Excel and Windows 10 - Speed issue

[mikejvir]

Hello Fellow Excel Users,

I have a computer dilemma that I am hoping you can give me some advice. I have a Excel macro that analysis a data file and generate 18 or more graphs. It works, and a thank you to all who helped me from this forum, but does take about 8 minutes to run. I will run the macro on about 10 files every couple of weeks. My existing computer is

HP Elitebook 8470p
RAM 16 GB (purchased from Crucial Memory)
Hard Drive 500 GB
CPU Intel i5-3340M @ 2.70GHz
Operation System Windows 7, 64-bit
Used since February 2014
Software Microsoft Office 2016 Pro 32-bit

Due to other issues my company is updating my computer to a new standard with Window 10.
HP Elitebook 840 G3
RAM 8 GB (HP)
Hard Drive 250 GB (Solid State)
CPU Intel i5-6200U @ 2.30GHz
Operation System Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit
Used since May 2017
Software Microsoft Office 2016 Pro 32-bit

And to get ahead of myself, I have a colleague who is getting a different laptop for “data analysis”.

I took the same macro with the same file and ran them under different memory conditions. (My computer becomes useless to do other tasks while I run the macro). Here are the times:

Computer RAM Time
HP Elitebook 8470p 16 GB (Crucial Memory) 8 minutes 4 seconds
HP Elitebook 840 G3 8 GB (HP) 14 minutes 28 seconds
HP Elitebook 840 G3 16 GB (Crucial Memory) 17 minutes 25 seconds
HP Elitebook 840 G3 32 GB (Crucial Memory) 13 minutes 20 seconds
HP EliteBook 1030 G1 [FONT=&quot]16 GB (HP) 23 minutes 30 seconds[/FONT]
(SSD, 64 Bit Windows 10, Office 32 bit)

I have not installed any other software on the new computer (840 G3) while the old (8470p) has been through a rough 3 years of use.

First observation is it is taking 65% more time to do the same task. I assume this has to be a Windows 10 issue, but my IT department does not care. All they did was say “tell us what you need” and I have no idea how to quantify this issue by looking at CPU specifications.

Second observations is the issue with third party memory. Did not expect to see that.
My colleague says I should go to Office 64-bit.

Any comments about CPU or software to fix this timing would be helpful.

I am reminded of quote by John C. Dvorak (PCMag) “The only real way to mult-task is with multiple computers”. This was in the late 80’s or early 90’s. This might be an option.

Thank you.

Michael Virostko
Microwave Application Engineer

 

[Roxxien]

Hello,

From what I read here, it's sure that using microsoft office 64 bit on an os at 64 bit can only help you.

Other stuff, Excel mainly use two specs of a computer (other than os).

1. the cpu speed accelerate the number of calcul your computer can do at each second. Here you go from one benchmarked at 4223 with 2.7 ghz to one benchmarked at 3983 with 2.3 ghz
source for benchmark : https://www.cpubenchmark.net/mid_range_cpus.html
This change in the featured clearly don't help you.

2. the ram space AND speed. you have multiple category of ram (DDR3 and DDR4) with each different speed 1600, 1866, 2133 ...
You should see which are used on each computer.

From my point of vue, Windows 7 vs Windows 10 shouldn't make that big of a difference. You can still verify if their is some "invisible" software running on windows 10

 

[mole999]

you have an 8 Gb machine, but 32 bit only addresses 3 Gb. Going 64 bit would help but can prove challenging if other routines exist only for 32 bit

 

[J.Ty.]

I haven't seen your macros. but most of them run on a single processor core. It can be recognized by the fact that Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del to start) reports CPU usage on the level of 25% or so while the macro is running.

You have 10 files and on a decent machine you could theoretically have 4 macros running and processing 4 files concurrently. What I however do not know is whether it is possible to run 4 instances on Excel an a single OS, or 4 macros concurrently on a single Excel instance (I doubt it). But let those who know tell us.

J.Ty.

 

[mikejvir]

Thanks Roxxien. I appreciate the input. I have been told 64-bit Office will work better, but the IT department does not want us to do it. Will try to force the issue. The macro is general enough that it should work with 32 or 64 bit systems. The RAM was specified as DDR4 for the new computer.

 

[mikejvir]

Thanks mole999 . for the input. I was told 64-bit Office should help, but the IT department does not what us to use it. I may force the issue.

 

[mikejvir]

Thanks J.Ty. I do believe there is a way to run four instances of Excel, so I can look into this.

 

[mikejvir]

Hello All,

Just want to send an update. We uninstalled 32-bit Office 2016 and installed 64-bit Office 2016 and everything was worse.

HP Elitebook 840 G3 8 GB (HP) 14 minutes 28 seconds with 32-bit Office 2016
HP Elitebook 840 G3 8 GB (HP) 34 minutes 42 seconds with 64-bit Office 2016

Now I will admit that it is possible I need to optimize the macro for 64-bit. But that is too much work. I will just keep two computers.

Thank you.

Michael Virostko
Microwave Application Engineer