Hardware Benchmarking

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Introduction

What is the minimum or recommended hardware to use for TUFLOW modelling. This is always a tricky question as the answer depends on the type and size of the models you are going to be running! For a small model, TUFLOW should run on any modern PC or laptop that is capable of running Windows XP or later. However, for large models there may be requirements for a hefty computer running a 64 bit version of Windows.
In this page we outline a hardware benchmark model which is available to download from the TUFLOW website (???? link) the model can be simulated without a TUFLOW dongle (licence). This makes it easy to benchmark on a range of computers and the results are complied below.

Benchmark Model

The benchmark model is based on a “challenge” issued prior to the 2012 Flood Managers Association (FMA) Conference in Sacramento, USA. There is more information on these models FMA challenge model introduction. This hardware benchmark is based on the second challenge which involves a coastal river in flood with two ocean outlets. The model has been modified slightly (mainly in terms of the outputs). It is setup to run use both the TUFLOW "classic" (CPU) and TUFLOW GPU (graphics card) solvers for a range of cell sizes. Cell sizes

Cell Size (m)	Number of cells
30	80,887
15	323,536
10 (GPU only)	727,865

The model runs for three days of simulation time (72 hours). The approximate run time for the 30m model on the CPU is likely to be ~20min and for the 15m version approximately 4 hours.
To participate in the benchmark, please follow the steps below:

• Download the model from <link ???>
• Extract the model on a local drive of the computer you would like to benchmark.
• Navigate to the TUFLOW\runs\ folder and run the "Run_Benchmark.bat" file. This checks if you are running a 32 or 64 bit system and then runs the benchmark. This also generates some output files that contain more information on the processor, memory and GPU that you are using.
• Email the <insert files> to support@tuflow.com and we will includes these in the results tables below.

CPU Results

The following table summarises the runtimes for a range of computers. More will be added when additional results are obtained. The table is ordered based on the combined runtime
Runtimes for CPU benchmarks

Processor Name	Processor Frequency (MHz)	RAM size (GB)	RAM frequency (MHz)	Runtime 30m (mins)	Runtime 15m (mins)	Combined Runtime (mins)
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4670 CPU @ 3.40GHz	3.4	8	1600	23.92	256.73	280.65
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3740QM CPU @ 2.70GHz	2.7	16	1600	31.67	???	???