Benchmark ArcPro vs 64-bit background vs parallel processing - P.P. wins

barbarayassin

I have ArcGIS 10.6, Windows 10, 32 GB RAM, Intel Core i7-5930K CPU @ 3.5 GHz and ArcGIS Pro 2.2.1

I ran the Clip tool (under Data management/Raster/Raster processing/) on the same local data multiple times with these times:

1. 32-bit ArcCatalog 12 parallel instances (parallel processing 100%) *** 11 minutes

2. ArcCatalog with 64-bit background processing installed (no PP) *** 17 minutes

3. ArcPro *** 21 minutes 

This goes against all the advise I've gotten on why to move to ArcPro.  I understand this is only one tool, but it made me wonder which type of tools are better in Pro or ArcGIS for speed. 

Another odd note - The rasters created with the 64-bit process #2 were twice as large!  I reused the same clip command from the results window to make sure nothing was changed except the output name. 

PaulLohr

Thank you for running this test and passing along your results, Barbara. I've never done a test like yours but it matches up with my experience with the three scenarios. I think 64-bit processing is beneficial when the normal 2 GB per process RAM limitation is met but not so much in execution speed.

This is me guessing, but it sure seems like ArcGIS Pro and 64-bit background geoprocessing comes with extra baggage that slows the processing down. Maybe there's no way around the extra baggage, or it adds value in other scenarios.