Parallel Processing is better than buying another MATLAB licence?

Hello,

I'm considering whether it's more beneficial to purchase 2 or more MATLAB licenses or to invest in the Parallel Processing Toolbox. How many GPUs can we utilize with the Parallel Processing Toolbox, and is it worth the investment? I would greatly appreciate insights from someone with experience in this matter. Thank you!

Answer 1

[Andreas Goser]

While I am not an expert myself, I have listened to a few similar discussions and the general statement was it depends on your application.

If you have the hardware, I suppose you can test your application with MATLAB / PCT trial licenses?

[Andreas Goser]

Adding a note here. As you can see I am MathWorks staff and from what I can see your organization has a license that includes the Parallel Computing Toolbox.

In case you are working for a different organization, please contact me through PM. I can help you finding the right contacts.

[Denizhan AKINCI]

Indeed, I do have access to MATLAB with the Parallel Computing Toolbox (PCT) through my student account. However, since I'm currently interning at a company, they don't have a PCT license under their corporate account. That's why I inquired about the viability of purchasing additional licenses or just buying a new matlab license. I'll give the trial licenses a try and see what options are available. Thank you for your assistance!

[Joss Knight]

BTW there is no limit to the number of GPUs you can use.

Answer 2

[Joss Knight]

There may be a misunderstanding here. Your typical license is to a user or a computer. That user, or that computer, can open as many copies of MATLAB as you like. The advantage of Parallel Computing Toolbox is that you can coordinate all those MATLABs through a single client, such as running a hyperparameter optimization. MATLAB Parallel Server lets you do the same but on multiple computers using a single license - maybe that's what you're thinking of?

[Denizhan AKINCI]

So my original question is this actually : Can I optimize the execution time of multiple concurrent simulations in MATLAB? I've noticed that running a second MATLAB instance while the first one is running significantly slows down both, extending the overall execution time. Would acquiring another license alleviate this issue, or should I explore the Parallel Computing Toolbox (PCT) as a solution ?

[Joss Knight]

Extremely unlikely, if your plan is just to run the same code but on each worker. Parallel workers prevent resource contention by being restricted (by default) to a single physical core, and then the hope is that all the MATLABs together will use all your cores. It sounds like MATLAB is already doing a good job of multithreading and using all your resources and that's why there's contention between each MATLAB.