Will a top spec processor run complex excel sheets quicker

[Owain_b]

Hi, I've been running some complex excel models which are painfully slow. There are lots of volatile formula and vba which basically unhides sheets and recalculates all the formula each time. I know the probable best answer would be to address the issues in the spreadsheet but unfortunately that is not an option.
So my question is would the following increase the speed the of the spreadsheet:
1: a more powerful processor (and if so would higher GHz be more preferable to more cores, I've read excel doesn't use more core efficiently)
2: more RAM? If so I'm guessing 64 bit excel is the way to go as 32 bit has a 2gb cap on RAM usage
3: SSD instead of HDD as loading and saving the models take ages and occasionally crash.

This is not a network issue as we have a very fast network and running the models directly off the laptops do not improve performance.

Any help will be very much appreciated.

Thanks, Owain

 

[PaddyD]

an indirect reply (volatility pun intended):

have you found your way here yet:

http://decisionmodels.com/

? might have some things that help...

 

[Fazza]

I'm like Paddy in not directly answering your questions.

It is unfortunate addressing the issues is not an option. The difference between best design & average/poor design can be extreme. Poorly designed spreadsheets can sometimes take all day to do what top design can do in seconds.

FWIW, if you're limited to changing computers, likely what you think is best will be the right choice.

 

[offthelip]

If your VBa

basically unhides sheets and recalculates all the formula each time.

it sounds as though it hasn't been designed with speed in mind. What this means is that it could be very easy to make some improvements. The commonest thing that makes VBA slow is any interaction with the workbook. You might find there are some very simple changes that you can make that don't effect the model at all but make a radical difference. The first thing I would do is get rid of the hiding and unhidng worksheets specially if it is in a loop. The next thing I would do is switch calculation to manual while the the VBA is doing stuff and switch it back to automatic just once every loop and force a recalculation only once.

 

[Fennek]

Hi,

of course, any saleman will recommend "latest technology". BUT:

If you have many formulas and xl is too slow, VBA with all operations in array will accelerate significantly (ca 100 times). VBA is very old and used only one core of the processor regardless your hardware.

Simply speaking: the ability of the programmer beats the hardware by far.

regards