Performance issues 1

[cardoso7]

Greetings!

At the office I use sap2000 v15 to run some analyses using shells elements. Some models are kinda big, with 5600+ area elements, but I don't have performance issues there, even using a somewhat older computer. It's a Core i3 4150 Haswell if I'm not mistaken, with 8GB RAM and Intel integrated graphics.

But recently I installed the same software in my home computer, which I think is better (AMD FX-8350 4.0Ghz, 8GB RAM, GTX 960) and visualizing the results in the shells is a lot slower. Is there some config I'm not aware? Since my graphics card is better, should't it be faster in my computer? Even using the DirectX graphics mode the performance is a lot worse.

Thanks for the input!

 

[JoshPlumSE]

What's the operating system at home and at the office? If the office is a 64 bit system and the home one is a 32 bit system that would explain it. Doesn't matter how much superior the hardware is if the software can't process it.

Same thing goes for multi-core processors. If the office computer has multiple cores (provided that the program is capable of taking advantage of them) and the home computer is confined to a single core (i.e. a single thread) that would explain it as well.

 

[cardoso7]

Thanks for the answer. Both computers are running Windows 7 Pro 64 bits.

The computer from the office is a Core i3 4150 3.5Ghz. It has two cores.

My home computer is a AMD FX-8350 4.0Ghz, with 8 cores.

Maybe the core i3 is better than my FX-8350? That would be upsetting, considering the core i3 is suposed to be a entry-level cpu.

I found it strange because I assumed that the graphics part was done by the graphics card, which is undoubtedly better in my computer.

 

[JoshPlumSE]

I'm not a SAP expert at all, so I don't know how they process their graphics. But, there is a common misconception that a fast graphics card will help always help with rendering of structural software. This is likely true of the highly graphics driven programs (PC games, Revit and such). But, is less likely for other engineering applications that write their own graphics processing.

Programs that use a 3rd party package (Direct X, OpenGL) to render their graphics would likely be faster as well. So, when you're using that processing mode I would expect it to be at least a little better. Though you may only see a performance improvement once the initial rendering is complete (and you're attempting to zoom / rotate, et cetera).

Now, the 8 cores you have on your home computer may actually be causing the difference in speed. With multi-threaded applications speed largely depends on how the application is threaded. If the graphics processing portion of the program is all contained in a single thread, then you can only utilize 1/8 of the total processing power of the processor itself as opposed to 50% of the processing power of the dual core machine.

One way to test this is to open up the Windows Task Manager and track the performance of the computers during this task. If you see one limited to 12 or 13% of the CPU usage and the other goes all the way to 50% then you have your answer.

Make sense?

 

[cardoso7]

Yes, I think I understood.

I did what you suggested with task manager. Indeed, only half of the cores were being used.

I assume everything's normal then, and it's just that my CPU is slower.

Thanks!