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I have an SSAS Tabular model composed of a fact table and 3 dimensions. I want to understand what is the difference between creating the relationships in the tabular model in advance comparing to import the tables or using a direct query and then create the relationships in Power BI ?

Amira Bedhiafi
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If you DirectQuery to SSAS Tabular, then the measures and relationships should already be included.

Power BI essentially is SSAS Tabular under the hood, so the calculations should be the same whether you build your model in Power BI Desktop or SSAS Tabular. The difference is where you're running it. If you have SSAS Tabular on a strong server, DirectQuery might be faster than running the computations locally in Power BI Desktop.

Alexis Olson
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  • So nothing related to the SSAS/Power BI engine or memory ? – Amira Bedhiafi Jan 06 '22 at 21:23
  • There may be some minor version differences but the hardware you're running the calculations is probably more relevant (plus potential latency from querying a separate source in the case of DirectQuery). – Alexis Olson Jan 06 '22 at 21:30
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    Power BI Desktop and SSAS use the same engine, but new features come last to SSAS. SSAS also supports less data sources. Visual Studio/SSDT is a horrible buggy neglected tool. My advice is to use a machine with >32G memory and do all your development in Power BI Desktop. – TheRizza Jan 07 '22 at 15:38
  • Yes. The vision from Microsoft is for Power BI to be a superset of SSAS. – Alexis Olson Jan 07 '22 at 16:13