this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2024
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Windows 11 is really shooting itself in the foot. Not just the privacy implications of this, but also the CPU and memory usage will surge once again. Why is this important?
I went to an electronics store recently to see the state of brand new laptop performance in 2024. Here's what I found:
Laptops with 16GB RAM, an SSD, and a good CPU (3K/13K single/multi thread on Passmark) will run Windows 11 smoothly. File manager, task manager takes about a second to open, while the start menu takes around 400ms. It feels like a truck with 350hp.
Laptops with 8GB RAM, an SSD, and a mediocre CPU (2.5K/9K Passmark) will noticably struggle with Windows 11. The file manager takes 3 seconds to open and the start menu takes 1 second, with stutters and hiccups using it. It'll be usable, but quite slow. It feels like a truck with 100hp.
Laptops with 4GB RAM, eMMC, and a bad CPU (1.5K/4K Passmark) will be brought to its knees by Windows 11. Task manager takes 27 seconds to open! A web browser takes even longer, and loading my light game somehow took 7 seconds (this game loaded in under a second on the better computers) to open. The CPU, RAM, and storage were pinned to 100% most of the time. Completely unacceptable performance, it's like a truck with 10hp.
And a laptop with the above but with a CPU with a Passmark score of 1K/2.5K was so bad that it couldn't open literally anything in Windows 11. It's literally a brick. I cannot believe the store (a giant multinational company) is selling this laptop. It's like a truck with 5hp that cannot go up a moderate hill.
But now, the store also sold ChromeOS laptops. As much as I hate how locked down ChromeOS was, I was delighted by the performance of it. The worst laptop specs I mentioned (4GB RAM, 64GB eMMC, CPU with 1K/2.5K Passmark score) ran actually quite reasonably on ChromeOS. It opens Chrome in about 3 seconds, and my game in 1 second, with some stutters but no freezes. It struggled with YouTube, but this is due to YouTube's own bloat, which is like a 1000lb trailer to a bike with 5hp.
In conclusion, Windows is losing due to its incredible bloat. It'll make every computer--including my friend's 7900X, 4070, 1TB SSD, 64GB RAM, water-cooled beast--sweat, and will make low-end computers unusable. The super locked down ChromeOS is literally more desirable to me on laptops under $400. Yet Microsoft is still deciding to add even more bloat! No wonder why Linux market share is skyrocketing, because Windows can barely run on their computers!
I know you can disable this, but most non-techy people won't even know this exists and won't do anything to disable it, because they just want to browse the web and read emails. But the added bloat by this "feature" will cause them to notice their computers are even slower, and switch away from Windows when they realize they need a $800 Windows laptop to have a smooth OS experience, when they can buy a $250 Chromebook or $1000 Mac with a smooth OS experience.
TL;DR: Microsoft is shooting itself in the foot by adding more bloat to an obese OS, and Windows's bloat is its biggest liability.
I disagree with Windows shooting itself in the foot
People will just buy better computers and throw out the ones that “don’t work”
We are about to get a lot of very usable hardware at second-hand prices.
They will buy better computers. Will it run Windows?
I really want this to become the new "Can it run Crysis".
Windows 11 is probably heavier than the original Crysis in all metrics, and more than its sequels in certain metrics.
Even if you can, the ones that do that get annoyed once again, as it will likely in windows tradition be randomly reset after an update: "oops, we reframed this feature you previously consciously turned off and thought we'ld give it a spin for you"
"AI Explorer will utilize next-gen neural processing unit (NPU) hardware to process these machine learning and generative AI experiences locally on the device with low latency."
"The feature is also said to be exclusive to devices powered by Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon X series chips,"
Tl;dr: you should read the article first
If you actually read Qualcomm's white paper for their NPU you'd know OPs concerns about windows resource bloat is still a reasonable concern to have at least on the memory side of things.
The memory on their SoC is shared between the CPU, GPU, and critically the NPU. This is so they can save on memory bandwidth since they won't have to copy the same data potentially three times over. However this also means by adding more AI bloat into windows will also clog up precise memory that could be used elsewhere.
That SoC, the snapdragon elite x supports eight channels of LPDDR5x which means the lowest amount of memory we could see is 16Gb assuming all eight channels used with 2Gb memory packages (which is the smallest size JEDEC allows LPDDR5x).
Is that really going to be enough for everything? In my opinion no because the the GPU will take a chunk, windows will take a chunk, the NPU will take a chunk, and the storage will try to take a chunk for caching if there's anything left.
TL;DR: You should read the white papers instead of the marketing fluff articles.
While that is compelling evidence, I offer a counterpoint:
He owns an airfryer.
The article said "The feature is also said to be exclusive to devices powered by Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon X series chips, at least at first.
And even if it requires a PC with at least 16GB RAM, then those computers will feel slower than they should be.