CPU Performance

AmiBroker
1

Hi All,

Back-tests are suddenly taking 3 times longer for me - I noticed CPU usage is maxing out at 35% when running BT's. This hasn't happened before, so I can't work it out? Does anyone know of any tools I could use to investigate the problem?

Running a Dell Laptop: XPS 15 9570 6 core i7 8750H @ 2.2GHZ.

NOTE: A friend has exactly the same machine and performs exactly the same BT's at 100% CPU usage and completes the BT 3 to 4 times faster than me. Therefore clearly there is something wrong with my configuration specifically. Note also we are running exactly the same AB settings.

Any guidance would be very much appreciated!

2

There is one thing you can check, however, I haven't checked the newer BIOS / UEFI config in latest XPS.

I remember some settings like Virtualization / Hyper-Threading that needs to be enabled. (Although generally shipped enabled)
Since you have the same two systems, this would be a good start.

I cant remember when but once a BIOS update had turned it off, and virtualbox / Hyper-V needs this enabled.

There are many tools which you can run to get a performance benchmark.
Intel used to separately ship turbo-boost, you have to see if the OS can request the on-demand over-clock.

There are many other things, but you can keep reporting here and eliminate each one while others share input.

3

Thanks very much Travick,

I checked the BIOS (and updated it) and all Hyper Threading / Turbo Boost / etc. was on.

I did make some progress: I updated to AB v 6.3 to test it and didn't realise that, as a trial, I don't think it was utilising the Norgate Local DB. When I rolled back to 6.2 I got a massive speed improvement.

However, it is still taking me 50% more time to run a BT than my friend with the same machine.

I've also ruled out Bitdefender. I am getting much closer to 100% cpu usage now, but it is not consistent. Also, if I run the AB Performance Monitor, cpu usage maxes out at about 60% (even when task manager says 100%), so I still don't think my cpu is being used fully. Perhaps it is a machine fault?

At this stage, I've tried everything I can think of : )

Cheers

4

@ezekiel maybe you will find some clues in this article:

http://www.amibroker.com/kb/2017/10/06/limits-of-multithreading/

From time to time users approach us asking various questions related to multithreading such as:

  • Why his/her formula does not run 32 times faster on 16 core / 32 thread computer
  • Will 16 core processor be twice as fast as 8 core
  • Why their CPU does not show 100% usage

etc.

BTW. I understand that you are using a Professional AB edition and you are doing all your backtests on a local database?

1

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5

Eureka !!

(Yes @Milosz, local DB (now that I dropped back to v6.20) and Pro edition).

I found the issue!

It seems that my local database (Norgate Data) had grown to 7 gig. I removed that, and re-built the Norgate database - this time when saving, the database is only 1.5gig.

Now when I run the BT it is 50% faster! : )

Thanks!

6

We're eagerly waiting for updates about performance on the amd-ryzen-threadripper-2990wx

With 32 Cores (64 Thread SMT) and a 64MB L3 CACHE, must be good for your 1 or 2k symbols :smiley:

1 Like
7

No way Clark. Still not good enough! I don't want to take baby steps. As I wrote in this thread, I'm currently saving money for my first Quantum computer and waiting for:

  1. AmiBroker 2022 Quantum Edition :joy:
  2. Cyberpunk 2077 :smiley:

... because my current setup is becomming little outdated now and tube amplifiers are hard to come by :sleepy:

That's me fine tuning my AB 6.30 setup:

obraz

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