FC5 32-bit vs 64-bit
On Sun, 25 Jun 2006, Jeff Barrett wrote:
Hello, I am a biostats student and a newbie to R. I have a question about 32-bit vs. 64-bit. I am running FC5 on a AMD 3800+ with 2GB Ram. With 64-bit, I am running into some issues the stability of FC5. A friend suggested I ditch the 64-bit version of FC5 for the 32-bit. I do not currently have any pressing needs for the capabilities of the 64-bit OS. Before I reinstall the 32-bit FC5, I want to know the specific effects on R. I see plenty of articles on 32-bit vs. 64-bit in general, but does anyone have any real comparisons of 32 vs. 64 bit using R?
There are some in the R-admin manual. If you don't need the address space, we recommend a 32-bit build on x86_64 (and tell you how to make one). Many of us have been running R in 64-bit (and 32-bit) on x86_64 for a long time with no problems: that includes (more recently) on FC5. If you are seeing instability I would be looking elsewhere (e.g. hardware and drivers).
Brian D. Ripley, ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk 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