I currently use a 4-year-old computer with Windows XP for grinding both tournament and cash games, and I'm planning on upgrading very soon.
I am using TableNinja / TableNinjaFT for both cash and tourney, and I'm using the Pokertracker HUD for cash and the Tournament Shark HUD for tournies.
I know that upgrading to a more recent version of Windows will improve the performance of TableNinjaFT, but I'm wondering what other specs I should be considering when upgrading. I wouldn't expect any reasonably modern computer to have trouble with mass multitabling, but, unfortunately, I do have serious performance issues when massing 12 or more tables.
Should I just cram lots of RAM into the machine to deal with so many instances of PostgreSQL, or is there some other bottleneck I should be aware of?
Might be a good idea to list the specs of said 4 year old computer too!
But yeah, load it up with as much RAM as it will take. A decent brand new hard disk will perform considerably faster than a four year old (IDE?) model too. Not really sure Win7 is gonna be faster than trusty old XP tho.
Also, it is extremely unlikely it is "many instances of postgresql" causing the slowdown.
I checked the task manager when I had tons of tables with PokerTracker up, and the instances of postgreSQL really are hogging tons of memory, and my page file goes up a lot.
Another possible bottleneck is the processor time, which I would attribute mostly to the numerous instances of postgreSQL, too. I don't have as many performance issues when I'm using the Tournament Shark HUD (which doesn't call postgreSQL all the time).
And I don't think Windows 7 is faster than Windows XP, but it has better graphics algorithms that TableNinjaFT takes advantage of when there's lots of open, overlapping tables (according to the TableNinja people I've talked with). I'll have to see the difference when I upgrade, though.
My old computer has 1 GB of RAM, and the newer computers usually come with 6-8 GB standard, which can be upgraded further if needed. As for the processor, my old one is a Pentium D 3.00 GHz, but I know that the recent advances in processors are hard to quantify, so I really can't predict how a more modern processor will stand up to mass tables.
Anyway, I'm getting the new computer now, and I'll let you all know my opinion in a week or so after testing out grinding with it.
Anyway, I'm getting the new computer now, and I'll let you all know my opinion in a week or so after testing out grinding with it.
Good choice, almost any new computer will destroy an old P4 D with 1GB RAM I'm sure.
If you're keeping the P4 around (which I'd def. recommend, perhaps as a postgres server), give it more RAM. 1GB is far too little as your reports of high page file usage testify.
You are correct, Win7 does have superior graphics routines to XP for the case of screen scraping overlapped tables (Aero). This will help TN.
I've grinded for awhile on my new computer, and here's the results:
The Good:
1. TableNinjaFT has fewer bugs and issues on Windows 7. That much was expected.
2. Performance problems have gone down significantly. Considering how much hardware was upgraded, that shouldn't be surprising.
The Bad:
1. Windows 7 likes to snap-move windows for you when you spend a lot of time trying to align them yourself. I want to go up to Redmond and slap someone hard. Until their face bleeds. I wish to God I could turn off that feature, but I can't find any resources that tell me how. Configuring my tiling for mass multitabling is a pain, but at least I don't have to do it all the time.
2. The Aero theme has some graphical issues with multiple monitors.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for their advice and feedback.
