O.K. I posted a similar question in the simulation forum the otherweek and got limited response. Maybe I can do better here, everyoneseems more in tune with hardware impacts on performance.

We have recently upgraded computers. Two different configurationswere purchased. One was selected specifically to run SolidWorks formodeling and drawing. The other for analysis. Specifying themachines was based on the premise that SolidWorks does not takeadvantage of multiple processors or cores BUT the Simulation toolDOES use multi-threading and can use multiple processors and cores.Possibly this belief is in error but it came from quite a bit ofresearch and what I thought I heard at Solid Works World 2009.

Anyway we are running the following two machines:
Machine #1
Dell T7400
XP 64 bit OS
Dual Xeon Quad core processors @ 3.00 Ghz
8 GB RAM
Video card NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800

Machine #2
Dell T7400
XP 64 bit OS
Single Xeon Quad core @ 3.2 Ghz
8 GB RAM
Video card NVIDIA FX 5800

When benchmarking a simple analysis, my results tend to indicatethat no multithreading is happening. For example, running machine#1 solves a static problem in 6:20 minutes. Machine #2 solves theexact same problem faster and in 5:20 minutes. I have tried boththe FFEPlus solver and the Sparse solver. Each bench mark runsfaster on the machine with less overall CPU capacity.

Is there a particular setting or type of analysis that usesmulti-threading?

Thanks.
SolidworksAdministration