn but: you probably need to use the 5600 for maybe 20 years to compensate for it's manufacturing energy cost (which is not directly linked to $ cost) and I think the 6600 might last that long with new RAM 10 years down the road, not so sure the newer 5600 motherboard and the CPU itself will make it that long becuse it was probably made to break to a larger extent.

Also the 6600 can be passively cooled in the Streacom case I allready have, the 5600 is to hot.

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#422

Post by bullen » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 6:08 AM UTC

malfist wrote: post #384

bullen wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

What metric are you using to determine peak? Just long life? I don't know about most people, but how long a wafer of silicon keeps working past its obsolescence, is just not that important

It is when we peak in nanometers too.

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#423

Post by bullen » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 6:10 AM UTC

bpye wrote: post #396

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I upgraded two years ago to a Ryzen 5700 rather than a 5800 specifically for the lower TDP. I rarely max out the cores and the cooler system means the fan rarely spins up to audible levels.

Most (if not all?) BIOSes today will let you limit the TDP - on AMD it’s often called eco mode.

Cool, can you tune exactly how many watts or just on/off?

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#424

Post by bullen » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 6:13 AM UTC

ThatPlayer wrote: post #330

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…

It very much depends on the games you play though. When I upgraded from a 7700k, it was struggling with my Factorio world. My AMD 5700X3D handles it completely smoothly. Though now in Path of Exile 2, my CPU can barely maintain 30 fps during big fights.

CPU is now the bottleneck for games that struggle, which makes sense since GPU most often is configurable, while gameplay well is the hardcoded gameplay.

See PUBG that has bloated Unreal so far past what any 4-core computer can handle because of anti-cheats and other incremental changes.

Factorio could add some "how many chunks to simulate" config then? If that does not break gameplay completely.

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#425

Post by winrid » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 6:23 AM UTC

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #274

krisroadruck wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You simply cannot cram enough cooling and power into a laptop to have it equal a desktop high end desktop CPU of the same generation. There is physically not enough room. Just about the only way to even approach that would be to have liquid cooling loop ports out the back that you had to plug into an under-desk cooling loop and I don't think anyone is doing that because at that point just get a frickin desktop comput…

> I honestly do not understand why so many devs seem to insist on doing work on a laptop. Their employers made it the culture so that working from home/vacation would be easy.

It's also nice to be able to change environments where I work.

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#426

Post by myaccountonhn » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 6:38 AM UTC

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…

I think those working on user-facing apps could do well having a slow computer or phone, just so they can get a sense of what the actual user experience is like.

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#427

Post by mort96 » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 6:39 AM UTC

Aeolun wrote: post #392

mort96 wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a company grows, it will undoubtedly hire some "wrong people" along the way.

Absolutely, but then you fire them again. Saves both salaries and expenses.

Which is a process that takes time.

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#428

Post by mwpmaybe » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 6:41 AM UTC

bullen wrote: post #423

bpye wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most (if not all?) BIOSes today will let you limit the TDP - on AMD it’s often called eco mode.

Cool, can you tune exactly how many watts or just on/off?

There are usually a few presets, e.g. 65W or 45W ECO modes for a 105W part, or you can set your own specific values for PPT/TDC/EDC.

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#429

Post by bullen » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 6:47 AM UTC

mwpmaybe wrote: post #428

bullen wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool, can you tune exactly how many watts or just on/off?

There are usually a few presets, e.g. 65W or 45W ECO modes for a 105W part, or you can set your own specific values for PPT/TDC/EDC.

Nice!

Re: It is worth it to buy the fast CPU

#430

Post by mwpmaybe » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 6:55 AM UTC

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #364

There are peaks in long-term CPU value. That is, CPUs that are 1) performant enough to handle general purpose computing for a decade and 2) outperform later chips for a long time. The i7-4770 was one. It reliably outperformed later Intel CPUs until near 10th gen or so. I know shops that are still plugging away on them. The first comparable replacements for it is the i7-12700 (but the i5-12400 is a good buy). At 13th…

> The i7-4770 was one. It reliably outperformed later Intel CPUs until near 10th gen or so.

Per which benchmarks?

> At 13th gen, Intel swaps E for P cores.

One nit, Intel started adding (not swapping) E-cores to desktop parts with 12th gen, but i3 parts and most i5 parts were spared. More desktop i5 parts got them as starting with 13th gen.