I can only speak for the Windows part, but isn't it possible to test on Windows 7 64bit? (you can download a test version, and use a dual boot setup to try) I always heard about the difficulties with WinXP 64bit, so maybe that is just the problem? Another thing to find out: maybe you can take advantage of the 4 processors of your quadcore by using snow or similar?
Bart Carlos Hernandez-7 wrote: > > Thanks for your reply! I just added some more details below. > > Our code needs around 1GB of RAM and all machines and R configurations > have > its default maximum above this number. > > Our suspicion is that the windows server could run the code in half of its > current time (given the apparent factor of 2 between windows and other OS > timing). There may be something very important either in the R > configuration > or in our code that we should take care of? > > I appreciate a lot any further advice or hints, specially about speeding > up > the code in the windows xp server with QuadCore Xeon processors. > > Best regards, > > Carlos > > > > > ================ > > **Server running WinXP 64bit (R 2.10.0 32bit , QuadCore Xeon 2.6GHz 8G > Ram) > Time per 25 Iterations "6.17" > > -------- > **Dell Latitude running Linux 32bit (R 2.9.2, Intel Core 2 Duo P9500 @ > 2.53GHz, 4GB ram) > Time per 25 iterations "2.88" > > **Dell Latitude running Win Vista 32bit (R 2.10.0, Intel Core 2 Duo P9500 > @ > 2.53GHz, 4GB ram) with New DLL in terminal > Time per 25 iterations "5.53" > > ------- > **Macbook pro running Snow Leopard (R 2.10.0, 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo & > 2GB > ram) > Time per 25 Iterations "4.58" (both R 2.10.0 32bit and 64bit produce > almost > identical timings) > > **Macbook pro running WinXp natively (R 2.10.0 32bit, 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 > Duo & 2GB ram) > Time per 25 Iterations "8.23" > > note: for the Dell and MacBook Pro we replaced the Rblas.dll file of R for > Windows with the file available here > http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/contrib/ATLAS/C2D/ > > ============== > > > > On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 5:06 PM, Marc Schwartz <marc_schwa...@me.com> > wrote: > >> On Nov 19, 2009, at 9:25 AM, Carlos Hernandez wrote: >> >> Dear All, >>> I appreciate any advice or hints you could provide about the following. >>> >>> We are running R code in a server (running Windows XP and QuadCore Xeon >>> processors, see details below) and we would like to use the server >>> efficiently. Our code takes a bit more than 6 seconds per 25 iterations >>> in >>> the server using a default R 2.10.0 installation. >>> >>> We tested our code in two other computers, a Dell Latitute and a MacBook >>> Pro, and from the details that i include below you will notice that the >>> code >>> needs almost twice the time when we used R for Windows compared against >>> the >>> time the code needs when we use Linux or MacOSX 10.6.2 in each of these >>> computers. >>> >>> I'm sorry I don't provide details on the code we are using. The code >>> consists of all sort of operations (matrix inverses, random number >>> generation, vectorized functions, a few loops, and so on). I hope I can >>> get >>> some advice from you despite the lack of specific code details. >>> >>> Is there any important R feature we should configure manually in the >>> windows >>> server to speed the code up? Is there an optimized BLAS available >>> somewhere >>> for this type of machine? Is these something else apart of an optimized >>> BLAS >>> that we could do to improve the timing? >>> >>> Best regards, >>> >>> Carlos >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> **Server running WinXP (QuadCore Xeon 2.6GHz 8G Ram) >>> Time per 25 Iterations "6.17" >>> >>> -------- >>> **Dell Latitude running Linux (R 2.9.2, Intel Core 2 Duo P9500 @ >>> 2.53GHz, >>> 4GB ram) >>> Time per 25 iterations "2.88" >>> >>> **Dell Latitude running Win Vista (R 2.10.0, Intel Core 2 Duo P9500 @ >>> 2.53GHz, 4GB ram) with New DLL in terminal >>> Time per 25 iterations "5.53" >>> >>> ------- >>> **Macbook pro (2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo & 2GB ram) >>> Time per 25 Iterations "4.58" >>> >>> **Macbook pro running WinXp (2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo & 2GB ram) >>> Time per 25 Iterations "8.23" >>> >>> >>> note: for the Dell and MacBook Pro we replaced the Rblas.dll file of R >>> for >>> Windows with the file available here >>> http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/contrib/ATLAS/C2D/ >>> >> >> >> Are you running 32 bit R on each platform or are you using 64 bit R on >> Linux and OSX? >> >> On the Dell, you are running two different versions of R and you don't >> indicate the R versions on the MacBook. >> >> The RAM configuration on each computer is different, which will impact >> the >> timings to some extent, depending upon how much RAM you may require for >> your >> R code, given other processes that are running and before any disk >> swapping >> kicks in. You might want to review R Windows FAQ 2.9, if you have not >> already: >> >> >> http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/rw-FAQ.html#There-seems-to-be-a-limit-on-the-memory-it-uses_0021 >> >> For Windows on the MacBook, are you using Boot Camp to run Windows >> natively >> or are you using virtualization (eg. Parallels, VMWare, VirtualBox) to >> run >> Windows under OSX? If the latter, some of the time increase will be due >> to >> the virtualization overhead. >> >> You should be using the same version of R across each platform for a fair >> comparison, as there is also the potential, if not the likelihood, that >> some >> code has been improved between versions, which may yield some performance >> differences. 32 bit versus 64 bit will also yield some differences. >> Differences in tuned BLAS libraries across each OS can also account for >> performance differences. You should look into using the one provided by R >> across each to enable more balanaced comparisons. >> >> I am also not sure of what differences across each Windows test is >> attributable to WinXP versus Vista. There are others here with more >> insight >> into that aspect of things. >> >> While there is a consistent increase for Windows timing as you have >> above, >> some of the differences may be due to not really having a (pardon the >> pun) >> "Apples to Apples" comparison across each platform. >> >> HTH, >> >> Marc Schwartz >> >> > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > > -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/advice-about-R-for-windows-speed-tp26428194p26432206.html Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
