Improve EF Core (non-tracking) query performance on TechEmpower Fortunes

[ajcvickers]

We have been running the industry standard TechEmpower benchmarks on .NET against a PostgreSQL database for several years. In particular, the Fortunes benchmark is particularly relevant to EF scenarios. We have multiple variations of this benchmark, including:

• An implementation that uses ADO.NET directly. This is the fastest implementation of the three listed here.
• An implementation that uses Dapper. This is slower than using ADO.NET directly, but still fast.
• An implementation that uses EF Core. This is currently the slowest implementation of the three.

The goal for EF Core 6.0 is to get the EF Core performance to match that of Dapper on the TechEmpower Fortunes benchmark. This is a significant challenge which may not be fully achieved in EF Core 6.0. Nevertheless, we will get as close as we can.

[roji]

All benchmarks executed on aspnet-citrine-lin (TechEmpower hardware), 3 iterations.

Summary

Description	EF Core	Change	Dapper	Change	EF/Dapper Gap
Starting point (EF 5.0 + .NET 5.0)	147,852		230,394		55.8%
EF benchmark improvements (no product changes)	191,189	29.3%	230,394		20.5%
.NET 5 -> .NET 6	209,953	9.8%	263,314	14.3%	25.4%
EF 6.0 + .NET 6.0 (product optimizations)	251,992	31.8%	263,314		4.5%
Total change:		70.4%		14.3%

Detailed changes

Description	RPS	RPS Change	Change Type	Notes	Commits tested
Starting point (EF Core 5.0, .NET 5.0, no benchmark improvements)	147,852
Set EF DbContext pool size to 1024 (instead of default 128)	182,817	23%	Benchmark
Mark Fortunes message as required (elide null checks)	185,970	1.7%	Benchmark
Turn on Npgsql multiplexing and reduce Max PoolSize to 18	191,189	2.8%	Benchmark	Thanks @NinoFloris!!
Switch from .NET 5 to .NET 6	209,953	9.8%	.NET
Cache ResettableServices for DbContext pooling	209,339	-0.2%	EF		EF 3b0a18b, EFCore.PG 2e8bf9a4
Stop capturing in logging	212,273	1.4%	EF	10% reduction in number of instances allocated, 4% in bytes.	EF aecae63, EFCore.PG 2e8bf9a4
Make ConcurrencyDetector optional	226,511	6.7%	EF		EF 7dada2a, EFCore.PG 2e8bf9a4
Reduce allocation in query for execution strategy	226,963	0.1%	EF		EF ec6be85, EFCore.PG 2e8bf9a4
Skip accessing Transaction.Current	227,125	0%	EF		EF 083042b, EFCore.PG 6c6a3cad
Recycle relational and ADO.NET objects in query execution	231,960	2.1%	EF	29% reduction in number of instances allocated, 22% in bytes.	EF 3f5dc2c, EFCore.PG 6c6a3cad
Suppress logging checks in query when not required, caching for 1 second	248,186	7%	EF		EF 02bb112, EFCore.PG 70e000d2
Reduce accesses to virtual properties in query	251,992	1.5%	EF	Thanks @vonzshik!!	EF 6f7f730, EFCore.PG 70e000d2

Previous figures with aspnet-perf-lin (weaker machine)

Overview

Version	EF Core	Dapper	Gap
Initial (5.0)	69,653	93,341	34%
Latest (6.0)	97,816 (40% better)	104,629 (12% better)	6.9%

Detailed changes

Description	RPS	RPS Change	Change Type	Notes	Commits tested
Starting point (EF Core 5.0, .NET 5.0, no benchmark improvements)	147,852
Set EF DbContext pool size to 1024 (instead of default 128)	182,817	23%	Benchmark
Mark Fortunes message as required (elide null checks)	185,970	1.7%	Benchmark
Turn on Npgsql multiplexing and reduce Max PoolSize to 18	191,189	2.8%	Benchmark	Thanks @NinoFloris!!
Switch from net5.0 TFM to net6.0	209,953	9.8%	.NET
Cache ResettableServices for DbContext pooling	209,339	-0.2%	EF		EF 3b0a18b, EFCore.PG 2e8bf9a4
Stop capturing in logging	212,273	1.4%	EF	10% reduction in number of instances allocated, 4% in bytes.	EF aecae63, EFCore.PG 2e8bf9a4
Make ConcurrencyDetector optional	226,511	6.7%	EF		EF 7dada2a, EFCore.PG 2e8bf9a4
Reduce allocation in query for execution strategy	226,963	0.1%	EF		EF ec6be85, EFCore.PG 2e8bf9a4
Skip accessing Transaction.Current	227,125	0%	EF		EF 083042b, EFCore.PG 6c6a3cad
Recycle relational and ADO.NET objects in query execution	231,960	2.1%	EF	29% reduction in number of instances allocated, 22% in bytes.	EF 3f5dc2c, EFCore.PG 6c6a3cad
Suppress logging checks in query when not required, caching for 1 second	248,186	7%	EF		EF 02bb112, EFCore.PG 70e000d2
Reduce accesses to virtual properties in query	251,992	1.5%	EF	Thanks @vonzshik!!	EF 6f7f730, EFCore.PG 70e000d2