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I wonder... Could we call 2005 the year computing power reached sufficiency?

Is the only reason *basically* any of us need more computing power down to inefficient software?

I'm sure some of you will want to draw the line earlier, but I made sure to include fully-programmable GPUs (like the XBox 360's) in my cut-off!

This is before smartphones, but only just!

Correction: Bump to 2006, to edge in SSDs!

Reflecting some more...

I think I'd bump that sufficiency date I suggested by a year (to 2006) to edge in SSD drives! Those do make a real difference! Thus addressing @downbeatdan 's needs!

Then again @jollyrogue likes 2013 Haswell CPUs with 8GB RAM...

So we're still saying computers a decade or two old *should* suffice for home use...

@alcinnz @downbeatdan @jollyrogue i'm using an AMD GX-415GA with 8GB RAM, and it's a little bit slow running firefox sometimes or displaying a difficult PDF

otherwise, it's fine

speedwise, i think the GX-415GA is about on a par with the earliest, slowest Core 2 Duos (it has 4 cores, but they're a bit slower than a Core, er, core). so i'd put the marker there. (also, of course, a lot of multicore computers have had to be slowed down artificially because of things like Spectre, Meltdown, etc etc)

@millihertz Looking up the year...

2013! Integrated GPU & video decoder.

So agreeing with @jollyrogue !

@alcinnz @jollyrogue ah, but as i say, it's about the same speed as a Core 2 Duo from 2008

alcinnz

@millihertz @jollyrogue O.K., I am being quite generous by saying 2006... Some important hardware optimizations were very new then!