Reply To: CPU Issue with Ansys Mechanical

[peteroznewman]

One computer has 32 GB of RAM and 80% is used while the other computer has 16 GB of RAM and 94% is used.

The solver calculates how much RAM it needs to solve the model either 1) entirely in RAM, which is called incore or 2) swapping pieces between RAM and storage, which is called out-of-core. Under the Solution Information folder, the Solution Output file shows what the solver chose to use. See if you can find that by searching the file for the term incore. If the model size is such that it requires 20 GB of RAM to solve incore, then the problem will run much faster on the computer with 32 GB of RAM than on the computer that has 16 GB of RAM.

The amount of RAM can be more important than the number of cores.  There is diminishing improvements in the solution time with increases in core count and if you request too many cores and don't have enough RAM, the solution can actually take longer than requesting fewer cores. I don't know if the solver has logic to figure this out and choose to use fewer cores to avoid this outcome.