Modpath 6 x32 vs x64 performance

[Kevin Befus]

I've been using mp6x64.exe for particle tracking regional models. These are BIG models, so efficiency is extra important for me (.mpsim files ~50 mb for one input zone, .mpend > 500 mb).

I've noticed that I can't use more that ~6% of my 12 cpus (24 threads) or more than 1 GB out of 64 GB. (See attached image, columns are CPU, Memory, Disk, Network from Windows 10 Task Manager). In fact, the x32 version uses an extra ~100 mb more RAM than the x64 version.

Question: Is there a way to get Modpath to use more RAM/CPU (i.e., run faster)?

Is this limitation a result of the compilation of Modpath? Is there any gain using the x64 Modpath? I thought the whole point of making an x64 version was to allow more RAM to be used.

I'm using MODPATH - Version: 6.0.01, since 7 has some slightly different input structure that FloPy hasn't incorporated yet.

[Sophia Wolfenden]

Hi Kevin,

I actually haven't had this problem with the 64-bit version of MODPATH 6. Could you not be allowing your CPUs to over-clock? I know that over-clocking is "bad", but I adjusted my settings awhile back and I haven't experienced the same issues that you are describing.

Cheers,
Sophia

[Kevin Befus]

Hi Sophia,

Over-clocking would allow any calculations on the CPU to be faster, but it would not change the % used.

I think it may have to do with me running Modpath from Python using a subprocess. Python is restricted to one core, but I wouldn't think that would affect the ability of DOS to use more resources.

[Sophia Wolfenden]

Oh ok, that sounds like a logical conclusion.

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Sophia Wolfenden
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[Richard Winston]

MODPATH doesn't use parallel processing so it won't use more than one core regardless of how it is started. However, MODPATH has to spend a considerable amount of time just reading data from the disk. The only way to speed that up is to use a faster disk or to use solid state storage.

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[Chao Wang]

Hello Kevin,

I need the 64 bit version of mp6 to handle large number of particles. Could you share a copy of mp6x64.exe with me? I failed to compile it after trying for a long time and couldn't find it anywhere online.

Thank you a lot!

On Tuesday, January 17, 2017 at 8:34:24 PM UTC-7, Kevin Befus wrote: