JP,
Where do you get your figures? It has been my experience, especially in the area of personal computers, the the 'wasted' cycles for the vast majority of time approach or exceed 99%. Humans are not very fast by comparison! There are few exceptions, one being voice recognition which requires (my software anyway) a minimum of 133Mhz.
The horsepower is required when running 'real-time' programs! Real time video is even more intensive!
As you increase the size of a spreadsheet, the time required for recalculation is substantially increased. We may not 'see' the difference in a re-calc of a 100 by 100 matrix, you will 'see' the difference in a 10,000 by 10,000 re-calc.
If you want a quick test, and can write in BASIC, try this:
PRINT TIME
for x=1 to 640000:nextx
for y=1 to 640000:nexty
for z=1 to 640000:nextz
for a=1 to 640000:nexta
for b=1 to 640000:nextb
PRINT TIME
You will find that the 400 will significantly outperform the slower machines.
If I have a problem that takes 4 hours to solve on a 300 and 3 1/2 hours to solve on a 400, and my labor cost is $50 per hour, I save $25 each time I run this process! How long to pay for the faster machine now? and the savings continue on and on!
JMHO
Regards,
Ken |
