Local DEV PC fast as Server ???

  • Hello...

    I'm currently running a rather tricky query which on my local Dev machine (a Dell 1 Ghz cpu w/ 512K of RAM) runs at 7 seconds, and the same query with the same data on our server (a Dell server w/ 2 1Ghz cpus, Raid HD's, and 1 Gig of RAM) runs at 6 seconds.

    Typically for for queries I run, the server is at least twice as fast - but here - the Dev PC is keeping up with the Server????

    I've trimmed the server services to a minimum, rebooted, made sure SQL Server services are "boosted" and using both CPU's - but to no avail. I'm also running the query with the "With (NOLOCK)" option on both machines since it's static data.

    I'm out of ideas - why would a local PC run as fast as a server ????

  • The data set may be entirely in memory for both boxes, so I'm not surprised. The boost on the server is when there are lots of people using it, not when one person is.

    Steve Jones

    sjones@sqlservercentral.com

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones

    The Best of SQL Server Central.com 2002 - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/bestof/

    http://www.dkranch.net

  • Thanks Steve,

    But to continue whining ... 🙂

    In general, the server runs most everything twice as fast as my local PC. This is the first time I've noticed such behaviour. I've used the Task Managers performance monitor and see both CPU's cranking away on the query when it's run - just seems like it should be faster.

    And to be precise, it's really one query that runs rather quickly, run many, many times to produce one web page of output.

    2-3 seconds and people are OK with things. 7-8 seconds and ugh 🙁

  • Has something changed on the server? Is the server all of a sudden taking longer?

    Are you running this in QA?

    Steve Jones

    sjones@sqlservercentral.com

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones

    The Best of SQL Server Central.com 2002 - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/bestof/

    http://www.dkranch.net

  • Check the query execution plan to see whether it runs in parallel in server.

  • A few things...

    1) After much tinkering - I got this nasty bugger down to 2 seconds !!! Wheeeeee.

    2) I'm not running it in QA - we have no such thing here. QA = PROD. I'm a contractor and the place where I work is pretty tight w/ hardware.

    3) I don't know how to properly read Execution plans. How could I tell if it was running in parallel ??

    BTW - I looked at the performance moniter several times on the server while running the 7 second version of the query and both CPU's were really busy.

    There are simply SOOOOOO many optimizations and methodologies to use w/ SQL, it simply takes time and testing many many permutations.

    - B

  • (By QA, he means Query Analyser)

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