[R] which operating system + computer specifications lead to the best performance for R?

[Sascha Vieweg]

On 11-01-22 14:56, Marc Jekel wrote:

> I have the opportunity to buy a new computer for my simulations in R. My goal 
> is to get the execution of R code as fast as possible. I know that the number 
> of cores and the working memory capacity are crucial for computer performance 
> but maybe someone has experience/knowledge which comp specifications are 
> especially crucial (especially in relation to R). Is there any knowledge on 
> the performance of R for different operating systems (Linux, Win, Mac etc.) 
> resp. is performance dependent on the operating system at all? Even small 
> differences in performance (i.e., speed of calculations) matter for me (quite 
> large datasets + repeated calculations etc.).

Not really a recommendation, just my considerations: That depends 
on your budget, Mac Pro (5k$ in the U.S.) would probably serve 
your needs for a long time ;-). I am running R 2.12.0 on a MacBook 
Pro, 2.4 Dual Core with (only) 2G ram, together with (paid) 
TextMate as editor, and Sweave. 2G ram is few! And I noted 
remarkable improvements whan I was lucky to use a MBP Intel Core 
i5 for a couple of days. Whatever processor and memory, I like the 
easy interplay between R and the Unix environment (things like 
passing shell commands from R to my system or other interpreters), 
easy graphics etc.

If that helps a bit ...

-- 
Sascha Vieweg, saschaview at gmail.com