Just messing around, I'll save anyway. Profiled the multi to linear function being called each time in Update. And moved it to the class constructor but it actually slowed it down. Might be cache related? As it is the difference between computing the value on the fly vs. getting the stored value

Conways.sln

@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ MinimumVisualStudioVersion = 10.0.40219.1
 Project("{8BC9CEB8-8B4A-11D0-8D11-00A0C91BC942}") = "Conways", "Conways\Conways.vcxproj", "{9035B83C-F117-480E-9DEB-435AA0EBEA3F}"
 EndProject
 Global
+	GlobalSection(Performance) = preSolution
+		HasPerformanceSessions = true
+	EndGlobalSection
 	GlobalSection(SolutionConfigurationPlatforms) = preSolution
 		Debug|x64 = Debug|x64
 		Debug|x86 = Debug|x86

Conways/Conways.vcxproj

@@ -147,12 +147,13 @@
       <WarningLevel>Level3</WarningLevel>
       <PrecompiledHeader>
       </PrecompiledHeader>
-      <Optimization>MaxSpeed</Optimization>
+      <Optimization>Full</Optimization>
       <FunctionLevelLinking>true</FunctionLevelLinking>
       <IntrinsicFunctions>true</IntrinsicFunctions>
       <PreprocessorDefinitions>NDEBUG;_CONSOLE;%(PreprocessorDefinitions)</PreprocessorDefinitions>
       <SDLCheck>true</SDLCheck>
       <AdditionalIncludeDirectories>Z:\Cpp_Libs\SFML-Visual_Studio2015RCx64\include;%(AdditionalIncludeDirectories)</AdditionalIncludeDirectories>
+      <FavorSizeOrSpeed>Speed</FavorSizeOrSpeed>
     </ClCompile>
     <Link>
       <SubSystem>Console</SubSystem>

Conways/Node.h

@@ -4,8 +4,8 @@
 
 class Node {
 public:
-	static const int x_bound = 1000;
+	static const int x_bound = 300;
-	static const int y_bound = 1000;
+	static const int y_bound = 300;
 
 	Node(sf::Vector2i position_);
 	~Node();
@@ -23,5 +23,7 @@ private:
 	sf::Vector2i position;
 	int curr_state;
 	int next_state;
+
+
 };
 

Conways/main.cpp

@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 #include <thread>
 #include <stack>
 
-const int WINDOW_X = 1000;
+const int WINDOW_X = 300;
-const int WINDOW_Y = 1000;
+const int WINDOW_Y = 300;
 
 float elap_time() {
 	static __int64 start = 0;
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ int main() {
 	for (int x = 0; x < Node::x_bound; x++) {
 		for (int y = 0; y < Node::y_bound; y++) {
 			node_vec.push_back(Node(sf::Vector2i(x, y)));
-			if ((x % 30 == 0)) {
+			if ((x % 5 == 0) || (y % 8 == 0)) {
 				node_vec.at(node_vec.size() - 1).Revive();
 			}
 		}
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ int main() {
 	texture.create(WINDOW_X, WINDOW_Y);
 	sf::Sprite sprite(texture);
 
+	
 	while (window.isOpen()) {
 
 		sf::Event event;
@@ -107,12 +108,14 @@ int main() {
 
 			}
 			else {
-				//pixel_array[i * 4] *= 0.999;// 49; // R?
+				pixel_array[i * 4] *= 0.999;// 49; // R?
-				pixel_array[i * 4 + 1] *= 0.999;//68; // G?
+				//pixel_array[i * 4 + 1] *= 0.999;//68; // G?
 				pixel_array[i * 4 + 2] *= 0.999;//72; // B?
 				pixel_array[i * 4 + 3] *= 0.999;//255; // A?
 			}
 		}
+		
+		window.clear();
 
 		texture.update(pixel_array);
 		window.draw(sprite);