Modern Day Performance Bottlenecks

[ces]

What are the key performance bottlenecks to a modern day computer?

It seems like at least one CPU generation ago the CPU has ceased to be a major performance bottleneck. With the arrival of SSDs it appears that the hard drive has ceased to be a performance bottleneck.

I still see performance delays in my computer that are not attributable to the CPU (CPU usage is often under 5% and seldom exceeds 25%). A faster internet connection (or at least one with low latency) is always nice... but that is a separate issue.

What is left to speed up in current generation computers to make their performance faster and crisper? Faster CPUs do not appear to be the answer nor does faster memory appear to be the answer.

Does anyone have any ideas, or even half formed thoughts on this subject?

Thanks in advance.

[Abula]

To me it really depends on what you using your PC,

Encoding/Editing, if you are going with good quality (GPU encoding for some isnt as good), still CPU bound, so new gen faster with more cores will net faster results.

Gaming, High resolution gaming is more GPU bound, but once you go sli/xfire (tri/quad) the setups start to ask for better cpus.

All day common tasks, overkill whats available atm.

Personally im still looking for faster CPUs, waiting on how Sandy Bridge E x6 cores looks like, but Haswell has some hype behind it.

Memory to me atm is not doing much, higher bandwith memory doesnt do much for new architectures. Seems we have more more into more memory is better than faster memory.

What im looking forward is better SSDs where they really populate the Sata III with good reliability, i want to see Intel own controller and Samsung own controller on Sata III.

[Dr. Jim Pomatter]

What are the key performance bottlenecks to a modern day computer? [...]

A faster internet connection (or at least one with low latency) is always nice... but that is a separate issue.

I agree with you about this, and I think that the performance bottlenecks are Internet LATENCY and user brain speed.

Edit: I'm still happy with my Q9300 @ 3.0 GHz, 8 GB DDR2 800, AMD HD 5770, and C300 SSD on my desktop PC.

[ces]

I agree with you about this, and I think that the performance bottlenecks are are Internet LATENCY and user brain speed.

Agreed. But what about the computer itself?

[ces]

Encoding/Editing, if you are going with good quality (GPU encoding for some isnt as good), still CPU bound, so new gen faster with more cores will net faster results.

Other than the CPU and SSDs, where is the remaining bottleneck (on the computer)?

[Dr. Jim Pomatter]

Edit: I'm still happy with my Q9300 @ 3.0 GHz, 8 GB DDR2 800, AMD HD 5770, and C300 SSD on my desktop PC.

I feel my computer is up-to-date due to the much slower advancement of desktop computer technology in recent years. I also understand why the improvements are not coming as fast; they are not needed do to the massive speed of existing parts, reduced competition, and companies focusing engineering effort on the more profitable mobile sector.

Q9300 @ 3.0 GHz:
This is a mid-2008 CPU, but it is a budget version of a 2007 processor. It has 4 cores that are fast enough, for 40+ fps in most modern games. With a graphics card, it has had no problem decoding all HD video that I have played. With Sandy Bridge (i5-2500), real-world performance has increased by a bit over 50%, but when compared to the performance advancements of the previous 4 years, only a 50% increase is stagnation.

8 GB DDR2 800:
This is mid-2008 memory. It has tight timings and cost an extra $10/stick, its timings were lower then all the budget RAM at the time. While DDR3 has increased bandwidth by a large amount, first-word latency has not improved much (AFAIK).

AMD HD 5770:
This is a late-2009 graphics card. It is a little under powered for 1080p, but that still means over 20 fps at high settings in modern games while using around 100 watts. Turning the settings down to medium gives 40+ fps at 1080p. Current video cards are still using the same RAM technology (GDDR5), same lithography technology (40nm), similar clock speeds (850MHz), and the same computing architecture (VLIW5).

Micron Crucial C300 120Gb SATA 6GB/s:
This is a mid-2010 SSD and is the newest part of the system. It is a fast SSD, but I wish I had bought the 256Gb version (128 is too small). While flash memory has been made smaller and cheaper, it got slower and more susceptible to wear-out in the process of getting smaller. The Crucial m4 (Micron C400) SSD is faster at some tasks, and slower at other tasks, then the Micron Crucial C300.

Network:
Comcast has gotten noticeably worse over the past two years since I signed up. I had 50ms ping times to most game servers, but now I have 120+ ms ping times. I also get spikes up to 300+ ms that can last for 3+ min. We need government regulation for net neutrality, and increased competition, or our Internet service will just get worse every year.

Brain & Fingers:
Not updated for thousands of years...

[lhopitalified]

Brain & Fingers:
Not updated for thousands of years...

This will either need to be solved in software (better UI), or better human-computer interfaces. Even the 200 (300?) APM managed by StarCraft players is a very specific (and practiced) interaction that doesn't generalize into productivity (e.g. coding, typing, research), and is probably only manageable in a small fraction of the population.