Benchmarks: Graphics vs. batch, Linux vs. Windows

[M. Lang / S. Railsback]

Glen says I should post this:

We just implemented a batch mode on our salmon out-migrant simulator
(demo'd at SwarmFest; or see http://weasel.cnrs.humboldt.edu/~simsys/).
I have both Linux (Redhat 5.1; XWindows) and Windows NT on my computer,
so here is a comparison.

The model has two graphics windows: the animation raster and a
histogram. The fish-agents do a fair, but not huge, amount of
computation each time step, mainly looking around for the nearest
hydraulic-node object that tells them their velocity, and then moving to
a new location. The space is big: 4,000 X 3,000; I ran 500 fish down it.

Simulations were all done on the same machine, Pentium II, 450 mHz with
128k of RAM. Hard disk use during the run appeared negligible. Run time
measurements were made by eyeball and stop watch.

Windows NT batch mode:  1 min 40 s.
Linux batch mode:       1:40 (no difference expected from windows)
Windows with graphics:  13:20
Linux with graphics:    9:50

So- in Windows batch mode runs 8 times faster; 6 times faster in Linux. 
Windows takes 33% longer for graphics mode than Linux.

Steve R.
-- 
address@hidden
Lang, Railsback & Assoc.
250 California Ave., Arcata CA 95521
707-822-0453; Fax 822-1868

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