FEA engineering calcs
FEA engineering calcs
I'm doing some finite elements calculations using ANSYS Mechanical. Simple ones, I guess - linear, static. My current Xeon E5-1660 does the job well enough (let's say 2-3 minutes for one calculation max), but there is an opportunity that my company orders new workstations. I'd like to ask if someone tested/experienced such calculations using Ryzen X3D vs ordinary X versions. Does extra cache matter?
I did ask official support deck, but did not receive a good response. ANSYS is a powerfull piece of software and their support is targeted at calculation servers, fluid analysis, GPU assisted calcs etc., while my case is much simpler and I know that typical workstation would be enough. The question is:
- extra cache or not
- quad channel vs dual (which means going up to Threadrippers)
I already know that ANSYS solvers use avx512, so I tend to select AMD.
Intel maintains an advantage for AVX512 in several aspects, though it may be limited in others. I wouldn't choose a standard gaming desktop over a genuine workstation CPU since workstation processors offer significantly greater memory bandwidth compared to RAM. Desktop CPUs typically use a dual channel RAM setup, while workstation models support 4, 6, or 8 channel interfaces.
Whether the additional cache improves performance depends on whether the task is latency-sensitive or bandwidth-intensive.