Hi,
I've been looking at the ram usage while running SW. The machine/software seems to be in active RAM abstinance - and wonder if the system or software is really recognising/utilising the available ram to full potential. There is the expectation the amount of waiting is not what should be happening during model/drawing rebuilds and also simulation runs.
I have a Dell M3400 workstation with 8GB of ram and a Q9300 2.5GHz quad processor running Win7 64bit, NVidia FX Quadro 1700. The install has recently been built from a clean install SW 2011 SP4.0.
The symptom - it seems to fluctuate between 3.5GB and 4.5GB regardless of small or large assemblies - FEA (using simulation) or not. I have been using the windows resource monitor to monitor memory usage (typ screen capture attached). I dont know if i'm looking at the right information; and if this is a common experience for other users.
Questions: what should I expect; how would I measure it (how do I interpret the windows Resource Monitor screen?) ; if its not right what would be the fix/es?
Thanks in advance
(if it really is on a RAM diet and learns to eat again maybe I'll get a 25% increase in performance?)
SolidWorks is cpu bound. If you want a 25% increase in performance you will need to get a different cpu. Which in your case would mean getting a new computer.
SolidWorks is using all the ram it needs.
For FEA also getting a some SSD drives would be help as well. FEA writes to disk quite a bit. Fast hard drives will help your performance.
Also look at going to SW2012. They have done a lot on the performance side of FEA this release. SW2012 will better utilize the extra cpu cores above 4 if you go with a new six core system.
Cheers,
Anna