Question FEA engineering calcs

[m3city]

I'm doing some finite elements calculations using ANSYS Mechanical. Simple ones, I guess - linear, static. My current Xeon E5-1660 does the job well enough (let's say 2-3 minutes for one calculation max), but there is an opportunity that my company orders new workstations. I'd like to ask if someone tested/experienced such calculations using Ryzen X3D vs ordinary X versions. Does extra cache matter?

I did ask official support deck, but did not receive a good response. ANSYS is a powerfull piece of software and their support is targeted at calculation servers, fluid analysis, GPU assisted calcs etc., while my case is much simpler and I know that typical workstation would be enough. The question is:
- extra cache or not
- quad channel vs dual (which means going up to Threadrippers)

I already know that ANSYS solvers use avx512, so I tend to select AMD.

 

[kanewolf]

I'm doing some finite elements calculations using ANSYS Mechanical. Simple ones, I guess - linear, static. My current Xeon E5-1660 does the job well enough (let's say 2-3 minutes for one calculation max), but there is an opportunity that my company orders new workstations. I'd like to ask if someone tested/experienced such calculations using Ryzen X3D vs ordinary X versions. Does extra cache matter?

I did ask official support deck, but did not receive a good response. ANSYS is a powerfull piece of software and their support is targeted at calculation servers, fluid analysis, GPU assisted calcs etc., while my case is much simpler and I know that typical workstation would be enough. The question is:
- extra cache or not
- quad channel vs dual (which means going up to Threadrippers)

I already know that ANSYS solvers use avx512, so I tend to select AMD.

Intel has the edge for AVX512 in many areas or is tied.
I also wouldn't pick a traditional "gaming" desktop over a true workstation CPU because workstation CPUs have much higher memory bandwidth to RAM. Desktop CPUs have dual channel RAM interface and workstation CPUs have 4, 6 or 8 channel RAM interface.

 

[helper800]

As to whether the extra cache will help or not it would depend specifically on if the task is latency sensitive, or bandwidth heavy.

 

[m3city]

Thanks for comments.