Be careful not to use clock speed as a measure of computer performance. Pentium 4s (and the comparable Xeons) were intended to be run very fast, but never managed it. So a 2.4GHz P4 proved to be slower than a 1GHz PIII.
Unless you are running Windows 64, the chip having some 64-bit instructions is irrelevant, and even if you were it is irrelevant to binary builds of R for Windows (which will actually access less memory than is possible under 32-bit Windows XP). R runs large tasks much better under Linux, and there having a 64-bit CPU and 64-bit OS pay off once you have 2Gb or more of RAM. On Fri, 28 Jul 2006, Lewis G Coggins wrote: > Greetings, > > We recently obtained a new computer in our lab with a Pentium 4 3.86 GHz > processor and 4 gb of ram running windows xp with service pack 2. After > installing R on this machine, I ran a bit of code and found that the > execution time was actually significantly slower than a machine running > windows xp with an older Pentium chip 1.73 GHz and 1 gb of ram. After > speaking with the manufacturer of the new machine, I am told that the > processor in the new machine is 64 bit whereas I believe the processor in > the old machine is 32 bit. I have tried to sort through the > documentation on the CRAN page relative to performance of R under the 32 > vs 64 bit sub architecture, however, I am no computer genius and find some > of this stuff extremely confusing. Well, it is under the Unix/Linux section, and you are running Windows so it does not apply to you. > In a CRAN document entitled > "Installation and Administration" , there is reference to sub > architecture... it reads: > > 8.1 Windows > Currently the Windows build of R is a 32-bit executable. This runs happily > on Windows 64 on AMD64 and EM64T, but is limited to (we are told) a 2GB > address space. It will not be possible to build a native version for > Windows 64 until suitable compilers are available, and currently > (mid-2006) that is not in prospect. > So my question is: are there any options to allow R to take advantage of > the faster chip, (with 64 bit architecture), and more ram. I see in the > documentation that a linux version of R may be able to take advantage of > this chip... is that true what would be involved in making that work? Are > there other options? As we are beginning to use R more and more around > here, we may send this computer back and get a celeron 3.2 GHz chip that > has 32 bit architecture... is this an intelligent choice? > Thanks in advance for considering my question, > Lew Coggins > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch 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. > -- Brian D. Ripley, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Professor of Applied Statistics, http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/ University of Oxford, Tel: +44 1865 272861 (self) 1 South Parks Road, +44 1865 272866 (PA) Oxford OX1 3TG, UK Fax: +44 1865 272595 ______________________________________________ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch 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.