You are here

Speed improvement using 64bit R?

2 posts / 0 new
Last post
pgseye's picture
Offline
Joined: 10/13/2009 - 23:50
Speed improvement using 64bit R?

Hi,

I came across this other topic about OpenMx in 64 bit R:

https://openmx.ssri.psu.edu/thread/161

I've got both versions of R installed on OS X. I'm more curious than anything (and it will probably demonstrate my ignorance of what 64 bit computing enables one to do), but is there anything to be gained speed/computational time wise by running OpenMx in 64 bit mode (if I understand that it can be).

If so, I'm assuming it's not so straightforward to install (ie precompiled binary)?

Thanks,

Paul

Steve's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/30/2009 - 14:03
It's easy to install. You

It's easy to install. You already have it if you have the most recent version of OpenMx. Depending on what your processor and OS-X version is, you can run R64 and everything just works. That's the good news.

The bad news is there is no speedup. If you have a workspace with more than 4GB, then you'd definitely want to switch to the 64 bit version. Otherwise, there's no need.

If you want to compile OpenMx from scratch, then you'll need to pay attention to a few more things. Your compiled version won't be 64bit fat unless you do some hoop jumping. But if you're installing the binary version, we jump through all the hoops for you.

Cheers,
Steve