INTERACT FORUM

Devices => PC's and Other Hardware => Topic started by: davewave on August 02, 2024, 12:47:45 am

Title: Intel vs Qualcomm
Post by: davewave on August 02, 2024, 12:47:45 am
Yesterday Intel announced a very poor result.   They now intend to layoff over 10% of the workforce.   In a nutshell, their momentum is down.

Meanwhile, the Qualcomm (snapdragon) based Notebook class of 2024 is getting very strong reviews.  While this is round two for Windows on ARM, it appears that Microsoft is serious this time.

Seems to me, as part of Media Center 33, JRiver might consider releasing a version of the software for the new Qualcomm Windows platform.   It is coming on stronger than I had thought possible.

True, there is an emulation mode for the ARM machines running windows.   But given the compute intensity of the video portion of this product, I would be astonished if performance of JRiver is acceptable in emulation mode.  Quite a few Adobe products are known to fail in emulation mode.   

This post has been modified to clear up some questions, some related to the topic location being moved.
Title: Re: Intel vs Qualcomm
Post by: BryanC on August 02, 2024, 08:55:54 am
They already do: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,139177.0.html
Title: Re: Intel vs Qualcomm
Post by: mattkhan on August 02, 2024, 09:40:17 am
That's a Linux build, he's surely referring to windows on arm (this thread was moved from windows board so probably a.bit misleading now)
Title: Re: Intel vs Qualcomm
Post by: Awesome Donkey on August 02, 2024, 11:17:39 am
It's likely going to depend on the adoption rate of Snapdragon X chips and Windows on ARM. Other than battery life, it seems what Qualcomm was saying about Snapdragon X, especially in regards to the performance of the chips, was a little overhyped. Plus it's very likely (other than potential driver issues which would be a Windows thing) Media Center will run on those systems fine via the x86 emulation in Windows 11.

It's not a situation like with Apple completely dropping Intel CPUs in favor of Apple Silicon forcing developers to port to ARM (even though x86 emulation via Rosetta 2 was amazing) sooner than later, not to mention x86 isn't going anywhere anytime soon. It's probably best to wait and see what happens as there's really no urgency to run out and buy a Snapdragon X laptop for development as long as the app runs via emulation. Also to wait and see if Windows on ARM finally gains some traction, this is probably the most important thing to take into consideration porting and releasing a native Windows ARM build.

There's competitors for the Snapdragon X chips, mainly AMD's Ryzen AI and Intel's Core Ultra CPUs.

Has anyone even bought a Snapdragon X laptop yet and tried to run Media Center on it? I kinda doubt most people buying Snapdragon X laptops even are interested in media playback.
Title: Re: Intel vs Qualcomm
Post by: BryanC on August 03, 2024, 12:54:41 pm
Nobody asked for my two cents, but I couldn't imagine wanting to run any operating system less than Windows on ARM. Or another first generation attempt at Windows on ARM at that. Any imaginable use case would be better served by something else: Apple ARM, Linux ARM, Android ARM, Windows x86 all have their respective strengths, while Windows ARM does not. The Vulkan SDK for Windows ARM hasn't even been released AFAIK. And the ecoystem for third-party Windows ARM apps is non-existent and most developer feel spurned by previous attempts.

The only pro is that it might force vendors to create more ARM64 drivers.
Title: Re: Intel vs Qualcomm
Post by: jmone on August 03, 2024, 05:38:38 pm
This is the second attempt to run Windows on Arm.  The last one drifted into obscurity.  I'm personally looking forward to seeing how the new Intel x86 chips look like in a couple of months.
Title: Re: Intel vs Qualcomm
Post by: Awesome Donkey on August 03, 2024, 09:10:43 pm
Hopefully they don't have instability issues. :-X
Title: Re: Intel vs Qualcomm
Post by: JimH on August 03, 2024, 09:33:25 pm
We had a problem with an Intel chip a long time ago.  I think it was this one:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_FDIV_bug

I found the product manager eventually.  He just sent us a new one.  We were astonished.
Title: Re: Intel vs Qualcomm
Post by: davewave on August 03, 2024, 10:27:19 pm
Yesterday Intel announced a very poor result.   They now intend to layoff over 10% of the workforce.   In a nutshell, their momentum is down.

Meanwhile, the Qualcomm (snapdragon) based Notebook class of 2024 is getting very strong reviews.  While this is round two for Windows on ARM, it appears that Microsoft is serious this time.

Seems to me, as part of Media Center 33, JRiver might consider releasing a version of the software for the new Qualcomm Windows platform.   It is coming on stronger than I had thought possible.

True, there is an emulation mode for the ARM machines running windows.   But given the compute intensity of the video portion of this product, I would be astonished if performance of JRiver is acceptable in emulation mode.  Quite a few Adobe products are known to fail in emulation mode.   

This post has been modified to clear up some questions, some related to the topic location being moved. 
Title: Re: Intel vs Qualcomm
Post by: Bigfire on August 04, 2024, 10:28:24 pm
I'm running the mid-tier Snapdragon, and it runs fine. An ARM version would be welcomed because it would be better on the battery life. But it's not terrible as is.

Windows on Snapdragon is the real deal. Unless you need a gaming GPU, or have a specific application that won't run (typically something that's heavily integrated into the OS, like VPN and such), you're nuts not to be moving to Snapdragon for a laptop. Forget about the AI stuff, the instant on, amazing battery life, the lack of drain overnight, and the responsiveness outclass anything from Intel or AMD.
Title: Re: Intel vs Qualcomm
Post by: davewave on August 07, 2024, 05:01:23 pm
I'm running the mid-tier Snapdragon, and it runs fine. An ARM version would be welcomed because it would be better on the battery life. But it's not terrible as is.

Windows on Snapdragon is the real deal. Unless you need a gaming GPU, or have a specific application that won't run (typically something that's heavily integrated into the OS, like VPN and such), you're nuts not to be moving to Snapdragon for a laptop. Forget about the AI stuff, the instant on, amazing battery life, the lack of drain overnight, and the responsiveness outclass anything from Intel or AMD.
Have you tried running JRiver on your Snapdragon Windows machine?
Title: Re: Intel vs Qualcomm
Post by: JimH on August 13, 2024, 06:48:05 am
abrise reported here:  https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,139442.0.html