How do I tell if a new computer will be better?

fcmisc

I am thinking of getting a new computer for Maths calculations.

How do I tell if a new computer will be better? I need faster numerical performance, but not much in the way of 3d graphics. I won't really be using GPU computing. I alread have monitor, keyboard, mouse etc... I don't want to build the computer myself.

My current PC has a Intel i7 920 @ 2.67 GHz, and 24 gigs of RAM. I don't really know how to compare my processor with other newer processors.

My PC has a 5.9 Windows Experience Index.

What steps should I take for choosing another PC? I have a budget of around £1k.

closed

Is an Intel i7 920 @ 2.67 GHz, and 24 gigs of RAM lacking in some way?

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7+920+%40+2.67GHz

What calculations, with which software

S0litaire

some scientific programs can use the GPU to speed up number crunching dramatically.

If we know what software and what type of maths it is we could advise you

debitcardmayhem

I am tempted to say i7 and 24gb and you want to spend £1000 to .... do the math

fcmisc

S0litaire wrote: »

some scientific programs can use the GPU to speed up number crunching dramatically.

If we know what software and what type of maths it is we could advise you

I will be using Python to do time series analysis on multiple time series. i.e. fitting different models to every component of a stock index.

So I will be doing a lot of linear algebra type calculations arrays that might be a few hundred megs in size.

From what I know, GPU's are good at applying a single function to every element of a large array. But I will be doing lots of iterative calculations between different elements (e.g. using a Kalman filter), and from what I know, GPU's don't have a massive performance boost from this. But please correct me if I am misinformed!

S0litaire

what graphics card do you have?

Nvidia GPU's use "CUDA" which has a few programs which utilise the GPU for algebraic functions.

https://developer.nvidia.com/gpu-accelerated-libraries

Probably could tailor the python scripts to run in one of those programs.

*NOTE*
I'm no expert on GPU/Maths speed increases apart from the odd bitcoin mining in the past and some 3D and video rendering. But a good quality GPU/ or multiple GPU's would increase calculations immensely.

fcmisc

S0litaire wrote: »

what graphics card do you have?

Nvidia GPU's use "CUDA" which has a few programs which utilise the GPU for algebraic functions.

https://developer.nvidia.com/gpu-accelerated-libraries

Probably could tailor the python scripts to run in one of those programs.

*NOTE*
I'm no expert on GPU/Maths speed increases apart from the odd bitcoin mining in the past and some 3D and video rendering. But a good quality GPU/ or multiple GPU's would increase calculations immensely.

I have a GeForce GTX 285 with 1GB of RAM. But as stated earlier, do not think GPU computer is what I need.

paddyrg

The processor you have is still massively more powerful than anything even a few years old, I wouldn't expect you to get massive gains from the CPU part of the equation.

Python - Is this the best language to use? I think it is frequently interpreted as opposed to compiled, so you waste processor cycles all over the shop. You could probably get a bigger boost by moving over to an efficient C compiler. If you did that, you could also look at your threading model, and GPU usage to parallelize where possible. I don't know the field of maths, but perhaps the problem can be optimised for parallelism in some way. Even if the algorithm to do that is slower in itself, the parallel processing from the effective 8 CPU cores or GPU cores would pay off.

TL;DR - CPU isn't what's showing you down.

S0litaire

GPU's are designed to do the sort of number crunching you are looking for! and your current card is nearly 4 years old and GPU speeds have jumped considerably.

But then again it's your money and i'm no expert on what you're trying to achieve! ^_^

Only other thing i can think of is either invest in a multi CPU board and throw as many Ghz and cores as you can afford.
Or Over clock your CPU and slap in a SSD if you havent done so already.

Or pick up a FPGA card and program that to do the calculations

Mobeer

Seriously look at the software you are using. You already seemed to have moved some way down the brute force route, and maybe could get twice as fast a processor, but larger gains in performance need more finesse.

Have you tried using a fast (maybe c++) library for the maths functions you need?

banger9365

stop wasting money buy an aftermarket cooler and overclock the i7 920 to 4ghz and see it work ,lots off life yet in the old master,

if not look at the i7 socket 2011 and X79 chipsets anything else cannot crunch numbers like the i7 x58 cpus or i7 x79 cpus (new version off the i7 x58's)
and they cost of x79 stuff is top end prices ,the same has the x58 stuff was back in 2009

and i am still using an i7 920 and i cannot see any reason to upgrade the old master yet