RE: High spec PC setup for NONMEM - recommendations?
Ann, We benchmarked 32 bit vs 64 bit Intel fortran with NONMEM a few years ago, with 64 bit XP - the 64 bit version was 10-20% faster. NONMEM does not multithread (although the next version will multi process). IMHO, you get the most for your money with an quad core Intel i5, it is essentially as fast as the I7, but without multithreading. In our benchmarks, NONMEM performance correlated well with SPECfp benchmark ( www.spec.org ). I'd suggest staying away from AMD CPUs, the latest ones are advertised as 12 core, and they are, they have 12 integer computational units, but have only 6 floating point units, and they perform less well than i5s. BTW, if you can wait, the Intel 8 core CPUs are supposed to be out 3rd quarter. Mark Mark Sale MD President, Next Level Solutions, LLC www.NextLevelSolns.com 919-846-9185 A carbon-neutral company See our real time solar energy production at: http://enlighten.enphaseenergy.com/public/systems/aSDz2458
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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [NMusers] High spec PC setup for NONMEM - recommendations?
From: Ann Rigby-Jones < [email protected] >
Date: Wed, January 26, 2011 9:42 am
To: " [email protected] " < [email protected] >
Dear NMUsers We are investigating the purchase of a hyperthreaded dual quad-core machine (8 physical cores; hyperthreaded to create 16 logical cores) with a view to reducing the time taken for those aspects of model validation that require multiple iterations e.g. bootstrapping, likelihood profiling. Our current system uses NONMEM 7, with Intel Fortran running under Windows XP Professional, 32 bit machine . A licensed version of PLT Tools is used for graphical output and to facilitate model development and validation. We are wondering whether a 64bit operating system would be preferred for optimal performance e.g. 64bit Windows 7? Any comments or recommendations gratefully received. With thanks and best wishes Ann _______________________________________________________________________ Ann Rigby-Jones PhD MRSC Research Fellow in Pharmacokinetics & Pharmacodynamics Peninsula College of Medicine & Dentistry N31, ITTC Phase 1 Tamar Science Park 1 Davy Road Derriford Plymouth PL6 8BX _______________________________________________________________________