Fast Data Load
Fast Data Load is a Power Query feature that makes loading queries faster by utilising additional CPU power and RAM.
However, the drawback is Excel will become unresponsive for this duration, so it’s not recommended if you want to work simultaneously.
𝘍𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘋𝘢𝘵𝘢 𝘓𝘰𝘢𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘋𝘢𝘵𝘢 (𝘵𝘢𝘣) > 𝘎𝘦𝘵 𝘋𝘢𝘵𝘢 (𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯) > 𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘖𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 (𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘰𝘯).
I conducted an experiment to see how long it took to load datasets of varying sizes — 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 and 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 Fast Data Load enabled.
These consisted of fictional adult census data that each had 15 columns and the following number of rows:
• 1 million
• 5 million
• 10 million
• 50 million
• 100 million
Performance depends on the setup, so the following sections provide details about the hardware and software used.
𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀
15.4″ MacBook Pro 2018
Operating System: macOS Monterey v12.0.1
Processor: 2.9 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i9
Memory: 32 GB 2400 MHz DDR4
Graphics: Radeon Pro 560X 4 GB
Storage: 1 TB SSD
𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝟭𝟬 𝗩𝗶𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
Processors: 2
Memory: 4 GB
𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗹 𝗩𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻
Microsoft® Excel® for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2112 Build 16.0.14729.20038) 64-bit
Watch the video to see the results!
