Strange Java performance
On my desk i currently have 2 computers: a dell inspiron 510m laptop, and a dell optiplex sx270 desktop. Both have 1Gigabyte memory, both are running Windows XP. The laptop has a pentium M 1.5Ghz and the desktop has a pentium 4, 2.8Ghz.
I’ve heard that the pentium M processor is quite fast compared to a pentium 4, but what i’m seeing on these 2 machines is really weird. Running ant to build the project i’m working on, on the laptop takes about 1 minute 20 seconds, on the desktop it takes 3 minutes 50 seconds.
The difference is especially visible when signing jar files, the laptop does this a lot faster than the dekstop. First i though this might be caused by the virus checker, but both computers are running the same virus checker, and all the options are also the same…
November 5th, 2004 at 2:07 pm
Pentium M is really much faster than a desktop Pentium from my experience but this might not explain such a difference gap.
Laptops also often have write-cache activated which can greatly improve performance, especially for a build process. This is possible because laptop have a battery which make this behavior safe. This is not true for desktop systems… (you might be abled to activate that though…)
November 5th, 2004 at 3:22 pm
Pentium Ms for Java are extremely hard to beat, especially a Dothan (with 2 MB cache).
There’s a general purpose CPU bench available here:
http://www.x86-secret.com/popups/articleswindow.php?id=113
November 5th, 2004 at 3:36 pm
The desktop pc has write-cache actived, so that’s not causing the difference.
November 6th, 2004 at 8:53 am
If you have an antivirus running on the desktop PC, just forget the other comments and go add jar files in the exclusion list.
November 6th, 2004 at 11:09 am
I checked the virus scanners, both i’m running the same virus scanner on both machines, with the same configuration: .jar files aren’t verified. So i don’t think it’s caused by the virus scanner.
January 10th, 2006 at 5:23 pm
Another way to get jar files scanned is if AV is set to scan compressed files. I recognize that you said they are identical configs, this is more FYI…
Did you ever resolve this problem?
January 11th, 2006 at 7:08 pm
No, i haven’t solved this problem, i’m just glad the pentium M seems to be a very fast processor. Maybe time to buy a MacBook Pro or an iMac? dual pentium M, that must be really fast.