It's the Spy-vs-Spy effect as well. Once everyone gets happy with 64-bit processors, the 128's will be out. and although few people are paying attention, the newer Cell processors (not to be confused with cellular!) make dual-core and hyperthreading and 64-bit phenomenon really unimportant. The PS3, a gaming device, is faster than most PC's in the world by itself!

The only programs I've used that use 64-bit pipelines are Photoshop and Maya. I noticed no RENDERING speed increase in either, but didn't go out of my way to benchmark it. One thing that I did notice was that Photoshop took a lot less time loading/saving and adjusting to changes with large (500MB+) files, which was nice...

A benchmark site :

http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/processorsmemory/0,39024015,39189912-8,00.htm

And another on PCstats.com :

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1469&page=16

When it comes to actual hardware, the fastest PC's available (publicly) are the Boxx Apexx4's. They skip the Ahtlon/Pentium debate and go straight to the top, the Opteron, and are also very, very expensive. Check 'em out :

http://www.boxxtech.com/products/Apexx4.asp

I'm saying that without even trying one, I'm quite certain these machines would REALLY give Bryce some Lightning! Enjoy...

Message edited on: 02/21/2006 14:06