By the help of simulation software it is possible to follow and predict the high pressure die casting process. In the Department of Foundry Engineering at the University of Miskolc, Hungary we use both Finite Element- and Finite Difference programs for simulation. In this paper we examine a special specimen, a plate with knobs, witch has point symmetric hot spots and cored parts which effect the characteristic of flow and solidification. We examined the solidification process and the temperature distribution. We determined that the finite element method, because of the meshing and the calculation mode, is more suitable for the simulation of thermal processes.