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Simple Code, High Performance

Molly Rocket · lecture · Watch on YouTube

Software performance & optimizationComputer architecture & CPUs

What it is

Casey Muratori's University of Twente guest lecture is a case study in how straightforward code can cut thousands of lines and tens of seconds of runtime down to a few dozen lines running in under a second. It uses concrete examples to show why software is often an order of magnitude slower than it should be.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN people recommend it to anyone wanting a practical sense of what CPUs can really do and why abstraction layers cost so much performance.

  • 6 people recommended it
  • 6 different months
  • 3 strong recommendations
  • first 2021, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “Casey Muratori's (who has been on here a lot lately) talk nails it [1]”

    Explains developers don't realise how fast code could run

    DrBazza, 2021-11 · Strong recommendation · in “An Epic future for SPJ”

  2. “I highly recommend watching it.”

    Practical, high-level understanding of CPU architecture and SIMD optimization

    mrv_asura, 2022-03 · Strong recommendation · in “Algorithms for Modern Hardware”

  3. “Casey Muratori's talks[0] on performance and optimization sparked an interest in me to start putting thought into what the CPU actually does”

    Sparked interest in what the CPU actually does

    Pr0ject217, 2022-12 · Strong recommendation · in “What we can learn from vintage computing”

  4. “Here Casy explains a grass planting algorithm for games, where white noise wouldn't be suitable.”

    Grass planting algorithm showing blue noise in games

    ocharles, 2021-12 · Recommendation · in “Why can’t you design noise in frequency space?”

  5. “I'd recommend two talks that come with a very different perspective from what you usually hear”

    Shows what optimal performance looks like via grass planting optimization

    mtzet, 2024-03 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: How can I learn about performance optimization?”

  6. “Casey Muratori started a whole educational webseries about this”

    Educational series on hardware getting faster while user experience stays the same

    kleiba, 2024-11 · Recommendation · in “I Waited 10B Cycles and All I Got Was This Loading Screen”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: optimization, simd, cpu architecture, casey muratori, game programming, abstraction cost

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