Mac Pro 2013 performance for Compiling Code

[appleakak]

I wanted to know if there are ways to improve performance while software development for this machine.

I found my machine to be a somewhat faster than my laptop (10-30% based on job) but not super fast. I was wondering if upgrading the hard disk (to the one used in macbook pro 2015) will make a huge difference?

I do notice that the CPU is not taxed and also there is a lot of unallocated ram. Either the hard disk is slow causing this issue or maybe the whole motherboard and ram speed is slow and it cant be improved at this point.

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks a lot!!!

 

[Flint Ironstag]

We need to know the specs of the laptop you're talking about in order to make any meaningful comparison. I'm guessing your app isn't super multi-threaded.

 

[appleakak]

laptop has quad core processor, 32 gb ram, and 512gb samsung 850 pro ssd.

mac has 12 core, 64 gb and 256gb pci-e ssd

For server restarts it takes almost same time (70 seconds)

For medium builds (from command prompt) it takes 10-20 percent faster in mac pro 2013.

For larger builds (done from GUI Editor) difference is very significant - i.e. mac is twice the speed but I don't have to do this very often.

Overall for incremental builds and hot deploys it feels a bit faster but not really noticeable.

I was wondering if somebody was able to achieve higher performance in compiling/running code by having a faster ssd in Mac pro 2013.

 

[h9826790]

When you marking builds, check activity monitor. The nMP only has significant advantage when the process can utilise more than 4 cores.

Anyway, quad cores vs 12 cores can be a very meaningless comparison. For most operations, it's the matter of speed, but not core count. e.g. A single thread build process can finish much faster on a 4GHz quad CPU then a 2.3GHz 12 cores CPU.

In fact, I am pretty sure both RAM and hard drive are not the limiting factors in your case.

 

[appleakak]

I want to mention that Geekbench score increased from around 14,000 to around 30,000 (and also cinebench CPU score from 650 to over 1500). And when I check the activity monitor i see it does use more than 4 cores but overall the CPU is not stressed (including the CPU temperature doesn't go very high). I check the RAM and there is no swap used and tons of free ram available.

Only thing is that I don't know how to test to see whether the SSD is getting maxed out.

Also I am not sure that whether even SSD is fine - and its just that it is a old architecture and slow bus speed of motherboard, RAM is the culprit.

Also I want to mention one more thing. There is an option in the IDE (Idea) that allows for parallel compilation. When I check that then the compilation is slightly faster (10 percent or so).

I do feel that slower speed of the CPU (its 2.5Mhz 12 core) that may be the issue.

Mac Pro 2013 also support (need more evidence) 2687w v2 that has only 8 cores but much faster ones (3.4Mhz vs 2.5Mhz). I feel that for real life work that processor may be the way to go as the most effective processor. It has max TDP of 150 compared to 130 for other processors but I feel that the Mac Pro 2013 power supply can handle the extra 20 watts as well as cooling can handle it. My fan is always running at the lowest setting (automatic setting) and still the CPU temperature is quite low (around 55 centigrade).

Thanks!