Improving Model Run Performance
Following are suggestions for making your models run faster.
• Turn off unnecessary diagnostics, close as many RiverWare windows as possible, and close other applications.
• Determine if there is excessive paging during the run. If paging is a problem, purchase more physical memory. If that is not possible, adjust the paging properties.
• Analyze your model run using RiverWare utilities to determine if there are unexpected slowdowns due to excessive dispatching or slow RPL functions. Address these slowdowns by modifying your model or ruleset.
• Improve hardware; sometimes this is the most cost effective method to improve performance.
• For long production runs, use batch mode and/or divide the model into multiple runs on multiple CPUs.
Note: If pursuing these options does not resolve the problem, there could be a modeling or internal RiverWare error. Contact riverware-support@colorado.edu
RiverWare attempts to perform its operations as efficiently as possible, but run times are often affected by model particulars as well as the configuration of the system on which RiverWare is run. RiverWare cannot control these factors, but many of them are under your control and these are the subjects of this section. This document attempts to be general but also attempts to prioritize the steps that will make the most difference to a user. This is very difficult to do as each user has a different system, budget, and institutional requirements. A step that may make the most sense for one user (like buying new hardware) may not even be an option other users.
Where we present information specific to Windows, examples are taken from the Windows 8.1 operating system. Although we introduce some technical concepts, e.g., RAM, CPU, and Paging, this document is not intended to be a complete reference on computer performance issues. For more information, the reader is directed to the internet or reference books for a particular system or topic.
The remainder of this section is divided into three subsections. In the first, we describe a set of tools useful for identifying performance problems or slowdowns in RiverWare. In the second, we describe steps which may be taken within RiverWare to make models run faster. Finally, we discuss several ways to improve your computer system for optimizing RiverWare performance on your model.
Revised: 12/01/2020