I’ve been shipping software that requires AVX2 and FMA3 because it is a professional CAM/CAE application. Our users typically don’t use sub-$100 Intel processors like Pentium and Celeron. The key is communication, you need to make sure users are aware of the hardware requirements before they buy.
Another example, in the server market, you can almost always count on having at least AVX2 support because most servers today are cloud-based. For people running these cloud services, power efficiency is crucial due to the high cost of electricity, so they tend to replace old hardware regularly.
On the other hand, for desktop software aimed at a broad audience, there are valid reasons to hesitate before shipping code that requires AVX1.
I’ve been shipping software that requires AVX2 and FMA3 because it is a professional CAM/CAE application. Our users typically don’t use sub-$100 Intel processors like Pentium and Celeron. The key is communication, you need to make sure users are aware of the hardware requirements before they buy.
Another example, in the server market, you can almost always count on having at least AVX2 support because most servers today are cloud-based. For people running these cloud services, power efficiency is crucial due to the high cost of electricity, so they tend to replace old hardware regularly.
On the other hand, for desktop software aimed at a broad audience, there are valid reasons to hesitate before shipping code that requires AVX1.