Dataflow gen1 vs. Dataflow gen2

Hi frithjof_v ,

Q1:

I think you should expect dataflow Gen2 to spend more refresh time and consume more capacity units. This is because writing to a Lakehouse destination involves additional processing and storage operations.

Q2:

If the dataflow Gen2 is not writing to a destination and is used in the same way as dataflow Gen1, the performance and CU consumption should be more comparable. However, dataflow Gen2 might still have a slight edge in terms of efficiency due to its improved architecture and high-scale compute capabilities.

Q3:

To minimize CU consumption, you might want to use dataflow Gen1 if you don’t need the advanced features of Gen2, such as Lakehouse integration or enhanced monitoring. Dataflow Gen1 is generally more lightweight and might be more efficient for simpler use cases.

But dataflow Gen2 offers new incremental refreshes, AI insights, or better integration with data pipelines, and while they consume more CUs, they are improved in efficiency and usage.I think you can look at this document: Differences between Dataflow Gen1 and Dataflow Gen2 - Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn

Best Regards

Yilong Zhou

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