problems with speed need advice on hardware

Hi, i have an i7 and 8gigs ram. All calculations are CPU based. I carry out calculations with huge cell arrays(100x60) that have matrix tables with several rows. My comp takes hours to do the calcation and freezes. My question: how shall i upgrade my pc? Shall i buy more ram, do the calculations on a cuda based graphics card or upgrade my cpu. My budget is around 2000 euros. I want the calculations to be done in seconds.

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

If you're running low on memory and it's using virtual memory on the disk, you will get a lot of speedup from switching to Solid state drives. For example compiling a program used to take over 4 minutes with my hard drives and how with my SSD it takes about 30 seconds.

You could also get more RAM. I have 32 GB and an i7 CPU.

You might also want to look into GPU computing, which requires the Parallel Computing Toolbox - there's a MATLAB webinar on GPU computing you can probably find.

A 100 by 60 array is not huge. What is inside each cell? If it's just a matrix with "several rows", then that's not big at all. Unless "several" means like a million or so - then that would be getting up there.

[Zack Bayhan]

Is this the webinar you were referring to?

http://www.mathworks.com/videos/gpu-computing-with-matlab-81840.html?form_seq=conf882&confirmation_page&wfsid=6045940

[AA]

Thanks which graphics card shall i buy

[Image Analyst]

Zack, yeah probably. Thanks. AA - I have no recommendations I can make on video cards. Just get the best one you can afford. I'm not that familiar with different brands and models because they change so often.

Answer 2

[Zack Bayhan]

I would start by putting more ram in that bad boy. I bet the program crashes once that available ram is full.

[AA]

How much more ram 16gig total is ok? What cuda graphics card would u recommwnd

[Zack Bayhan]

I'm not sure about the cuda graphics card but for the ram using the big arrays and how much time you want to cut down I would use as much ram as the motherboard allows.