I get that this is a difficult target to hit, given how hardware changes a lot, but for a desktop computer, I guess it doesn’t really mean much to require 4-cores for that. I’m just surprised, is all.
I do think 4K is an eventual inevitable default, but its adoption is probably going to be a matter of phasing out 1080p displays more because of manufacturing efficiencies, and less of deliberate adoption. That’ll probably take some time.
I’m certainly not willing to leap out on the cutting edge of 2160p yet, but that’s not my bread/butter.
My Octane Compression board speaks to the truth of all of this, but that wasn’t really my point (or some ideas which add up to one point):
Power-hungry applications do matter less on desktop machines without specialized hardware—it matters way more for mobile or laptops for reasons @jerwin and yourself have already articulated. I get that.
Nonetheless, H.2X6 is surprisingly taxing to me on older machines, especially if you don’t really care about 4K in general and are ignorant of its requirements (I have two thumbs &c.). Mind you, I’ve not even tested this because I don’t even have a 4K display, and I don’t otherwise care, since most of the stuff I need to display falls well below the scale and scope of 2180p.
4K is still pretty new, and really specialized yet. If you don’t need it, you’re probably not in VR, a photographer, or high-end videographer. And I am none of those.
Still, I think I can be dumbfounded occasionally over how things haven’t much changed—in spite of how much CPU/ASIC tech has advanced, something new will come along and render those advances moot until hardware is cycled out.
