R help - Jan 2008 - Problems with XP32-"3GB-patch"?/ Worth upgrading to Vista X64?

Dear R-Users,

as I will start a huge simulation in a few weeks, I am about to buy a new
and fast PC. I have noticed, that the RAM has been the limiting factor in
many of my calculations up to now (I had 2 GB in my "old" system, but
Windows still used quite a lot of virtual memory), hence my new computer
will have 4 GB of fast DDR2-800 RAM.

However, I know that 1.) Windows 32 bit cannot make use of more than about
3,2 GB RAM and 2.) it is normally not allowed to allocate more than 2 GB of
RAM to one single application (at least under XP, I don't know if that has
changed under Vista?).

I remember from the R-FAQ that you can manually adjust XP so that it
allocates up to 3 GB to one application ("the 3GB patch"), but I read
in a
PC-magazine and some message boards that this may cause problems. Does
anybody of you successfully use this "trick" without any problems? 

Would it be wise to use a 64bit OS, as e.g. Vista X64? I think, under Vista
X64 it should be no problem to allocate 4 GB of RAM to R. Any experiences
with that?

Thanks in advance,
Ralph Wirth


-----
Ralph Wirth
University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Statistics
GfK Group, Department of Methods and Product Development

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On Wed, 23 Jan 2008, Ralph79 wrote:
>
> Dear R-Users,
>
> as I will start a huge simulation in a few weeks, I am about to buy a new
> and fast PC. I have noticed, that the RAM has been the limiting factor in
> many of my calculations up to now (I had 2 GB in my "old" system,
but
> Windows still used quite a lot of virtual memory), hence my new computer
> will have 4 GB of fast DDR2-800 RAM.
>
> However, I know that 1.) Windows 32 bit cannot make use of more than about
> 3,2 GB RAM and 2.) it is normally not allowed to allocate more than 2 GB of
> RAM to one single application (at least under XP, I don't know if that
has
> changed under Vista?).
>
> I remember from the R-FAQ that you can manually adjust XP so that it
> allocates up to 3 GB to one application ("the 3GB patch"), but I
read in a
> PC-magazine and some message boards that this may cause problems. Does
> anybody of you successfully use this "trick" without any
problems?
Yes, many people: most 32-bit Exchange servers use it.  Please don't rate
the advice in the R documentation below tittle-tattle you read on the web.
> Would it be wise to use a 64bit OS, as e.g. Vista X64? I think, under Vista
> X64 it should be no problem to allocate 4 GB of RAM to R. Any experiences
> with that?
That's what the rw-FAQ says, and we do write answers based on experience!
> Thanks in advance,
> Ralph Wirth
>
>
> -----
> Ralph Wirth
> University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Statistics
> GfK Group, Department of Methods and Product Development
>
>
-- 
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