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ANSYS BLOG

January 30, 2019

Calculate the Simulation Speed-up and ROI of a New Workstation

We all know that the type and number of cores in a workstation will affect its simulation performance. However, you may not know the return on investment (ROI) of a new workstation or how it will speed up simulation workflows.

This is because the workstation’s performance and ROI are dependent on many factors, including:

  • The Ansys application.
  • The solver.
  • The size of the model.
  • The age and performance of your current workstation.

As a result, predicting the simulation performance and ROI of a new workstation is complex. This can make it difficult for you to convince management to sign off on new hardware.

That is why Ansys and Intel have developed an online Workstation Refresh ROI Estimator. The tool estimates the performance and ROI of a new workstation running Ansys Fluent or Ansys Mechanical.

Benchmark scores and estimated ROI calculated by the Workstation Refresh ROI Estimator.

 

How to Calculate a Workstation’s ROI and its Simulation Speed-up

To use the Workstation Refresh ROI Estimator, you simply have to answer six quick questions:

  1. What engineering simulation solution do you use?
  2. What solver do you typically use?
  3. What is the size of the typical simulation that you run?
  4. How old is your current workstation?
  5. What percent of time do you spend running simulations?
  6. What is your average annual salary?

The estimator updates the ROI in real-time based on the answers you provide.

The tool then compares recommended workstations to approximations of your current workstation. The comparisons of these workstations are based on their computational times and estimated ROI.

When the ROI analysis is complete, you can download it as a PowerPoint or PDF report. The report can then be shared with management to show how a new workstation can increase productivity and pay for itself. This will make it much easier to get the new workstation you need.

Determine How a Small HPC Cluster Can Improve Simulation Performance

The speed-up improvement obtained by the ROI estimator is based on standard Ansys benchmarks that have been run on a workstation.

However, if you want to know the speed-up improvements of a small HPC cluster running your own simulation models, then join the Free Performance Benchmark Program.

Ansys offers free HPC benchmarking.