A few year back the when you wanted to buy a new computer the first thing you looked at was the CPU. This was because the CPU was the component that had the most impact on your computing experience. In recent years however this has changed to the point that on some computing platforms (like the netbook market) the CPU has become a standardized, comoditized unimportant item. Let's look at how this did happen.
Why the CPU does not matter anymore
The main reason why consumer wanted more and more powerful CPUs was simple: it allowed them to do more things faster. The problem is that in most cases the current bottleneck on computing productivity is not the processor anymore. The most CPU power consuming activities a typical user is likely to do are playing video and games. In both of these case the largest part of the computations are not handled by the CPU anymore but by the GPU. The other thing that these activity require is a constant flow of data: this is handled by the chipset and the storage devices. Most other computing activities actually require nominal CPU power.
A powerful CPU can be a disadvantage
Another issue is that a powerful CPU comes with a lot of disadvantages. There is of course the price, but also power consumption. This is especially true for mobile computers that are supposed to run on batteries. The recent rise of the netbook is a clear indication that consumer now favor portability and long battery life over processing power. The only progress that can be made by the CPU here is by reducing power consumption, and if you look at ARM processors we are already pretty low here.
No help from the OS
In the past new operating systems required more and more powerful CPUs, but as of 2009 this is not the case anymore. Most modern Linux distributions will run perfectly on a 7 year old 1 GHz CPU. Even windows 7 does not require a very powerful CPU to run well, what it does requires is a huge amount of RAM and fast storage! This means that the next generation of Windows 7 based computer won't benefit much from an improved processor.
What to look for in a new computer in 2009 - 2010?
When shopping for a new computer the average consumer is now looking for many things beyond the CPU. In the portable market battery life, size and weight are important factors. If you wish to run Windows Vista or Windows 7 you should also look hard at the amount of memory: 2 GBs is really a bare minimum. If you intend to play games and video the GPU should be of special interest. Finally if you intent to handle large media files you should probably wait until next year and purchase a computer equipped with a super fast USB 3.0 bus to connect external hard disks. Another point to take into account is the prices: most consumers are more price sensitive these days, and decent computers can be had for well under $500, especially if Linux is enough for your computing needs. The CPU is not high (if at all) on the list.
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2 Responses to "Does CPU power matter anymore?":
While plenty of application scenarios still benefit from faster CPU's, that's obviously not the case for average productivity/office computers. The best upgrade many can do today is probably towards getting a SSD drive instead, in many cases that will make the computer feel faster than any CPU upgrade possible could.
I think it used to be all about the GigaHertz (GHz). More GHz used to mean faster. It still does, but a chip running with 2 cores at 3GHz might actually have less overall ability than a 4 core chip that runs at 2.33GHz. Confusing I know. Generally though, more GHz is still better once you have settled on a processor.
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