What's a CPU to do when it has nothing to do?

Re:What's a CPU to do when it has nothing to do? by laumars on Thursday October 11, 2018 @06:34AM (#18192302)

Fair point. We've definitely seen that trend happen where software will often be written to take advantage of the resources available rather than written to be efficient. Not just in recent times with Electron but throughout the evolution of GUI-driven operating systems (eg compositing desktops, themeing, pre-compositing animations, etc).

The gaming industry demonstrates this the most clearly but it's definitely present in general purpose computing as well. eg when Windows XP was first released (pre-service packs) it required twice the hardware specifications of Windows 2000 yet offered little functional difference (read: actual real world stuff that could be done on it) aside themeing.

Thankfully that trend with Windows has reversed somewhat but it's still ever-present with desktop software and their movement towards using web-based technologies.

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Re:What's a CPU to do when it has nothing to do? by scrollaway on Thursday October 11, 2018 @08:25AM (#18192881)

> The gaming industry demonstrates this the most clearly

I think the gaming industry actually also demonstrates the opposite the most clearly.

I'm often blown away by how efficient some games are, and how well they take advantage of advances in hardware.

I look at something like World of Warcraft, a 14 year old game that has trouble running on my desktop computer despite its graphics being... limited to say the least. And then I look at Breath of the Wild. A patently stunning game.

And then I remember which one of the two is a mobile game.

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