Can Pro/E take advantage of multi-threaded processors?

[marcstewart63]

Hello Pro/Users,

Our company is getting ready to perform a hardware refresh of our Pro/E workstations, and I am involved to help establish the system requirements. We want to make sure we get powerful enough systems that will last us for 3-4 years and still be supported by PTC so we don't get into issues with support.

So I have a couple basic processor/multi-core questions...


* Has anyone done any benchmarking against different processors such as the ones listed in the chart below?

* [cid:image001.jpg@01CB11E0.9CE04100]


* Can Pro/E take advantage of multi-threaded processors or is it still better to have dual processor systems?

* Does anyone know if Olaf's OCUS utilities have been updated for WF5 and 64-bit systems?

* Are any of you aware of vendor supplied data that could be used to help us compare systems? We mainly use HP workstations.

* Are there standardized benchmarking files that could be used for this type of testing?


If anyone has any benchmarking results that they would be willing to share, I would love to here from them. Naturally, I will post a summary of the results.

Thanks
BWC
Marc

Because We Care

[cid:image002.png@01CB11E0.9CE04100]

Marc Stewart
Senior Design Engineer
Midmark Corporation
60 Vista Drive (Plant A)
Versailles, OH 45380
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[marcstewart63]

Hello Pro/Users,

Sorry if this is a multiple post, but I haven't seen this deliver yet so I am resending it. Our company is getting ready to perform a hardware refresh of our Pro/E workstations, and I am involved to help establish the system requirements. We want to make sure we get powerful enough systems that will last us for 3-4 years and still be supported by PTC so we don't get into issues with support.

So I have a couple basic processor/multi-core questions...


* Has anyone done any benchmarking against different processors such as the ones listed in the chart below?

* [cid:image001.jpg@01CB11E0.9CE04100]


* Can Pro/E take advantage of multi-threaded processors or is it still better to have dual processor systems?

* Does anyone know if Olaf's OCUS utilities have been updated for WF5 and 64-bit systems?

* Are any of you aware of vendor supplied data that could be used to help us compare systems? We mainly use HP workstations.

* Are there standardized benchmarking files that could be used for this type of testing?


If anyone has any benchmarking results that they would be willing to share, I would love to here from them. Naturally, I will post a summary of the results.

Thanks
BWC
Marc

Because We Care

[cid:image002.png@01CB11E0.9CE04100]

Marc Stewart
Senior Design Engineer
Midmark Corporation
60 Vista Drive (Plant A)
Versailles, OH 45380

[gchampoux]

Pro/E is multi-threaded, but not at all times.
If I recall correctly, it multi-threads during retrieval and tessellation (for shaded images).
I suspect that for most people, that will not be very significant.

However, this does not mean that you should avoid multi-core CPU's.
They are advantageous for several reasons.
The bottom line is that you need to know which CPU's truly make a difference for Pro/E.
And the best place for that info is http://www.proesite.com.
Specifically, go to the benchmark results page here: http://www.proesite.com/cgi-bin/ocusb5.cgi?64bit=1.
As you will see, the Core i7 is best these days.
However, for the best bang-for-the-buck, I recommend a Core-2-Duo, such as the E8500.

Gerry

[jcrockett-2]

I am currently conducting a thorough benchmark exercise to answer that same question as yours within my company.

Preliminary results show that for part regeneration, more than dual-core is a waste, and that Xeon cpu's regenerate %3-5 slower than Core i5 desktop cpu's given the same clock speed. Furthermore the Core i5 is available at higher clock speed than Xeon, for a fraction of the Xeon cost.

Furthermore, Intel's new Turbo technology appears not to help ProE... but I'm still investigating that.

Lastly, Intel's Nehalem (integrated memory controller) architecture shows significant improvement in ProE vs. all previous architectures.