SQL performance: Memory or CPU

mikeshn · 07-25-2003, 05:50 PM

What is more important to SQL: Memory or CPU?
I mean to get good performance for SQL, what plays more important role?

Thanks

jeremy · 07-25-2003, 07:28 PM

It depends a lot on your setup and the SQL server you'll be using but assuming a decent CPU you'll usually end up being IO bound (ie. buy the fastest disks possible).

--jeremy

daihard · 07-25-2003, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mikeshn
What is more important to SQL: Memory or CPU?
I mean to get good performance for SQL, what plays more important role?

Thanks

You're leaving out too many variables. SQL itself is just a query language. There are a lot of database products that use SQL (e.g. MySQL, Postgre, Oracle, SQLite, etc). Are you talking about any partcular SQL database product?

mikeshn · 07-26-2003, 07:33 AM

MySQL

jeremy · 07-26-2003, 11:27 AM

mikeshn,

In my experiance the biggest performance win with MySQL is usually making sure all SQL queries in a given app are tuned properly. As far as hardware goes you are still leaving out too many variables for a solid answer. Memory and disk are very important though. I would also recommend reiser for the filesystem. You'll also need to monitor performance and tweak the MySQL config a bit in the begining.

--jeremy

daihard · 07-26-2003, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jeremy
In my experiance the biggest performance win with MySQL is usually making sure all SQL queries in a given app are tuned properly.

That's probably true for a lot of other engines. It can be tricky, too, because each database engine has its own query optimiser. You have to read the documentation well in order to understand how the optimiser in a particular product works and fine-tune your SQL queries accordingly.