Having been messing around with some quite old iMacs (actually probably considered ancient at 12-14 years old), I've noticed that they just don't feel old or cumbersome to use.
I upgraded the i3 CPU in my 27" iMac to an i5 and it's definitely a bit quicker, enough that you notice. I was happy enough with the i3 but it was a bit slower compared to my MacBook at converting video files. They were nothing fancy, no 4K as I don't care about it much, just 720p and 1080p. It can blitz through an episode of the Simpsons in about 10-15 minutes. Well, I consider that "blitzing" lol!
My 21" 2012 iMac is slightly newer with a 4th Generation i5 and that is quicker still. It's running the second latest MacOS and should run the latest when I feel like trying it out.
The thing is, all of my old intel Macs run great. They do everything I need them too and I doubt I'm really pushing them. They run newer MacOS versions than they should be able to with the help of OpenCore Legacy Patcher. I doubt most people would notice the difference between my Macs and much newer ones!
So seeing these things run so well I wondered if anyone else thinks we are barely using the processing power available to us, particularly in cutting edge machines? Do you even think we will ever have a use case for all those clock cycles and processor cores? People also seem to have huge amounts of memory installed, is it really necessary? Should we slow things down a bit and really squeeze every last bit of power out of these machines before we spend huge amounts of money on machines that could run half of CERN and still have enough power left over to surf the internet and watch cat videos on YouTube in 8K?
I have one of my favourite machines on my desk, the basic design of which came out almost exactly 40 years ago! I use it to keep notes or to just mess around with Demos and occasionally games. It takes less than 7 seconds to boot into a fairly modern looking OS (SymbOS) and go through and edit my lists and then a split second later I can shut it down and switch it off. No hanging around while it shuts down. I can still get things done with that machine
I upgraded the i3 CPU in my 27" iMac to an i5 and it's definitely a bit quicker, enough that you notice. I was happy enough with the i3 but it was a bit slower compared to my MacBook at converting video files. They were nothing fancy, no 4K as I don't care about it much, just 720p and 1080p. It can blitz through an episode of the Simpsons in about 10-15 minutes. Well, I consider that "blitzing" lol!
My 21" 2012 iMac is slightly newer with a 4th Generation i5 and that is quicker still. It's running the second latest MacOS and should run the latest when I feel like trying it out.
The thing is, all of my old intel Macs run great. They do everything I need them too and I doubt I'm really pushing them. They run newer MacOS versions than they should be able to with the help of OpenCore Legacy Patcher. I doubt most people would notice the difference between my Macs and much newer ones!
So seeing these things run so well I wondered if anyone else thinks we are barely using the processing power available to us, particularly in cutting edge machines? Do you even think we will ever have a use case for all those clock cycles and processor cores? People also seem to have huge amounts of memory installed, is it really necessary? Should we slow things down a bit and really squeeze every last bit of power out of these machines before we spend huge amounts of money on machines that could run half of CERN and still have enough power left over to surf the internet and watch cat videos on YouTube in 8K?
I have one of my favourite machines on my desk, the basic design of which came out almost exactly 40 years ago! I use it to keep notes or to just mess around with Demos and occasionally games. It takes less than 7 seconds to boot into a fairly modern looking OS (SymbOS) and go through and edit my lists and then a split second later I can shut it down and switch it off. No hanging around while it shuts down. I can still get things done with that machine