CPU for rendering

[red hamster]

Which CPU is better for compiling Moho files in the different video format?
Intel P4 3,4 single core.
Intel P 4 D 2.8 double core
Amd Atlhon 3,8 double core.

[Rasheed]

G5 quad core

At this moment the fastest beast around on the desktop computer market and very good value for money, although the G5 is going to be replaced with an Intel equivalent at some point in 2006. Nevertheless, it is a very fast DT computer, probably faster than a Sun workstation.

[red hamster]

Yes but I need a windos PC.

[rylleman]

I would choose intel since AMD is quite unstable (using one now and it's the worst heap of junk I've ever had, crashing without any reason).
Dual cores would only be of any help in rendering if you render to an image sequence where you can render one frame per core (with the help of some renderfarm software). If you render to videofiles only one processor is used.
(I think this is how it works but I might be wrong)

[jorgy]

Nevertheless, it is a very fast DT computer, probably faster than a Sun workstation.

Even Sun is going with the x86 architecture, and has started selling AMD-based Opteron systems. I always liked their SPARC architecture.

[Rasheed]

@jorgy: Yeah, I really liked the concept of Reduced Instruction Set Computer. But Intel has some smart technologies to overcome the drawbacks of CISC (typically: X86). Luckily IBM keeps developing the RISC technology for portables and game consoles, and perhaps will see a revival of RISC in the desktop computer market at some point in the future. Who knows, perhaps computer based on fotons instead of electrons can do just that.

Anyway, AFAIK the fastest computer at this moment are the Cray supercomputers, which use AMD Opterons for parallel computing. The Cray X1E Supercomputer retails at roughly 10 million USD. Of course, Cray has entry level models for 100,000 USD. Anyways, that is far above my budget (around 1000 USD for a replacement computer, I guess).

In earlier models Cray used the SPARC (64 parallel) in their Cray S-MP, but nowadays they have chosen for the AMD Opterons I think Intel's Duo Core is a superior processor to the AMD Opteron.

And there is, of course, the myth of the quantum computer (only a theory, no practical applications expected within the next 15 years) which has no speed limits and should have an infinite computing power. This power is necessary for building a possible time machine (which is theoretically possible, but a bit impracticle at the moment, because you'll probably need roughly the mass of the milky way to power it). Unfortunately, you can only use such a time machine when it physically exists, so you cannot go back in time before the time machine existed and no further in the future than the lifespan of the time machine—a time machine is a transporter, not a vehicle; it transports matter across time-space.

So, that might be something for Lucky Bob to consider the next time he flashes through time-space