MARCH 2021 PCWorld 31analysis...indicates that there is a very small
number of Windows devices running
Chrome with x86 processors that do not
support SSE3,” Google said (go.pcworld.
com/said).
The company added that it will give
fair warning. “Until we require
SSE3, Chrome will
warn impacted
users (with x86
CPUs that don’t
support SSE3) that
their computers will
soon be unsupported.
The implementation will
use the framework in //
chrome/browser/obsolete_
system. This will result in a
dismissable warning bar, and a permanent
warning in the chrome://settings/help
page,” Google said in a note. That will
show up as part of a warning message like
the one shown below.
Google began requiring SSE2 support in
Chrome 35, which was released in May 2014
as part of the Chrome stable
branch. Now it’s SSE3’s turn.
According to Wikipedia, SSE
was introduced in the
“Prescott” revision of the
Intel Pentium 4 in
2004 and in the
“Venice” and
“San Diego”
revisions of the
AMD Athlon 64,
launched in 2005. That, of
course, means those processors are
well outside the five-year PC refresh cycle that
AMD and Intel preach as a way to sell new,
updated CPUs. If you own a system this old,
maybe it’s time to replace your PC.