Computer Performance

RWD_PWR_BMW_5
RWD_PWR_BMW_5 Altair Community Member
edited January 22 in Community Q&A

Hello,

For my EDEM simulations, I use a DELL Precision 3660 with the following device specifications: 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900 2.00 GHz, 32.0 GB installed RAM, and 24 cores. The logical processers is 32. In my Altair EDEM simulations, I have 32 selected for the number of CPU cores. According to the system requirements for running EDEM, I meet or exceed the recommended specifications. However, the simulation is still taking very long. My question is, if I get a computer with better specifications with higher RAM and cores, will it make a difference? Or can you please suggest me a super fast computer that wont take weeks for a simulation? I am currently generating 20,000 particles, including 25 non-spherical particles created using the multi-sphere tool, which is taking weeks. 

Thank you for your time and consideration

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Best Answer

  • jerrinjobs
    jerrinjobs
    Altair Employee
    edited January 18 Answer ✓
    Ibrahim Al Qabani_21153 said:

    I can get a better computer; I just want to make sure it makes a noticeable difference. Each particle has approximately six to ten spheres. Thank you for your time 

    According to me, the difference would not be significant with more cores or even with a GPU, since you do not have quite a high number of particles.
    However, if this is just a test run, and your future runs will have more than 100,000 particles, then upgrading the system to one having a GPU would make sense. EDEM does not scale well with more number of CPU cores as it does with GPU. With choosing a GPU for you to use, I would point you to this super-informative blog here.
    With your current 20000 particle simulation, do you have a small timestep and a very large simulation time? Also, is the data save frequency very high? You could also turn off the 'Auto Update' to make your simulation faster, so that CPU power is not utilized in rendering the simulation image after each timestep. Hope this helps.

Answers

  • jerrinjobs
    jerrinjobs
    Altair Employee
    edited January 18

    Hi Ibrahim

    Are you using the system while the simulation is running? If so, the cores could be used by other processes of the machine, and EDEM waits to get the 32 cores (which is the max number). Although a little counterintuitive, you could try reducing the number of cores, and see if that makes any difference.
    Also, how many spheres are there in each particle? Is that a big number? I ask this to decide if GPU would yield any better results for you.

    Thanks,
    Jerrin Job

  • RWD_PWR_BMW_5
    RWD_PWR_BMW_5 Altair Community Member
    edited January 18
    Jerrin Job Sibychan said:

    Hi Ibrahim

    Are you using the system while the simulation is running? If so, the cores could be used by other processes of the machine, and EDEM waits to get the 32 cores (which is the max number). Although a little counterintuitive, you could try reducing the number of cores, and see if that makes any difference.
    Also, how many spheres are there in each particle? Is that a big number? I ask this to decide if GPU would yield any better results for you.

    Thanks,
    Jerrin Job

    I can get a better computer; I just want to make sure it makes a noticeable difference. Each particle has approximately six to ten spheres. Thank you for your time 

  • jerrinjobs
    jerrinjobs
    Altair Employee
    edited January 18 Answer ✓
    Ibrahim Al Qabani_21153 said:

    I can get a better computer; I just want to make sure it makes a noticeable difference. Each particle has approximately six to ten spheres. Thank you for your time 

    According to me, the difference would not be significant with more cores or even with a GPU, since you do not have quite a high number of particles.
    However, if this is just a test run, and your future runs will have more than 100,000 particles, then upgrading the system to one having a GPU would make sense. EDEM does not scale well with more number of CPU cores as it does with GPU. With choosing a GPU for you to use, I would point you to this super-informative blog here.
    With your current 20000 particle simulation, do you have a small timestep and a very large simulation time? Also, is the data save frequency very high? You could also turn off the 'Auto Update' to make your simulation faster, so that CPU power is not utilized in rendering the simulation image after each timestep. Hope this helps.

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