By: Jouni Osmala (fname.sname.delete@this.aalto.fi), August 12, 2019 9:18 pm
Room: Moderated Discussions
> > If Linus is interested in the 3950X as an upgrade and not the 3900X (or even 3800X) I
> > highly doubt it's for the single thread performance.
>
> I'm a big proponent of single-thread performance in general, because a lot
> of real-world problems really do end up being fairly limited by Amdahl.
>
> So you'll find me often talking up single-core performance,
> and I absolutely despise the "flock of chickens" machines.
>
> But realistically, Zen 2 is clearly in the "good enough" territory for anything I do on that front.
> It will open that huge pdf file without me twiddling my thumbs, even when that's almost entirely
> single-threaded. And once something performs well enough, all that I really do is build the kernel.
> Which is actually ludicrously well parallelized - more so than most other projects are.
>
> So I think single-thread performance is king, but I also know that the only thing I personally do
> doesn't really care all that deeply. We've got a couple of link stages and a few other serialized parts,
> but the really expensive parts when I do a full re-build can easily use hundreds of cores.
>
> I just don't think that because I can use hundreds of cores that that
> is necessarily a good fit for a lot of other real-life problems.
>
> From a performance standpoint I could easily use server-class machines (or something like Threadripper).
> Or even a farm. It's just that I also want it to be quiet and a convenient form factor, and easily
> available. If I can't buy the parts at the local Fry's or with two-day shipping off Amazon, I'm
> just not interested. You can keep your bespoke stuff. I believe in mass market.
You could have quiet workstation level computer, and form factor convenience well it depends on definition.
I think you are the one person who could just make a public request and some hw manufacturer would actually deliver you exactly what you want just for the PR for their workstation and server parts. And youtube techenthuasts would actually find what is optimal configuration.
And if you want off the self parts level1techs would test everything and find most silent configuration with largest threadripper. And if you want passively cooled workstation system that normal people couldn't get Linustechtips could actually get that done with only cooling solution being not off the self parts. I'm pretty certain that if you ask publicly in this forum there would be competition by youtubers at next gen threadripper launch to create a system that would fit your requirements, they would get sponsors for the hardware, and have it to shipped to you. And hopefully some of manufacturers of passive cooling systems, would actually expand their line up just to get into that competition, if it would be announced early enough.
Because my needs are somewhat similar I'd actually like to see this happen, so when I replace my i7 920, I could pick some hints from the videos of those youtubers.
> > highly doubt it's for the single thread performance.
>
> I'm a big proponent of single-thread performance in general, because a lot
> of real-world problems really do end up being fairly limited by Amdahl.
>
> So you'll find me often talking up single-core performance,
> and I absolutely despise the "flock of chickens" machines.
>
> But realistically, Zen 2 is clearly in the "good enough" territory for anything I do on that front.
> It will open that huge pdf file without me twiddling my thumbs, even when that's almost entirely
> single-threaded. And once something performs well enough, all that I really do is build the kernel.
> Which is actually ludicrously well parallelized - more so than most other projects are.
>
> So I think single-thread performance is king, but I also know that the only thing I personally do
> doesn't really care all that deeply. We've got a couple of link stages and a few other serialized parts,
> but the really expensive parts when I do a full re-build can easily use hundreds of cores.
>
> I just don't think that because I can use hundreds of cores that that
> is necessarily a good fit for a lot of other real-life problems.
>
> From a performance standpoint I could easily use server-class machines (or something like Threadripper).
> Or even a farm. It's just that I also want it to be quiet and a convenient form factor, and easily
> available. If I can't buy the parts at the local Fry's or with two-day shipping off Amazon, I'm
> just not interested. You can keep your bespoke stuff. I believe in mass market.
You could have quiet workstation level computer, and form factor convenience well it depends on definition.
I think you are the one person who could just make a public request and some hw manufacturer would actually deliver you exactly what you want just for the PR for their workstation and server parts. And youtube techenthuasts would actually find what is optimal configuration.
And if you want off the self parts level1techs would test everything and find most silent configuration with largest threadripper. And if you want passively cooled workstation system that normal people couldn't get Linustechtips could actually get that done with only cooling solution being not off the self parts. I'm pretty certain that if you ask publicly in this forum there would be competition by youtubers at next gen threadripper launch to create a system that would fit your requirements, they would get sponsors for the hardware, and have it to shipped to you. And hopefully some of manufacturers of passive cooling systems, would actually expand their line up just to get into that competition, if it would be announced early enough.
Because my needs are somewhat similar I'd actually like to see this happen, so when I replace my i7 920, I could pick some hints from the videos of those youtubers.
