Support Board
Date/Time: Sat, 15 Mar 2025 16:22:15 +0000
[User Discussion] - Helping guide for Building A new PC to trade with sierra Chart
View Count: 3437
| [2021-02-15 13:43:09] |
| GravisHTG - Posts: 306 |
|
The goal of this post is to make it clear what CPU - GPU will do the job for our needs. (NEWEST UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM ) I have tried the M1 MAC - they are fast, but for now, they don't have enough core for my need. Was maxing it and got lag. ( all the programs run not natively with some manageable bugs ) This weekend I brought a new Desktop PC. The makes the evaluation more clear. I am trading equity, my broker is Interactive Broker. I got an extra data feed from Sierra chart equity data feed What I have open on my computer when I trade Interactive Broker Trading Workstation with the min requirement. Trade-Ideas Pro Sierra charts Benzinga Pro in Chrome Important SPEC of my new pc 8 monitors - 4 on the main video card, 4 with Display link adapter. Ryzen 9 3950x B450 motherboard 32 gig of ram at 3000 250 gb ssd for windows 10 1 tb M.2 ssd for Sierra charts Geforce GTX 970 4GB 550 W power supply My setup for Sierra Chart will be 1 main with no chart and 2 to 8 sub instance depending on the load I get. ( I need to test here to see how it work on CPU ) ill try to max it when I have time. The first impression I have with the setup from my M1 mac is that this PC is overkill ( 3% cpu usage at rest ) But if that's the case, I will be able to add more charts and indicators + adjust for faster refresh time. Still with no live data, I cannot be sure. We will see tomorrow. For video card , I think Nvidia is better because of the more optimize OPENGL drivers. I choose the 970 because of the cheap used price and without data on what video card to get , It was a good place to start. For monitors, I personally think a 4k tv to be the best bang for the buck. Inch wise with a 4k should be 40 to 50 ( less than that and its just too small for 4k, more than that and you have a hard time with multiple monitor setup 4+ ) A good example here : The 40 inch 4k Vizio V series 2020. First EDIT 16 FEB First time with live trading got 30 charts open under 3 subinstance. Currently using 8.2GB or ram , so 16 GB seems enough I have no Automated trading or any fancy stuff going on , just charting with a lot of indicators. My main instance have 5 chart total , 1 dayly to 10 sec. From what I see, the 16 Core cpu is overkill , I use to max out my 8750h ( laptop ) or the M1 mac. But the problem here is that I did not know how to setup my sierra chart under my 8750h. Now , I am at 10 % usage , that is great. When I am changing symbol on the main instance and downloading. It take 5 to 6 thread/core to load everything , about 20% to 50% cpu utilization. for the time it take to download. so , this computer is very powerfull but overkill for just charting , I can have 100 of charts open without problems. My first guess is that a 3700X or equivalent will be super fine for most people a 3600X or equivalent will need to be test but I am pretty sure it will do the job. For the GPU , Sierra chart and Windows Driver fondation are taking around 25% utilization but its overing between 15 and 30% so My guess for GPU will be 1060 or equivalent is all you ever need 1050ti or 960 or equivalent will work just fine 750 ti or equivalent will start to have problems. I Just test an AMD card , It work but consume way more GPU power and from another user it have bugs too. If I had to choose , ill spend the extra dollar to get the Nvidia cards. Will do more testing now. Remark about charting or not on the main instance. I just go for 1 main and 4 subinstance. I can see how good it is not to use any charting on the main instance. It consume way much less cpu. I download a list of Ticker in my main instance with this setup and at max , it took 11% CPU. IF we go by deduction here , a 3600X or equivalent should do the job just fine with no lag. But the OpenGL option need to be enable. My total GPU usage at the moment is 22% to 45% 18 feb After experimenting , I found that You should never have any chart on your main instance , unless you have really low amount of indicator. I am running really intense chartbook , 3 to 6 chart per chartbook.Everytime I open them to edit them on my main , My pc lag. Even when I have nothing else open. and after experimenting , I think the 5800X or equivalent will be perfect for heavy usage. update 2021 - 02 - 22 One thing I dont understand is why the computer lag and freeze when I put charting in the main instance. Even if I check all my status and it only use 5 to 6 core at a maximum of 50%. What can I upgrade update to make it that it wont lag freeze ( but after like 10 - 20 sec it come back ). ------- update 23 FEB I have found the other thread on this forum - The Ultimate PC of the year 2020 for Sierra Chart. CPU/GPU/CM/RAM/SSD With the help of the tuning you can do to the CPU resources and allocation, I was able to push my total cpu load to 33% and normal cpu load to 20% . If you have really demanding charts. Its best to allocated CPU core to each instance. + I have Interactive Broker API open and that help me a lot whe I alocated it to the last 3 core of my processor. My setup now is , Core 0 is free for windows use. Trade Idea - 1 core Interactive Brokers - 1 core Sierra chart 1 main and 5 sub with 2 core each. ( from what i see , some require less but 2 core seems fine for my most Taxing Chartbook ) Trade Idea and Sierra Charts are in Above normal priority. Hyperthreading Disable as it doesnt change much if I unable it. Cpu Load Jump from 9-11% to 20 - 25 % under normal load. What I found Main instance need 1 core only , maybe 2 if you want. Core requirement goes with the amount of different Symbol in your chartbook, I dont know the exact value here. But im close to be able to understand. So , now if you are a power User , 12 + core is a must. the GTX 970 is more than enough for OPEN GL resources ( 50% utilization at max and around 30% at all time. ) I think a 1650 4GB can be perfect here at 75W , its good power performance. ----------- 02-24 edit To set afinity to your instance greatly help my CPU load and loading time. 1 real core + 1 hyperthread each instance. Edit 26 FEB Edit I have experiment a little bit and to put 2 core + 2 Hyperthread on each instance had the best result. From what I have check , on how windows behave and sierra chart behave. It always max out the first real core and the last HyperThread Core then its going to the next. So , 0-3 and 27-31 , I leave them open for windows, chrome, trade idea, youtube and all the other stuff im doing while trading. Then I assign 2 core + 2 hyperthread to each instance. The main have 2 dedicated core but my sub Share their second core 2 sub for 1 second core. Main instance core number 4-5 + 25-26 Sub instance 1 core 6-15 + 24-16 Sub instance 2 core 7-15 + 23-17 Sub instance 3 core 8-14 + 22-18 Ill try today if its good , but it seems like it perform very well at the moment. Edit 05 MARS 2021 After anylizyng more. I will now try to reduce the amount of Core I need , I think i can do fine with 8 core/8 hyperthread. I now have 5 sierra chart instance in total. 1 main - only chart 3 sub for main charting 1 sub for extra charting 8 screen too. but one thing for sure that remain, Is the core alocation for all instance. 1 main core for each instance + 1 extra core anywhere. ( so when 1 lag , it does not affect the other ones ! ) this week, I will change my 3950X for a 3900X , as it is way cheaper and 16 core is not needed for me. And maybe ill try a 3800X in the future, to make my theory is working. Then , Ill go for those beautifull 8/16 core laptops from AMD. EDIT 03-09 I am using a new technique for my CPU allocation. the 2 first core and the 2 last hyperthread are for all my windows application plus the Interactive broker TWS. Then for my 5 instance. I always unselect the 2 last hyperthread -30-31 + main - unselect core 0-1 sub 1 - unselect core 0-1-2 sub 2 - unselect core 0-1-2-3 sub 3 - unselect core 0-1-2-3-4 sub 4 - and the same goes for any other amount of instance I got. by doing this, I always assure that the instance has 1 full core free to work with at 100% in case we hit it and It seems to work great. For my setup, A 8 core 8 thread computer with OpenGL enable will be perfect now. I can buy a new 5000 series AMD laptop with an RTX 3050 and I will be good to go. EDIT 2021 - 04 - 07 Just purchase a new program - Process Lasso Pro It helps me a lot in managing my resources as it automates all the CPU affinity and Priority I put Trader workstation from IB and Trade Idea and Chrome on 2 CPU 2 thread with normal priority Then I put Sierra chart with 5 substance on 4 CPU 4 Thread with above-normal priority And it seems to help a lot. My first day, but I clearly see a difference. The program has something else build in to help resource management too, I guess it helps. ----------------------- Updated - 13-05-2021 I will update my PC again, for an intel version. I want to test if Intel is like NVIDIA for GPU If it runs smoother and with less "lag". I will get an MSI Z590-A PRO motherboard for the GEN 4 support of PCI-E and a 11700k for the CPU I am pretty confident it will run butter smooth, well, time will tell. will keep you updated in 2 weeks THIS DID NOT HAPPEN, I send back the 11th gen intel and Brought a 5800X !! ---------------------- NEW UPDATE 09 August 2021 Got a 5800X now with 32GB of ram ( little overkill on the ram ) The CPU is holding well with my 14 fully loaded instance with 10 charts each + the 1 ( the primary ) that I keep with nothing on it, I feel it make things smoother. All this is on 4 4k 43inch TV and 4 extra HDMI monitors. I thought my GTX 1060 3GB will be enough but today I realize I was wrong. GPU acceleration helps immensely with the chart drawing, I go from 500-600MS on some charts to 50MS with GPU acceleration, it's day and night. Had some major crash because of not enough ram on my GPU. I Will need to test a new GPU now, I think at least 6GB of ram, 8GB could be even better and I need at least the power of a 1080ti.( so I will aim for a 3070 or a 2080 or a min of 3060ti. ) I still stay with NVIDIA for better driver update over OpenGL. Well, After I check Prices, I will change my 1060 for a 1070 ti and wish it enough :) ( its freaking 500$ CAD here ) --------- Just got my upgrade 1070 ti, Ram is between 4BG and 3.5GB but utilization is at 99% :) so RAM here is good, but I think I can get more power to have more Refresh rate over all my charts. :) ( I don't think I will ever be able to use another charting platform after this :) ) + I use 5 core 5 thread on my 5800x for Sierra chart and utilization is between 60 and 80%. ( a 5900X might be better at this point , will wait for the next-gen to upgrade ) Keep in mind that all this is with 14 instances of 12 charts each separated into 2 groups. All my charts are fully loaded with studies like VbP that are really taxing. And with some small candlestick to see a lot of actions ! Still trying to make Point and figure chart fit into the mix. --------------------- AUGUST 13 2021 Just figure it out ! When you are using GPU acceleration, It really help , but when you GPU MAX out , then the missing resources will be taken on your CPU and the cpu is very slow compare to the GPU. So if you are like me and LOVE Very intensive resources hungry studies and love to have a lot of charts with good refresh rate. Then you need a monster GPU to load it all. At the moment , out of my 14 available instance, on market open, if I want it to be ok, Only 6 can run. All that on a GTX 1070ti and a ryzen 5800x. I taught it was the CPU the problem , but its the fact that the GPU is not strong enough. I am asking theDEV if we can use multiple GPU now :) This software is a bEAST, cant wait to load the P&F chart with under 100ms refresh rate :) ------------------- Feel free to post your setup and CPU GPU usage. I will take the data to approximate the result. Have a great day - and happy trading everyone. -------------------------------- Date Time Of Last Edit: 2021-08-13 16:07:03
|
| [2021-08-09 20:23:01] |
| GravisHTG - Posts: 306 |
|
hope this can help some.
|
| [2021-11-20 16:15:05] |
| User308424 - Posts: 70 |
|
Hi, did you consider a workstation GPU like Nvidia Quadro lines? If so what made you go for a standard GPU instead of workstation GPU? Just asking as this is the dilemma I have now with my build. Thanks. |
| [2021-11-20 20:54:10] |
| GravisHTG - Posts: 306 |
|
normal GPU are usually cheaper and almost as strong for this software
|
| [2022-07-22 20:26:36] |
| User379468 - Posts: 508 |
|
Any updates for your latest setup? Does defining the cores/threads assigned make a difference vs Windows automatic management? Did you ever test latest gen laptops intel vs amd? |
| [2022-07-23 11:51:59] |
| GravisHTG - Posts: 306 |
|
I can say that the core thread assignement can do good if you are using very intensive study but if your usage is light , it is not require and I dont think you need it for the new gen intel + a good video card I test was a 3060 and it run like a charm. Any new gen laptop will do the job , but I would go with the I7 intel or the 8 core AMD at min. ( if you plan to use multiple screen and multiple instance of sierra chart. ) |
To post a message in this thread, you need to log in with your Sierra Chart account: