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Comment by Gurkenmaster | Hacker News Reader

I'm still waiting for a proper 8 core consumer x86 CPU. AMD's chips don't count because they perform worse than the ones from intel.

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What is the consumer application for an 8 core CPU?

I can't think of one, as of 2015, that i'd not call a commercial application.

* Transcoding large video files, especially in real time.

* Various Hobbyist projects.

* Extreme multi-tasking (running a game, 100 firefox tabs, home server, encoding, etc)

* Seti@home/folding@home -> computational philanthropy.

There are definitely prosumer applications; I'd quite like faster builds at home but am not quite willing to pay for a Xeon, say. Bit of a niche market, though.

You're only saying that because most programs are incapable of taking advantage of multiple cores, but if 8 core CPUs were the norm, I guarantee programs (where performance matters) would change.

If 4 cores are the norm now, and most programs cannot take advantage of them, what it the rationale for which things would change in the case of 8 cores ?

4 cores aren't quite the norm. The computer I'm currently at is a Dell XPS 13, the CPU is an i7-4510U, which is dual core. Regardless, in most circumstances, 4 cores are only just above break even point for parallel code, so the pay off isn't big enough.

Could you be more specific about why a consumer 8-core CPU isn't the consumer 8-core CPU you wanted?

I don't know why he's complaining.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1340?vs=1316

AMD's newest processor compares quite well to the nearest Intel octo-core that costs 3x as much.

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