Does programming require a good CPU?

[Pinguinsan]

11 hours ago, Surpuppa said:

Does programming benefit from a better CPU? For example an i7 vs an i5?

I have no experience programming but I will start soon so I'm planning my next build. (Waiting for Ryzen though)

Yes and no. As others have said, programming itself is using an IDE or a text editor. However, if you're working with a resource heavy IDE, such as IntelliJ IDEA (Java), Android Studio (also Java), Visual Studio (C#/.NET), or perhaps Eclipse, they are nearly unusable on slower hardware, without disabling a lot of the features that make them good. With that said, compile times can also take a hit. Even for a relatively small project like my own personal C++ libraries (~1000 lines of code), differences in hardware show up. I have a desktop with a Skylake i7 6700K that compiles those libraries in less that 30 seconds. I also have a bottom of the line HP Chromebook with an Intel Celeron processor that takes about 2 minutes to compile them. Then, on the very bottom end, a Raspberry Pi takes around 7-10 minutes to compile. For a company codebase that could be hundreds of thousands to millions of lines long, the compile times increase exponentially, which is where faster hardware really pays off.

In the end, though: For learning, it doesn't matter all that much. If you make it your profession, hardware matters.

[-iSynthesis]

On 14.2.2017 at 1:19 AM, Pinguinsan said:

Yes and no. As others have said, programming itself is using an IDE or a text editor. However, if you're working with a resource heavy IDE, such as IntelliJ IDEA (Java), Android Studio (also Java), Visual Studio (C#/.NET), or perhaps Eclipse, they are nearly unusable on slower hardware, without disabling a lot of the features that make them good. With that said, compile times can also take a hit. Even for a relatively small project like my own personal C++ libraries (~1000 lines of code), differences in hardware show up. I have a desktop with a Skylake i7 6700K that compiles those libraries in less that 30 seconds. I also have a bottom of the line HP Chromebook with an Intel Celeron processor that takes about 2 minutes to compile them. Then, on the very bottom end, a Raspberry Pi takes around 7-10 minutes to compile. For a company codebase that could be hundreds of thousands to millions of lines long, the compile times increase exponentially, which is where faster hardware really pays off.

In the end, though: For learning, it doesn't matter all that much. If you make it your profession, hardware matters.

Agreed. I'm trying to use IntelliJ on our school pcs and it takes ages to even create a class :P. While still better than BlueJ, which is pre-installed its quite annoying. Though any modern CPU will have no problems running any IDE. 

[SpaceNugget]

TL;DR: If you are asking the question then probably not.

 

Some less beginner forms of programming like machine learning can require absurd amounts of power to use effectively. Genetic algorithms and other programs that need to be 'trained' over many iterations, or on monstrous data sets benefit greatly from increased parallelization and computational power.

 

Other than that, resource hungry IDEs and large complex programs with difficult compilation procedures will require slightly above minimum available specs.

[DeadlyGrnSpirit]

Certainly some IDEs benefit greatly from a better CPU (ie Visual Studio). As for the programs you write, it depends on the programs you plan to make. Some might gain while others may not. Some programs may gain from more cores while others may not. It depends very much on what you're trying to do.

[VulsaviiK]

On 21/02/2017 at 9:39 PM, -iSynthesis said:

Agreed. I'm trying to use IntelliJ on our school pcs and it takes ages to even create a class :P. While still better than BlueJ, which is pre-installed its quite annoying. Though any modern CPU will have no problems running any IDE. 

Runs software worth hundreds of dollars on a potato, typical school logic there 

 

OP since you're just learning - Basically any modern-ish PC should be fine to run whatever IDE you decide to use. Whether or not you can take advantage of that i7 is going to come down to how you implement your code, but multi-threading isn't something I would think you'd be doing anytime soon. I'd roll with the i5 unless you need the i7 for something else

[SpaceNugget]

51 minutes ago, VulsaviiK said:

Runs software worth hundreds of dollars on a potato, typical school logic there 

 

OP since you're just learning - Basically any modern-ish PC should be fine to run whatever IDE you decide to use. Whether or not you can take advantage of that i7 is going to come down to how you implement your code, but multi-threading isn't something I would think you'd be doing anytime soon. I'd roll with the i5 unless you need the i7 for something else

My school has close to if not more than 1000 pcs with 4770k's. Better than mine!

[JuNex03]

On ‎26‎/‎02‎/‎2017 at 3:45 AM, SpaceNugget said:

My school has close to if not more than 1000 pcs with 4770k's. Better than mine!

Meh I'm programing at home using VB.net, C#/++, etc. on I3-2100 and I don't really feel like it's being sluggish.... Though may its because I've never had a better computer that I could compare. 

[stmfd sp!, {lr}]

13 hours ago, JuNex03 said:

Meh I'm programing at home using VB.net, C#/++, etc. on I3-2100 and I don't really feel like it's being sluggish.... Though may its because I've never had a better computer that I could compare. 

Pro tip: never delimit C# and C++ with a forward slash; always use commas.

 

OP:

Processing power shouldn't really matter (e.g. hold you back) but it can certainly make things tangibly slower. 

As people have said, it depends on what you plan on doing. If you were getting into 3d game development with UDK or something, I'd suggest a good processor and GPU. If you were just beginning web development, it probably won't matter that much. The heaviest tools are gonna be your IDE. Your compilation process may benefit from faster compile times with a better processor but, at the same time, unless it's mind-numbingly slow, you probably won't care much for it at first.

 

Put it this way: most good programmers alive today never learned programming on an i7.

 

But yeah, you literally could use a raspberry pi to program very easily:

Especially the newer revision of the pi.

 

The biggest concerns would be compile time (which is only really a tangible issue for large projects and, even then, there's ways to counter that somewhat depending on what language you're using) and actual runtime performance (depending on what you're doing - e.g. don't do heavy game development on an i3 or something; it may work, but it will suck).

[cluelessgenius]

like most others have said, coding itself will not demand power but compiling it will

if youre using an IDE like Visual Studio id recommend a fast drive though for general usability

and a higher resolution screen also benefited me more than a uber performance rig

also get keyboard you really feel comfortable with because you gonna do a lot of typing and little things like a shortened backspace or something really tends to anoy me 

 

everything else depends on what you actually want to do e.g. virtualization takes a lot of ram, graphical stuff may stress graphics card etc.

[cluelessgenius]

PS: im coding very well on my 8120 and i wouldnt call that a powerfull cpu. but getting my ultrawide i have to say was the best thing i could've done for coding. 

 

if youre like me youll want ot monitpr all the things of your developed application and that takes alot of screen space im not get an ultrawide necessarily im just suggesting where the focus should be