are computers getting faster?

D

Destructo

New Member
computers are obviously getting more powerful as time goes on. but operating systems, programs, and games are becoming more demanding. with video games load times are definitely longer than they were a decade ago. overall, would you say that boot times and program load times are getting faster or slower?
 
Desktop Personal Computers are getting faster definitely. The biggest bottleneck in most systems now is the hard drive transfer rate (Serial ATA read times average around 60 megabytes per second I think). When Solid State Hard Drive technologies get up and running we should see a boost in speed to around 180 megabytes per second (hopefully).
 
Computers are getting faster and O/S and program loads are getting slower because the software people seem to have no problem keeping up with hardware ever more complex code. I remember just 15 years ago we could boot DOS on a 486 computer in about 6 or 7 seconds.
 
Operating systems currently sure do beat the old Disk Operating System (DOS). But ten years ago most people were using Windows 95, 98 and Millennium Edition weren't they?

My Window Vista boot up times with my current system (in my signature below) beat my Windows XP start up times with the following specifications:

Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2200+
Motherboard: ASUS A7N266-VM/AA
Random Access Memory: 768 megabytes of PC-2100
Hard Drive: 74.5 gigabyte Western Digital WD800
Optical Drive: Sony CD-ROM CDU5221
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition 32-bit

I also remember Windows Millennium Edition had slower boot up times than my current system.
 
Windows 95, 98 and Millennium Edition weren't they
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oh god ME flash back, i had almost forgotten about it

also of cause programs are keep up with hardware - what would be the point in having hardware that you didn't need, and if your talking about startup speed that not eh hardware fault, everyone know it the fault fo your antivirus software :p
 
Think about the XT-AT (xt-at, 286, 386 computers and the max memory was 640kb and DOS starting at 3.0, for me. That is when you can tell your old. lol.
 
Norton Anti-Virus has got to be one of the worst programs out there. It hogs up all your hardware resources.

Norton does make some good software though that isn't Anti-Virus software. Norton Ghost Version 14 is good software.
 
everytime i want to play warcraft 3, whether its online or not i have to turn off norton anti-virus. otherwise the game lags a whole bunch. i don't bother to turn off norton when i play starcraft, but often it does cause it to lag too.
 
fmw said:
Computers are getting faster and O/S and program loads are getting slower because the software people seem to have no problem keeping up with hardware ever more complex code. I remember just 15 years ago we could boot DOS on a 486 computer in about 6 or 7 seconds.
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Of course DOS was text based, try doing that now, you could probably do in less than a second. Definitly getting faster though, that's the name of the game ;) They're definitly not getting slower! (but operating systems and programing will always continue to become more complex, maybe more effeceint, but also more complex and demanding on hardware at the same times), games are definitly the best example.

Cheers.
 
This reminds me of a article I read a while ago.
The writer of the article wrote about his first computer, I will do my best to quote.

"One day my dad came home, (around 20 years ago or something) and said, I got a computer, and I replied, Why daddy?"

He wrote about when he turned it on, it came on in like 2 seconds, and it seemed like the computer said, "I am ready, use me when you like"

And he wrote now his computer takes like 1-2minutes and then after the desktop loads, his computer says:
"I am not ready yet, it seems like I am, but I still have more processing to do."

It was a good article.
 
Computers and software are by far getting better than they were in the past. 16-bit programs made computers run more unstable than modern operating systems because they had unfettered access to hardware resources.

32-bit (and 64-bit) operating systems allowed computers to run much more stable by controlling the access that programs have to hardware resources.

I dislike having to type commands all the time. I like selecting an icon over typing commands.
 
I am totally agreed with you that computer now are more faster than before. But it still depends on the price you paid to buy it. If you bought low price hardware or you used copy software, you will realize that your computer doesn't run fast as you want. I believe it is right.
 
2048Megabytes said:
Desktop Personal Computers are getting faster definitely. The biggest bottleneck in most systems now is the hard drive transfer rate (Serial ATA read times average around 60 megabytes per second I think). When Solid State Hard Drive technologies get up and running we should see a boost in speed to around 180 megabytes per second (hopefully).
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Man this would be amazing I think it will happen though I mean you say hopefully but look at how much technology changes month by month its amazing
 
AlienMenace said:
Think about the XT-AT (xt-at, 286, 386 computers and the max memory was 640kb and DOS starting at 3.0, for me. That is when you can tell your old. lol.
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I almost forgot about editing my config.sys and autoexec.bat and moving all my drivers into upper memory to give myself more memory under the MSDOS 640k memory limit. :eek: WOW...this brings me back! I remember now when I first got MS Windows 3.1! :gun: PC's sure have come a long way, huh? ;)
 
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