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Not impressed with performance, what to do?

Question asked by michael aksenberg on Oct 29, 2007
Latest reply on Jan 25, 2008 by Ben Victory

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i have purchased a "newish" workstation, which runs with a dualXeon
3.0 cpu, windows XP SP2, 2gb memory.The testing part (punch holder)
i used, was the one from this thread
:http://forum.solidworks.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=14&threadid=6436&enterthread=yI
have a redraw time of about 300 secs, and i find it a bit (actually
alot)too slow.I have tried to disable the hyperthreading in the
bios, so that windowsonly can see two cpu's, and i ends up with
some 302 secs wasted in redrawing timeIf i enable the
hyperthreading, i ends up with 310 secs wasted 

Apparently it's not the harddrive (10K scsi disks) speed there's
the problem, as SW doesn'tuse them during redrawing (not much
atleast, i can't see if it's windowsor SW who is acessing the disks
a little bit from time to time)I get the same results redraw
results, whenever i'm using SW 2007(sp4) or 2008.Does anyone have
any ideas of how to cut off seconds in wasted time??Tia.Michael
Clay

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Devon Sowell Oct 29, 2007 9:40 AM
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Hello Michael-

Are you Opening the file over the Network or Locally?

If over the Network, copy the file to a Local Drive and try again.
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- michael aksenberg @ Devon Sowell on Oct 29, 2007 10:47 AM
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 Hi Devon.I'm running it off the local harddrive, and have no network traffic, so that's not the issue brMichael
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 - Devon Sowell @ michael aksenberg on Oct 29, 2007 11:44 AM
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 Hello Michael-
 
 What video card and driver is on your computer system?
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 - Devon Sowell @ Devon Sowell on Oct 29, 2007 2:15 PM
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 Hello Michael-
 
 Check these settings;
 
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 adjustforbestperformance.JPG97.3 KB
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 - Devon Sowell @ Devon Sowell on Oct 30, 2007 4:42 PM
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 Hi Michael- Look for your system information here: "<X>:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSInfo\msinfo32.exe" where "X" is your local boot harddrive letter. 
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 Devon Sowell @ Devon Sowell on Oct 30, 2007 4:43 PM
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 Look for system information here:
 
 "X:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSInfo\msinfo32.exe"
 
 Where "X" is your hardrive letter.
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 bob hern @ Devon Sowell on Nov 10, 2007 7:02 PM
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 CPU-Z will show your equipment very easily, just unzip it and run the .exe
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Matt Lombard Oct 29, 2007 12:34 PM

Hyper threading is bad. I had bought a computer where the bios wouldn't allow you to turn it off, and I returned it.

Have you checked verification on rebuild? (Tools, Options, Performance). It should be off.

Did you turn ON software OGL? (Tools, Options, Performance). It needs to be off.

Did you crank up the display quality? (Tools, options, Doc Props, Display Quality)

Are you using the Feature Statistics or a stopwatch to measure time?

Other processes running like Windows Search or the nefarious SW2008 feature digestion or whatever it is? Is antivirus scanning everything that moves?

You're talking about rebuild time, not redraw time, right?

My tablet runs that part in 144 s. I have a 2 year old laptop that runs it in 205.

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michael aksenberg @ Matt Lombard on Oct 29, 2007 1:43 PM

  Hi again 

  The graphic card is :  NVIDIA Quadro FX 4000 with 256mb memory 
i'm not using software OpenGL, but hardware  regarding the time,
i'm using the feature called " feature statistics"    and yes, it's
rebuilding, not redrawing, i'm trying to get a better performance
in. EDIT: now there's installed 4gb memory, and /3gb switch is
enabled in windows, but the performance is now at 275secs :S   br. 
Michael Aksenberg

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michael aksenberg @ michael aksenberg on Oct 30, 2007 6:19 AM

Hi.The settings are all set to "best performance".The file is
running off the local driveI'm also using the /3GB userva=2900 in
boot.ini so SW can use up to 3gbdedicated memory for the
application.The swapfile is usually about 520mb, when testing, and
around 400mb whennot using SW.When SD is working, the CPU is
running around 75% in average when testing,with hyperthreading
switced to OFF.If hyperthreading is set to ON, 3 kernes is running
idle, and the last is working 100% flat out. (so it's only running
25% in average as far as  i can see)Screen res is 1920 X
1200.brMichael Aksenberg

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michael aksenberg @ michael aksenberg on Oct 30, 2007 6:22 AM

I forgot to mention that i've made a little typo before.It's not
redraw time, but rebuild time, that's the issue .I'm VERY sorry..my
bad  

brMichael Aksenberg

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michael aksenberg @ michael aksenberg on Oct 30, 2007 9:04 AM

Hi.I'm not aware of which number the cpu has?Its 2 x 3ghz Xeon
cpu's, attached to the motherboard.Stangely enough, you're
absolutely right, about the long delay, afterfinishing rebuild,
before i can use the system again  

My guess is, that it's the old P4 netburst technology.So, generally
speaking, there's not much to do about performance gainunless we
change our workstations to Core2 cpu's?br.michael aksenberg

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michael aksenberg @ michael aksenberg on Oct 30, 2007 12:18 PM

Hi.Just a brief little update.We tried to change the Xeon3ghz
computer, with an IBM desktop pc,with integrated graphics cardAn
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86GHz1Gb memoryThe test actually
DID improve, from around 300secs for the punch holderrunning at the
dual 3Ghz Xeon computerTo... 198secs at the core2 dual standard
pcWe also tried it in SW2008, and here we ended up around 185secs
for thesame puncholder.Apparently there's a major change in design
pc's coming up... 

br.Michael Aksenberg

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Paul Salvador @ michael aksenberg on Nov 16, 2007 3:31 PM
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Can I ask,.. where do the numbers come from, the seconds??
Do they come from the "Feature Statics" box?
Or do you time it with a stopwatch?

That is, the actual time it takes to rebuild and when you have FULL access and control to edit the model.

..thanks!
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Anna Wood Oct 30, 2007 8:53 AM
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Michael,

What is the model number of your CPU? How new is "newish"? Do you have a single CPU with a dual core or do you have 2 CPU's in the motherboard. Do you have a new Core architecture Xeon or an old Netburst P4 architecture Xeon?

If you have the old P4 architecture Xeon's then your system performance is inline with that version of CPU. The new Core architecture CPU's are far superior to the old P4 architecture.

The punch holder model definately is a test of your CPU speed.

It will also take a long time for SolidWorks to give you back control of your system once it is done crunching numbers. The punch holder model really showcases that issue well. :-(

Cheers,
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Mark Olsen Nov 16, 2007 3:39 PM
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I continue to hear the "don't open over the network" mantra, but I've never seen anything to prove that it makes any difference whatsoever, nor anything explaining why it would matter. I've worked with large files and assemblies (29000 components, files over 500Mb) and tried them both on the network and off. I couldn't see any difference at all.

Obviously, I must be missing something. Any idea what? If there is truly a significant advantage to not working over the network, I'd like to take advantage of it.
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Larry Kutcher Nov 16, 2007 4:09 PM
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ttt
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Ben Victory Jan 25, 2008 5:35 PM
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In reply to your entry on 10/30/2007 03:19 AM, someone feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

A GENERAL rule for any workstation especially a CAD station is to NEVER let windows run your page file size. Typically a page file 1.5 to 2 times as much RAM you have. As a side note keep this in mind, the larger your page file, the more memory windows has to devote to using your page file. So there needs to be a happy medium.
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Not impressed with performance, what to do?

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