Cor it actually makes a TONNE of a difference.
Let me explain how.
Okay in 1995, when I was sitting here, and I'd ping a server in tokyo,
it'd take me about 1/2 a second. If I tried downloading a 30 MB file,
it'd take me an hour.
Today, if I ping a server in tokyo, it still takes me 1/2 a second. But
if I try downloading a 30 MB file, it streams thru in 2 minutes or
lesser.
Also, in future, while network download speeds continue to improve,
network latencies will stall (unless we can improve the speed of electric
current which I believe in copper is 0.667C, where C is the speed of
light). Alternatively optical fibers transmit light at 0.997C - much
faster, but still finite. In short, every medium an EM wave transmits
thru is always a KC where K is coefficient always less than 1. I know
some guy will argue that electricity is not an EM wave, but electrons
pushing each other to transmit a finite charge, causing a resulting
perpendicular magnetic field - that is everything typical of an EM wave.
Plus a MAJOR part of the latency comes from semiconductor transistors
switching over digital circuits, which is a painfully slow process.
So in short - when you batch commands, they go thru in almost about the
same time, or with not much difference. But when you donot batch and go
over the network again and again - you are adding the latency - which you
will not be able to reduce in the near future, on every single datarow
.
So yes, it makes a TONNE of a difference. You should always try and make
your conversations on a distributed network chunky not chatty.
The bigger question is - what is an EM Wave discussion got to do with
ADO.NET? LOL
.
BTW - try out the batchsize thing in ADO.NET 2.0 and run a few
performance metrics yourself on a LAN connection (remember to involve
atleast two computers for a pronounced effect, though I think you might
be able to see it even on one computer).
- Sahil Malik [MVP]
http://codebetter.com/blogs/sahil.malik/