FYI -

Ran Russ Johnson's Simulation Benchmark using FFE + and the new Large Problem Solvers as a first look at the 2014 Simulation Performance.

The results were as follows with the new Large Problem Solver Selected:

Total Solution Time (sec) = 604 (10 min 4 s)

Number of Equations (490875) =N - 490038

Active Contact Elements (28) = Y

SolidWorks Version and Service Pack = SW2014/Beta1

Computer Manufacturer = Home built

Computer Model =

Approx System Cost = \$3000

Operating System and Service Pack = Windows 7 Professional x64/SP1

Graphics Card = AMD FirePro V4900

CPU Brand = Intel

CPU Model = i7 3970X

CPU Clock Speed = 4.12 GHz

Cooling Type = Water Cooled

Number of Cores = 6

Hyper-Threading Enabled? = Y

Amount of RAM = 32 GB

RAM Manufacturer = Corsair Vengeance

RAM Speed = 1866 MHz

Hard Drive Size = 480 GB Corsair Neutron GTX

Hard Drive Type and RPM = SSD

Thought this was great as it represents a 26.5% reduction in time to run from my SW2013/SP0.0 run back in February when I completed the computer build.

I ran the simulation again using the FFE+ Solver for a direct comparison and got :

Total Solution Time (sec) = 444 sec (7 min 24 s)

So here I have a 46% reduction in Solution time over 2013 SP0.0.  Very impressive.  I was seeing significantly increased processor cores utilization with both solvers.  The section in What's New only indicates that the new Large Problem Direct Solver does this.  Since I have 32G of ram in my machine I don't anticipate that I'll need the large Solver very often.

I plan on working my current analysis problem in parallel with both Simulation 2013 and 2014 to check how results and setups compare.  It is good to see the pressure problem has been fixed as I have had to do single face pressure applications as a workaround.

Bill Markert