Optimum PC configuration for running TracePro
Question
I'm looking for any information regarding the best PC configuration for running TracePro. I'm looking to invest in new hardware, and I'd like to buy the optimal configuration. Basically, I'd like to know what is the most limiting factor in determining the speed of a ray trace. Any info you can supply on hardware configurations would be appreciated.
Synopsis
Optimum PC configuration for running TracePro
Solution
The speed of a TracePro ray-trace is affected by several parameters of the PC - Processor Speed, Bus Speed, Disk I/O Speed, RAM, and Number of Processors/Cores.
(1) Processor Speed - The ray-trace will progress at the Processor Speed until the Processor memory cache is filled. This memory cache is not the overall "RAM" value typically advertised for a PC, but rather a much smaller memory cache available right on the processor chip. From a TracePro standpoint, this cache is filled quickly, either by just creating the geometry of your model, or in the first few rays of a ray-trace, so you don't get to utilize the full Processor Speed for very long.
Please note that different chip manufacturers may measure and report processor speed differently.
(2) Processor memory cache - Many processors have a memory cache onboard the chip to speed up memory access. A large cache will improve ray tracing performance, especially for small ray-trace sets.
(3) Bus Speed - Bus Speed is the speed that data is transferred between the Processor and the Motherboard, and it is the Motherboard where the RAM is located. During a TracePro ray-trace, the Bus Speed will limit the speed of the ray-trace from the time the Processor cache is full until the Physical RAM on the Motherboard is consumed.
(4) Disk I/O Speed - The Disk Input/Output speed becomes relevant once the Physical RAM is consumed. At that point, the PC utilizes Virtual Memory, which is the use of Hard Disk space as RAM. However, the Disk I/O Speed is typically just a fraction of the Bus Speed. Solid State Drives (SSDs) provide dramatically better performance than traditional hard disks and should be used for storing TracePro data.
(5) RAM - Memory is indirectly critical to achieving ray-trace speed in TracePro. The system performance has a cascading effect as more RAM is consumed during the ray-trace. The best situation is when the PC has enough Physical RAM to completely avoid the use of Virtual Memory, which limits the ray-trace speed to the Disk I/O speed of the PC.
When a TracePro ray-trace is performed in Analysis mode, all ray data is maintained in active RAM. This may be useful for the analysis, but will potentially increase the ray-trace time. The maintenance of ray data in RAM will cause the limiting factor on the ray-trace speed to progress from Processor >> Bus >> Disk I/O.
When a TracePro ray-trace is performed in Simulation mode, only the data for the rays intersecting the selected Exit Surface(s) are held in RAM. This can improve ray-trace time by delaying the progression from Processor >> Bus >> Disk I/O.
An additional advantage can be achieved in Simulation Mode by selecting the ""Save data to disk"" option in the Simulation & Output Raytrace Options. In this instance, an even smaller amount of ray data is in RAM, again delaying the progression from Processor >> Bus >> Disk I/O.
In addition to the impact on ray-trace speed discussed above, the availability of more RAM simply enables larger and more complex CAD geometry and properties to be handled by TracePro.
(6) Multiple Processors/Cores - The number of processor cores on the PC has a significant impact on ray-trace speed. The impact is nominally a direct ratio, that is, 4 cores will trace 4 times as fast. The real impact is not quite that good, as there is some inefficiency caused by splitting up the calculations over the multiple cores and then bringing the data from each core back together when the ray-trace is completed.
TracePro has been multi-threaded to take advantage of multiple processors/cores since the TracePro 7.0.0 release. TracePro will use as many cores as area available, though the performance advantage will be limited if many wavelengths are traced. This is because the rays to be vectorized are grouped by wavelength, as the properties must be re-evaluated for each new wavelength.
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GRAPHICS CARDS:
TracePro runs in OpenGL mode, so the graphics card must support Open GL. The Graphics Module used in TracePro can "challenge" some graphics cards. For more information about TracePro Graphics issues, please see
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SOLID STATE DRIVES:
Solid State Drives should improve TracePro performance in instances where TracePro is reading/writing to the hard drive - (1) when running in Simulation Mode with the Save Data to Disk Option selected, and (2) when tracing rays when Physical RAM is exceeded
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RECOMMENDED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Please see the minimum and recommended System Requirements for running TracePro: