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How did AMD Ryzen get 50% faster in two years?

487 points · 206 comments · ibobev

  1. jacquesm · · focus · HN ↗
    I Picked a threadripper for a box that needed a lot of IO and figured that with that many PCI lanes I couldn't go wrong. But I have to admit I've been more than pleasantly surprised by the performance of the CPU as well, it - easily - outperforms all of the XEON and I7 based boxes that I have. The only thing I wished I would have done different is to max it out with 256G DIMMs when they weren't the price of a car.
    1. jamesforestwest · · focus · HN ↗
      Threadripper is underrated for IO-heavy boxes. I made the same mistake with RAM prices, though; should have maxed it out when it was cheap
      1. eptcyka · · focus · HN ↗
        Ye, that's like saying one should've bought Amazon, Apple and Google stock when it was low.
        1. etiennebausson · · focus · HN ↗
          That is only true if you only look at the market value of an asset.

          One is a tool, the other is a speculative financial asset.

          1. lowdownbutter · · focus · HN ↗
            That's why I'm all in on hammers. Garage full of them.
            1. throwaway173738 · · focus · HN ↗
              Different kinds too? You never know when you might need a ball peen hammer or a soft faced hammer or a rubber or deadblow mallet or a framing hatchet. Why take the chance?
          2. sfn42 · · focus · HN ↗
            They bought the ram they needed when they needed it, and probably some extra too. Buying more than necessary is inherently a speculative action - you are betting on needing it in the future, and you are betting that it will be more expensive in the future. If it maintains its price it doesn't matter if you buy it now or later, if it gets cheaper or gets superseded by better alternatives then buying early is essentially a loss.

            So in my view, this situation is almost exactly analogous to stock market speculation.

          3. rithdmc · · focus · HN ↗
            Hindsight remains 20/20, though.
        2. ezconnect · · focus · HN ↗
          In the computer world, wait a few years and things get cheaper. That was broken by an exceptional event. Who would have thought you can't afford DDR4 in 2026?
          1. trvz · · focus · HN ↗
            The upcoming shortage was public knowledge before the prices rose.
            1. bluGill · · focus · HN ↗
              Just like an investment though - you need to have the money to play. I wasn't buying a computer at the time because [snip a long list of other toys I bought instead].

              My current plan is to stick with my existing computers for a couple more years and hope this blows over. Time will tell.

          2. acomjean · · focus · HN ↗
            We seem to be going back to the days when desktop PCs had a little lock hole.

            They (in theory) could padlock them so the drives and ram couldn't be stolen?

            <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;francisuniverse.wordpress.com&#x2F;2017&#x2F;10&#x2F;07&#x2F;the-turbo-button-and-the-key-lock-on-old-computers&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;francisuniverse.wordpress.com&#x2F;2017&#x2F;10&#x2F;07&#x2F;the-turbo-b...

            1. jacquesm · · focus · HN ↗
              I&#x27;m aiming for my machines to be too heavy and hard to open ;)

              I put 256G in it wondering if I would ever need that much RAM and now it looks way too small. Highly frustrating. I wonder if the companies that made these deals realize that they&#x27;ve just given an entire industry a reason to look for alternatives. It&#x27;s not like they wouldn&#x27;t have sold their product otherwise.

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