How future-proof is a quad-core?

[mnemonic]

Quad cores should be good for a few years at least.

I think that as generic multithreaded applications become more commonplace (meaning the program will use as many cores as it has available), we'll have a real need for more cores.

Until that time arrives, having more cores than 4 doesn't help with most applications.

 

[Rifter]

4 times more future proof as a single core.

I think a fast quad(i7) will be good for 4-6 yearswith a GPU upgrade every year or two to breath more life into your system.

 

[pitz]

How exactly is single core obsolete??
We have some Pentium 4's at work. Sure they're crap compared to the Core2s but they still run Windows and Office etc quite nicely.

I haven't had a single core machine personally since 1999. What can I say, its all about overall fluidity and stability. Single core machines basically collapse once you start doing CPU-intensive stuff on them, while you can do your background stuff (with a decent I/O subsystem) very nicely on a multicore system without even barely noticing.

I had dual p3-450 CPU's. Every time I tried to switch my desktop from the P3's, to a fast Single core, even an Athlon2500XP, I just couldn't put up with the slowness during multitasking. Only once did single-chip dual cores come out did I upgrade and feel that I was running a faster machine.

 

[kevykay]

I don't see quad core machines becoming obsolete any time soon. Most programs barely use 2 cores at this point.

 

[blastingcap]

Are you counting Hyperthreading? Because a faster HT-capable quad-core is better than a slower hex-core in most cases. See, e.g., Sandy Bridge vs. AMD's Phenom II X6 line.

Anyway I think quad cores will have a very long useful life even without HT, as far as gaming goes. It gets harder and harder to split things off into their own threads, since many things in games affect each other (an enemy bounces into your line of fire, etc.).

To some extent, the upper limit for gaming will be consoles. Just like in graphics, CPU threading marches to the beat of the console drum. Somehow I doubt consoles will have top-speed hexacores, in which case a fast Sandy Bridge can easily keep pace.

I'm talking about ANY quad-core, Q6600, AMD Phenom / Phenom II / Athlon II , and newer Intel offerings.

How long in the future before newer software makes a quad-core obsolete? Or is it so far in the future, that it's unrealistic to talk about it.

Will we ever get software that is "many-threaded", and takes advantage of future 8-16 and higher core CPUs, in such a way that a quad-core cannot still handle them?

Or is Amdahl's law still king, and keeping us from realizing the potential of many-threaded architectures. (Of which Bulldozer is just the beginning. Wait until 16nm.)

I realize that realistically, today, single-cores are totally obsolete, for both gaming and for ordinary desktop tasks. Dual-cores are still selling, but on the verge of becoming obsolete for gaming, although they still handle desktop tasks mostly fine. Quad-cores are becoming the minimum for gaming, and are often overkill for desktop tasks.

Edit: also comment on how much RAM is going to be future-proof in the near future. Will 8GB be enough for the next few years? Or will we need to upgrade to 16GB? (Obsoleting my P35-chipset boards, that only support 8GB total DDR2 RAM.) I think that the RAM will only be an issue once 64-bit apps become mainstream, and start gobbling up more than 2GB of memory per process.

 

[Veliko]

I would have thought that by the time two cores and four cores are too slow to run the OS and the software, the speed of the cores themselves would be too slow anyway.

 

[cdbular]

CPU's are not future proof. Any CPU will eventually become obsolete. Of course a decent clocked Quad core will run applications with a decent performance for a few years, but you also have to consider that specific core architechtures will continue evolving. It is not only a matter of core count, others factor such as single core performance, and the development of multi-threaded sofware will have influence on how much a given cpu is going to provide decent performance in most applications.