Eviews slow win64, Norton uninstall

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ClintonGreene
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Joined: Wed Sep 28, 2011 2:08 pm

Eviews slow win64, Norton uninstall

Postby ClintonGreene » Thu Jun 14, 2012 6:40 am

I am trying to figure out why my batch programs run in twice the time on my new HP H8-1200z (Win 7 64 bit, cpu is AMD FX-6100, 8GB ram, video card is AMD Radeon HD 7450), compared to my old win xp machine.

My list of attempted fixes:
I am using G-data anti-virus. But turning off the virus monitor did not help.
The uninstall of Norton anti-virus that shipped with the machine was perhaps not complete: Ran the removal tool they have on the Norton website and re-booted, did not help.
In Eviews, modified the advanced system options/Multi-core use from "auto" to "3". Did not help.
Tried the win7 control panel/system/performance and compatibility tool, no luck there either.

I realize this is likely not an Eviews issue, but perhaps someone has relevant experience.

EViews Gareth
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Re: Eviews slow win64, Norton uninstall

Postby EViews Gareth » Thu Jun 14, 2012 8:09 am

That sounds odd. Without seeing what your batch programs do, it is hard to imagine what could be causing it. If they do lots of writing and reading of data from disk, then AV software might be to blame.

One simple thing to check - are you running your programs in verbose mode on the new computer, whereas your default was quite mode on the old?
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ClintonGreene
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Sep 28, 2011 2:08 pm

Re: Eviews slow win64, Norton uninstall

Postby ClintonGreene » Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:02 pm

Yes, running in quiet mode, and no, does not need to access HD. Am using Version 4 substitutions.
I was curious to compare speeds, so the program is very simple.
Create U 10000
tic
For !A = 1 to 10
For !B = 1 to 1000
genr x1 = nrnd
genr x2 = nrnd
geny y = x1 +x2 +nrnd
LS y x1 x2
Next
Next
!elapse = @toc
genr elapsed = elapse
Takes about 10 seconds on my old Intel Core 2 duo E8200 2.66 Ghz, about 20 seconds on the new machine.

Will try using the equation command instead of LS, to see if it has to do with LS showing the results on screen.
Will also try it on my wife's new machine, which is using the same virus software, and also had Norton uninstalled.
There are hints of other problems with the machine, so might be forced to back to original system point.

EViews Gareth
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Eviews slow win64, Norton uninstall

Postby EViews Gareth » Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:52 pm

Same build date of EViews?
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ClintonGreene
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Sep 28, 2011 2:08 pm

Re: Eviews slow win64, Norton uninstall

Postby ClintonGreene » Fri Jun 15, 2012 12:44 pm

Same build dates May 29, 2012

At this point the important question is whether I can expect a 64 bit version of Eviews in the next couple years.
If not, then I will want the 32 bit version of win7 when I replace my office machine next year.


For the record
Version of program which uses LS y x1 x2 command in the loop, so results are shown on the screen even in quiet mode:
WinXp Service Pack 3, Intel Core2 Duo E8200 2.66 Ghz (about 3 years old): 9.32 seconds
Win 7 Home Premium service pack 1, AMD FX-6100 3.3 Ghz (new a month ago): 18.47 seconds

Version of program which uses Equation eq1.LS y = c(1)*x1 +c(2)*x2, so no results show on screen in quiet mode:
WinXP machine: 3.02 seconds
Win7 machine: 2.51 seconds (15% less time)

So can gain a bit over WinXP if in can avoid all use of screen.

EViews Chris
EViews Developer
Posts: 161
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Re: Eviews slow win64, Norton uninstall

Postby EViews Chris » Mon Jun 18, 2012 10:11 am

A few stray thoughts.

There's not much doubt that XP screen draws are simpler than newer Vista/Win 7 screen draws and therefore faster, particularly if there's shading and transulcent window borders (the Aero interface). If you're working with short series (like 1000 observations) the screen draws can easily dominate any actual calculations you are performing.

A seond point is that AMD chips can be a little problematic for us because we use something called the Intel Math Kernel Library for some key calculations (matrix-vector and matrix-matrix multiplies) and Intel fine tunes this library for its own processors and doesn't necessarily play fair when it comes to running on AMD chips. (Many other applications also use this library which I'm afraid probably does tilt things in favor of Intel processors for math and statistical applications).

However, in your test program my best guess is that after screen draws the next most time consuming thing is the random number generation and this should perform equally well on an AMD chip. Many other parts of the EViews code will also run fine on AMD chips, it's just that some of the key routines like large matrix inner products may produce weaker performance than what the processor is actually capable of.

Chris

ClintonGreene
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Sep 28, 2011 2:08 pm

Re: Eviews slow win64, Norton uninstall

Postby ClintonGreene » Mon Jun 18, 2012 12:07 pm

Thanks, very interesting. Don't think it is mostly an Intel issue, since I had similar results on the i3 machine I tried it on.

I am still wondering if I can expect a 64 bit version, as it will affect my choice of operating system on my office machine.
Thanks again.

EViews Gareth
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Re: Eviews slow win64, Norton uninstall

Postby EViews Gareth » Mon Jun 18, 2012 12:52 pm

It is certainly our plan to release a 64 bit version.

Having said that, EViews 7 benefits greatly from being installed on a 64bit operating system, so I would recommend it anyway.
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