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Forex Software → Expert Advisor Studio → How are these PC specs for EA Studio?

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Posts: 13

Topic: How are these PC specs for EA Studio?

Hey guys,
I’ve had a Gaming Pc for sale come up and just wondering what these specs look like for running multiple instances of EA Studio (as many as possible for the CPU)
AMD FX-8350 Eight Core, 4GHz
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 4GB
AURUM CM 750w Power Supply
Corsair XMS3 DDR3 8GB Ram (2x4)
1TB HDD
128GB SSD
Microsoft Windows 10 Pro licensed
Corsair Case (forgot model but look thru pictures)

Re: How are these PC specs for EA Studio?

Yes, it is very good. You can only add 8 GB more RAM, if you find it becomes a problem.

3 (edited by geektrader 2019-01-16 22:43:09)

Re: How are these PC specs for EA Studio?

I´ve done extensive measurements in terms of RAM usage and provide some figures for you and everyone else that wonders how much RAM they´ll need:

Through many tests I´ve found that 1 year of H1 history data takes about 22 MB of RAM in Chrome. So now you can do the math how much RAM you require to run your strategy building. Let´s take an example with 10 years of H1 data:

Chrome: 10 x 22 MB = 222 MB per instance.

Assuming 20 years of H1 data (RAM just simply doubles then as it is double the amount of bars) (OR 10 years of M30 data which equals the same amount of bars as 20 years of H1 data):

Chrome: 20 x 22 MB = 444 MB per instance.

In your case you´ve got a 8 core CPU, and to max it out, you´d run at least 8 instances, rather 16 because of SMP / HT. So let´s assume you want to build with 8 instances of 10 years of H1 data, that´s 8 x 222 MB for Chrome, totalling at 1776 MB of RAM that you´ll need in that case for all instances. If you want to completely max out your CPU with 16 instances, then it´s double of that, so 3552 MB of RAM for 16 instances.

If you now double the amount of bars loaded by switching to either 20 years of H1 data or 10 years of M30 data, and run 16 instances again, you are looking at a total of 7104 MB of RAM that will be needed for that - so it´s getting very tight already with your system in that case.

Another thing to think about is multi-market validation, in case you want to use that. In that case it requires even more RAM. Each additional market you test on, requires about 2,5 MB per each year of H1 history data that it holds. So let´s assume you want to validate on 10 additional markets, each market having 10 years of H1 history data, you are looking at an additional 250 MB of RAM (2,5 MB x 10 markets x 10 years of H1 data) and that is per Chrome instance once again!

So 1 Chrome instance with 10 years of H1 data and validation on 10 additional markets with 10 years of H1 data each will now require 472 MB in total (222 MB for the main data + 250 MB for the additional markets validation). Now multiply that by 8 (3776 MB) or 16 (7552 MB) and you have your new figures.

If you are wondering about Firefox and how much RAM it takes there compared to Chrome: it requires about 70% of the memory that Chrome needs (yes, more efficient JS engine, but a little slower than Chrome overall - but good if you need to save RAM). So you can take all the above values and multiply them by 0.7 to get the approximate RAM usage in Firefox.

Based on all this data, everyone should now be able to easily calculate the RAM required for their needs with EA Studio.

Re: How are these PC specs for EA Studio?

How’s that for a reply haha!!
That’s guys so it’s looking like this PC will be well suited to me needs however I can upgrade the ram if need be.

My current Laptop which I run EA Studio on is:
CPUIntel Core i5 (8th Gen) 8250U / 1.6 GHz

Max Turbo Speed3.4 GHz

Number of CoresQuad-Core

Cache6 MB

64-bit ComputingYes

FeaturesIntegrated memory controller

Memory
RAM8 GB (1 x 4 GB + 4 GB (soldered))

Max RAM Supported20 GB

TechnologyDDR4 SDRAM

Speed2400 MHz - 2400 MHz

Form FactorSO-DIMM 260-pin

Slots Qty2

Empty Slots1

Storage
Main Storage256 GB SSD - (M.2) PCIe - NVM Express (NVMe)



However I find that if I run 2 instances in chrome in seperate browsers (not tabs) that the performance slows down by almost 40%. Running 5 years 1h data.
If I run 3 instances then everything slows down to a point where it is actually slower with the 3 combined compared to 1 instance. 2 instances is only slightly quicker than 1.

So looking at the specs of my PC I have now currently I don’t really understand why it is so slow to me (not an IT savvy person) it looks ok?

5 (edited by geektrader 2019-01-16 23:33:37)

Re: How are these PC specs for EA Studio?

It´s normal that it slows down the first instance of Chrome if you open a second instance, that is because of your CPUs turbo-boosting. If you run just 1 Chrome instance, it can turbo boost one core to the full 3,4 GHz, but if you put load on more cores (second Chrome instance, third, etc.) the turbo-boost on core #1 will be lowered as the CPU as whole would otherwise exceed the total thermal allowance and wattage limit. Not knowing the exact figures, but a loss about 40% sounds about right, as it will clock down core #1 in order to be able to run core #2 without exceeding the thermal and wattage limits of this CPU (which are very low, of course). if you open even more instances, it will bring down the remaining boost on core #1 and #2 again until it reaches its real base frequency which just is 1,6 GHz for this CPU. Still, you will get the most overall amount of strategies if maxing out the CPU on all 8 threads (so running 8 Chrome instances in case RAM permits it), even if it clocks down to 1,6 GHz. Because generating strategies on 4x (8x if HT / SMP used) 1,6 GHz still generates more than 1x on 3,4 GHz.

Re: How are these PC specs for EA Studio?

That’s makes a lot of sense!
So looking at the specs of the two PC’s in question does the new PC I’m considering purchasing look like a big upgrade or would I only be seeing a small increase in performance?
Sorry for all the questions but I’m just trying to get a gauge of what is actually a big jump in performance when it comes to computers.

7 (edited by geektrader 2019-01-17 00:00:36)

Re: How are these PC specs for EA Studio?

Yes, you can watch the CPU frequencies in the Windows Task-Manager per core to see how it clocks and reacts to your workloads with Chrome.

As for your question about performance, for EA Studio it mainly comes down to CPU power (and of course having enough RAM so that Windows does not need to swap to the hard drive / SSD). Know this site?

https://www.cpu-monkey.com/de/compare_c … _fx_8350-7

It will give you an easy answer to any of your "this versus this CPU" questions :-) So if scrolling down to the single core / multi-core benchmarks on this specific comparison, you´ll see that the AMD CPU you plan to buy is actually slower (and just a very slight bit faster if using all cores) than the CPU currently in your Laptop, mainly because the architecture of the AMD FX is really old (2012) and even the small but modern Intel CPUs like in your Laptop beat it nowadays.

Best way to select a CPU is to look at this site over here:

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_c … l#cpuvalue

It lists all the current "high end" CPUs and I´ve pre-sorted them by value. This means the higher the index is, the more "bang for the buck" you get. It´s basically their benchmark score divided by their price. This way you can find the CPU that gives you the best performance for the lowest price. If looking at that list, you´ll see that a few peak out with a high score, for example the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X or the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X (which I am using right now) or the Intel Core i9-9900K @ 3.60GHz, but also the AMD Ryzen 7 1700X and interestingly (but as usually) some older Intel XEON´s like the Intel Xeon E5-2680 @ 2.70GHz which you can "shoot cheap" on eBay as datacenters are selling them in masses if they upgrade their servers and hence prices drop like that for those. Do you get the idea?

Once you decided on the CPU, you can then assemble the system around it. Just always keep the RAM requirements in mind. If you buy a AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X, this one has 16 cores and 32 threads, so to max it out (which you want for max power efficiency), you´ll need to run 32 Chrome instances - do the math how much RAM that will require according your history data sets as calculated in my other post and purchase the needed RAM accordingly (not that you buy such a CPU and then don´t have enough RAM to use it fully, wouldn´t make much sense, right?).

Re: How are these PC specs for EA Studio?

That all makes perfect sense! I’ll have a look at the website you posted up and do some research now I have an idea of what to look for!

Thanks so much for the info, really appreciate it!

Re: How are these PC specs for EA Studio?

You are most welcome :-) Good luck to you!

Re: How are these PC specs for EA Studio?

Alright! So after a bit of research and a trip to a very good PC store I have decided that I am going to go with a custom build PC with a Threadripper 1920X with 32Gb of ram.
Geektrader, are you able to post any videos of your PC in action running multiple instances of EA Studio 10 years data 1hr?

I know you said you have the 1950 but I think the 1920 will suit my needs and keep the bank account happy!

Re: How are these PC specs for EA Studio?

Sounds great Michael! If I run all these instances again, I will make a screenshot. But not sure what you´d want to see on this, it´s just 32 instances of Chrome running EA Studio - nothing really special that would deserve a video.

Re: How are these PC specs for EA Studio?

I more or less just wanted to see the speed at which you can calculate strategies which such a system. More for my own pleasure smile

Re: How are these PC specs for EA Studio?

I think that won´t be of much help as my TR 1950X is extremely overclocked ;-) So it won´t be a real reference for your 1920X. But it´s about 320.000 strategies / hour on 32 years of H1 history data, when I´ve last tested and if maxing out all (overclocked) cores. So for 10 years of H1 it would be about ~1 million strategies per hour tested.

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