PIX insight and performance

[Mckechg]

Hi all,

there is a performance script in the menu

i am interested in the output of different configs

here is mine

*********************************** *********************************** *********
The Official PixInsight Benchmark version 1.0
Copyright (C) 2014 Pleiades Astrophoto. All Rights Reserved.
*********************************** *********************************** *********

Benchmark version ...... 1.00.07
Input checksum ......... 2cd72b67e12fff2812ef5b5da054ab2a70a 25e23
Serial number .......... T04W6YCWTR5HJJY2YNAOVW2XA0K50YCK

CPU Identification
CPU vendor ............. GenuineIntel
CPU model .............. Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3840QM CPU @ 2.80GHz

System Information
Platform ............... MacOSX
Operating system ....... Mac OS X 10.10 14A389
Core version ........... PixInsight Core 01.08.03.1115 (x64)
Logical processors ..... 8
Total memory size ...... 16.000 GiB

Execution Times
Total time ............. 01:41.61
CPU time ............... 01:08.77
Swap time .............. 00:31.65
Swap transfer rate ..... 523.640 MiB/s

Performance Indices
Total performance ...... 4630
CPU performance ........ 5504
Swap performance ....... 2900

*********************************** *********************************** *********

[pluto]

This is from my lappy. The drive is pretty full which could explain why swap speed is not as fast as I would expect...

I'll have a go on my Linux workstation at work tomorrow.


*********************************** *********************************** *********
The Official PixInsight Benchmark version 1.0
Copyright (C) 2014 Pleiades Astrophoto. All Rights Reserved.
*********************************** *********************************** *********

Benchmark version ...... 1.00.07

CPU Identification
CPU vendor ............. GenuineIntel
CPU model .............. Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4702HQ CPU @ 2.20GHz

System Information
Platform ............... Windows
Operating system ....... Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro
Core version ........... PixInsight Core 01.08.03.1115 (x64)
Logical processors ..... 8
Total memory size ...... 15.905 GiB

Execution Times
Total time ............. 01:53.27
CPU time ............... 01:15.08
Swap time .............. 00:38.15
Swap transfer rate ..... 434.440 MiB/s

Performance Indices
Total performance ...... 4153
CPU performance ........ 5041
Swap performance ....... 2406

*********************************** *********************************** *********

[lazjen]

I did this back in September (before recent version upgrade):


*********************************** *********************************** *********
The Official PixInsight Benchmark version 1.0
Copyright (C) 2014 Pleiades Astrophoto. All Rights Reserved.
*********************************** *********************************** *********

Benchmark version ...... 1.00.07

CPU Identification
CPU vendor ............. GenuineIntel
CPU model .............. Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4700MQ CPU @ 2.40GHz

System Information
Platform ............... Linux
Operating system ....... 3.16.3-gentoo #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Sep 27 11:31:13 AEST 2014 GNU/Linux
Core version ........... PixInsight Core 01.08.02.1098 (x64)
Logical processors ..... 8
Total memory size ...... 23.273 GiB

Execution Times
Total time ............. 01:28.41
CPU time ............... 01:12.09
Swap time .............. 00:16.30
Swap transfer rate ..... 1016.796 MiB/s

Performance Indices
Total performance ...... 5320
CPU performance ........ 5251
Swap performance ....... 5632

Additional Information
Swap disks ............. Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series
Machine description .... Alienware 17/068R5X (2013)
Comments ............... OS: Gentoo Linux

*********************************** *********************************** *********


And just now:


*********************************** *********************************** *********
The Official PixInsight Benchmark version 1.0
Copyright (C) 2014 Pleiades Astrophoto. All Rights Reserved.
*********************************** *********************************** *********

Benchmark version ...... 1.00.07

CPU Identification
CPU vendor ............. GenuineIntel
CPU model .............. Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4700MQ CPU @ 2.40GHz

System Information
Platform ............... Linux
Operating system ....... 3.16.3-gentoo #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Sep 27 11:31:13 AEST 2014 GNU/Linux
Core version ........... PixInsight Core 01.08.03.1115 (x64)
Logical processors ..... 8
Total memory size ...... 23.273 GiB

Execution Times
Total time ............. 01:36.92
CPU time ............... 01:13.09
Swap time .............. 00:23.80
Swap transfer rate ..... 696.395 MiB/s

Performance Indices
Total performance ...... 4853
CPU performance ........ 5178
Swap performance ....... 3857

*********************************** *********************************** *********


I'm not exactly sure why the swap performance has degraded so much.

[rmuhlack]

Here is my most recent benchmark:

**************
Benchmark version ...... 1.00.07

CPU Identification
CPU vendor ............. AuthenticAMD
CPU model .............. AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1075T Processor

System Information
Platform ............... Linux / Ubuntu 13.10
Operating system ....... 3.11.0-23-generic #40-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jun 4 21:05:23 UTC 2014 GNU/Linux
Core version ........... PixInsight Core 01.08.03.1115 (x64)
Logical processors ..... 6
Total memory size ...... 31.342 GiB

Execution Times
Total time ............. 01:45.60
CPU time ............... 01:30.14
Swap time .............. 00:15.30
Swap transfer rate ..... 1083.110 MiB/s

Performance Indices
Total performance ...... 4454
CPU performance ........ 4199
Swap performance ....... 5999

Additional Information
Swap disks ............. Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm SATA2 500GB
Motherboard ............ Asus M5A97 Evo R2.0
Machine description .... custom build
**************

I have uploaded all of my benchmark scores for each new PI version with this machine to the Pixinsight benchmark site (http://pixinsight.com/benchmark/). My scores are easy to spot, as I am the only user to upload benchmarks using an AMD Phenom II X6 1075T. For a four year old processor I reckon it still holds its own :computer:

[RobF]

I'd read about this on PI forum but never tried. TBH I'm thankful to finally be on a 64bit OS. Score for a relatively new mid-range gaming box with some extra ram.
Have tried to avoid putting applications on the SSHD but presumably that would be helpful for PI swaps?


*********************************** *********************************** *********
The Official PixInsight Benchmark version 1.0
Copyright (C) 2014 Pleiades Astrophoto. All Rights Reserved.
*********************************** *********************************** *********

Benchmark version ...... 1.00.07
Input checksum ......... 2cd72b67e12fff2812ef5b5da054ab2a70a 25e23

CPU Identification
CPU vendor ............. GenuineIntel
CPU model .............. Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz

System Information
Platform ............... Windows
Operating system ....... Microsoft Windows 8.1
Core version ........... PixInsight Core 01.08.03.1115 (x64)
Logical processors ..... 8
Total memory size ...... 31.941 GiB

Execution Times
Total time ............. 01:43.28
CPU time ............... 00:57.19
Swap time .............. 00:46.06
Swap transfer rate ..... 359.813 MiB/s

Performance Indices
Total performance ...... 4555
CPU performance ........ 6619
Swap performance ....... 1993

*********************************** *********************************** *********

[RobF]

Repeated with PI installed on the SSHD (C: drive)
Surprisingly little difference.


Execution Times
Total time ............. 01:44.91
CPU time ............... 00:56.46
Swap time .............. 00:48.41
Swap transfer rate ..... 342.369 MiB/s

Performance Indices
Total performance ...... 4484
CPU performance ........ 6704
Swap performance ....... 1896

*********************************** *********************************** *********

[pluto]

This is from my 6 year old workstation (though it's had an ssd added a couple of years ago). I've just realised how in need of an upgrade I am at work!


*********************************** *********************************** *********
The Official PixInsight Benchmark version 1.0
Copyright (C) 2014 Pleiades Astrophoto. All Rights Reserved.
*********************************** *********************************** *********

Benchmark version ...... 1.00.07

CPU Identification
CPU vendor ............. GenuineIntel
CPU model .............. Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5420 @ 2.50GHz

System Information
Platform ............... Linux / openSUSE 13.1 (Bottle) (x86_64)
Operating system ....... 3.11.6-4-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Oct 30 18:04:56 UTC 2013 (e6d4a27) GNU/Linux
Core version ........... PixInsight Core 01.08.02.1098 (x64)
Logical processors ..... 8
Total memory size ...... 15.702 GiB

Execution Times
Total time ............. 02:11.22
CPU time ............... 01:44.63
Swap time .............. 00:26.55
Swap transfer rate ..... 624.335 MiB/s

Performance Indices
Total performance ...... 3585
CPU performance ........ 3618
Swap performance ....... 3458

*********************************** *********************************** *********

[RickS]

Version 1.18.3 allows you to list the same swap drive multiple times and you get an I/O thread for each entry. This is designed to support fast parallel I/O on devices like SSDs. I haven't played this feature yet, but I do have a second SSD in my desktop system.

Cheers,
Rick.

[lazjen]

Does it always use swap or only when it runs out of memory?

[RickS]

It's not swap space in the normal virtual memory sense. I believe that swap files are where PI stores image history for undo operations.

[RobF]

Thanks for pointing out Rick.
I've played with a few combinations tonight (2, 4, 6 repeats on the SSHD) and pointing to other hard drives but only succeeded in slowing things down significantly (in some cases for an extra 4 mins) for the swapping. No joy on my system.

I guess in hindsight the swap files probably point back to temp C: drive location by default regardless of where the executable is installed, thus no major speed difference between SSHD or normal HD install.
Thought about experimenting with a RAM disk, but the global preferences pages recommends a minimum of 60GB for the swap file location :eyepop:
Then again, in 5 or 10 years we might be joking its gigabytes, not terabytes.....

[cfranks]

My swap performance improved dramatically using a RAM Disk.

[cfranks]

Sorry, I can't read the above .txt so hopefully, here is a snip.

[RobF]

Hi,

How big a RAM disk did you use?

[cfranks]

I have 32GB RAM and used 16GB for the RAM Disk, but I think 8GB would have been OK. RAM is cheap these days so I didn't bother to experiment. When I look at Task Manager, even during some 'heavy' processing with PI, I've never seen RAM usage exceed 24GB.

Charles

[SimmoW]

Finally my gaming/flight simulation rig is of decent use!

*********************************** *********************************** *********
Benchmark Results
*********************************** *********************************** *********

Benchmark version ...... 1.00.07
Input checksum ......... 2cd72b67e12fff2812ef5b5da054ab2a70a 25e23
Serial number .......... 9P850H636P9LS3EP5Y18UHE753G43441

CPU Identification
CPU vendor ............. GenuineIntel
CPU model .............. Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770K CPU @ 3.50GHz

System Information
Platform ............... Windows
Operating system ....... Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Core version ........... PixInsight Core 01.08.03.1115 (x64)
Logical processors ..... 8
Total memory size ...... 7.953 GiB

Execution Times
Total time ............. 00:27.77
CPU time ............... 00:17.23
Swap time .............. 00:10.45
Swap transfer rate ..... 1586.407 MiB/s

Performance Indices
Total performance ...... 16942
CPU performance ........ 21967
Swap performance ....... 8786

[pluto]

That result is pretty surprising Simon!
Especially as RobF, below, has a slightly faster processor (the i7-4770K vs your i7-3770K, same clock speed and number of cores) and is only getting just over a quarter of the CPU score that you're getting...?
And what drive is your swap on!!!? or RAM drive?

[SimmoW]

It's on an intel SSD. I do have a rather large graphics card that whirrs up when under strain , a GTX780 OC Ti

[hobbit]

*********************************** *********************************** *********
The Official PixInsight Benchmark version 1.0
Copyright (C) 2014 Pleiades Astrophoto. All Rights Reserved.
*********************************** *********************************** *********

Benchmark version ...... 1.00.07
Input checksum ......... 2cd72b67e12fff2812ef5b5da054ab2a70a 25e23
Serial number .......... 3R591PMK60QKQ3238D7FXZC8EJ5G62B6

CPU Identification
CPU vendor ............. GenuineIntel
CPU model .............. Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 980 @ 3.33GHz

System Information
Platform ............... Windows
Operating system ....... Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Core version ........... PixInsight Core 01.08.01.1092 (x64)
Logical processors ..... 12
Total memory size ...... 11.998 GiB

Execution Times
Total time ............. 06:06.99
CPU time ............... 01:00.26
Swap time .............. 05:06.64
Swap transfer rate ..... 54.053 MiB/s

Performance Indices
Total performance ...... 1282
CPU performance ........ 6282
Swap performance ....... 299

*********************************** *********************************** *********

[RobF]

A 8GB Ramdisk using ImDisk made a big difference for me (4 threads assigned)
I should have said my system drive is an SSD earlier, not SSHD - didn't understand the distinction until now. Not using any fancy high speed HD's or RAID.

Was:
Execution Times
Total time ............. 01:44.91
CPU time ............... 00:56.46
Swap time .............. 00:48.41
Swap transfer rate ..... 342.369 MiB/s

Performance Indices
Total performance ...... 4484
CPU performance ........ 6704
Swap performance ....... 1896

Now:
Execution Times
Total time ............. 01:01.20
CPU time ............... 00:55.39
Swap time .............. 00:05.78
Swap transfer rate ..... 2867.634 MiB/s

Performance Indices
Total performance ...... 7687
CPU performance ........ 6833
Swap performance ....... 15882

Think I'll stay in this configuration for a while and see how PI and everything else plays together. Thanks cfranks!

[RobF]

I've got a GTX 760, but it shouldn't make any difference for PI. Juan said writing code for graphics processors is a long way down the to do list, although there is now a hint they might start supporting CUDA in 2015:
http://www.pixinsight.com/sysreq/index.html
http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=4668.0

[pluto]

Sounds right and doesn't explain why Simon's numbers are so high. Also that swap speed of 1586.407 MiB/s is about 2.5 times faster than the 6gb/s that SATA III can handle, isn't it? How is this possible with a single SSD? (I'm not really up on current hardware though so happy to be corrected if there's some fancy new bus tech that I'm ignorant of).

Simon did your test really only take ~27 seconds to run? If so that's amazing!
I'm really curious!

[h0ughy]

ready for a laugh

*********************************** *********************************** *********
The Official PixInsight Benchmark version 1.0
Copyright (C) 2014 Pleiades Astrophoto. All Rights Reserved.
*********************************** *********************************** *********

Benchmark version ...... 1.00.07
Input checksum ......... 2cd72b67e12fff2812ef5b5da054ab2a70a 25e23
Serial number .......... xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx

CPU Identification
CPU vendor ............. GenuineIntel
CPU model .............. Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3317U CPU @ 1.70GHz

System Information
Platform ............... Windows
Operating system ....... Microsoft Windows 8.1
Core version ........... PixInsight Core 01.08.03.1123 (x64)
Logical processors ..... 4
Total memory size ...... 7.884 GiB

Execution Times
Total time ............. 06:59.61
CPU time ............... 03:12.74
Swap time .............. 03:46.77
Swap transfer rate ..... 73.092 MiB/s

Performance Indices
Total performance ...... 1121
CPU performance ........ 1964
Swap performance ....... 405

*********************************** *********************************** *********

[RobF]

Me too. That's >20% faster than anyone's ever managed to run PI on any benchmarked machine..... :eyepop:
http://pixinsight.com/benchmark/

[alocky]

Looks like my 3 year old workstation is still pulling its weight. Although I definitely have to check out these ram disk thingys...

*********************************** *********************************** ********* The Official PixInsight Benchmark version 1.0
Copyright (C) 2014 Pleiades Astrophoto. All Rights Reserved.
*********************************** *********************************** *********


Benchmark version ...... 1.00.07
Input checksum ......... 2cd72b67e12fff2812ef5b5da054ab2a70a 25e23
Serial number .......... HX7E578B4H5Y43SX4P9HEAYFES3VB85M


CPU Identification
CPU vendor ............. GenuineIntel
CPU model .............. Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3930K CPU @ 3.20GHz


System Information
Platform ............... Windows
Operating system ....... Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Core version ........... PixInsight Core 01.08.03.1123 (x64)
Logical processors ..... 12
Total memory size ...... 31.950 GiB


Execution Times
Total time ............. 01:18.75
CPU time ............... 00:48.96
Swap time .............. 00:29.75
Swap transfer rate ..... 557.060 MiB/s


Performance Indices
Total performance ...... 5973
CPU performance ........ 7730
Swap performance ....... 3085


*********************************** *********************************** *********

[rmuhlack]

somethings not right here. that CPU performance figure is out of step with all of the comparative benchmarks on the PI website, including the workstation PC used by the Pixinsight development team (a Xeon E5-2695 v2 with 24 logical processors and 64 GB of memory). http://pixinsight.com/benchmark/benchmark-report.php?sn=JEXKR496O859I3213BIG5 6MV17G67769

A CPU figure of around 7000ish would be more inline with the other benchmarks using a i7-3770K

[pluto]

Just got a new workstation at work and thought I'd have another go at the PI benchmark.

It seems to be let down a bit by the average performance of the SSD however in real use this would never be an issue as I'm unlikely to fill up the 64gb of RAM while using PI.

One thing that is disapointing is that it's reporting 20 logical processors. The box actually has 2 x 10 core Xeons and so it has 20 physical cores and 40 logical processors. This is in Windows (8.1) so it will be interesting to see if PI sees all of them when I get Linux on this box, though the Task Manager does show 40 logical processors and during the benchmark it never reported more than 50% utilisation.

Anyone else seen PI not using all procs?


*********************************** *********************************** *********

Benchmark version ...... 1.00.07

CPU Identification
CPU vendor ............. GenuineIntel
CPU model .............. Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2650 v3 @ 2.30GHz

System Information
Platform ............... Windows
Operating system ....... Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro
Core version ........... PixInsight Core 01.08.03.1123 (x64)
Logical processors ..... 20
Total memory size ...... 63.879 GiB

Execution Times
Total time ............. 01:31.22
CPU time ............... 00:43.59
Swap time .............. 00:47.60
Swap transfer rate ..... 348.217 MiB/s

Performance Indices
Total performance ...... 5157
CPU performance ........ 8683
Swap performance ....... 1929

*********************************** *********************************** *********