Re: V8 slow like a snail
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- Subject: [mg127710] Re: V8 slow like a snail
- From: Bill Rowe <readnews at sbcglobal.net>
- Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 01:56:56 -0400 (EDT)
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On 8/15/12 at 3:33 AM, weh at snafu.de (Dr. Wolfgang Hintze) wrote:
>Great disappointment on my side with 8.0.4.0 Home edition which I
>installed yesterday! My first impression: looks good, many nice
>features ... but incredibly slow in comparision to my good old 5.2.
>I then carried out a modest benchmark test the results of which I'll
>show below and which I like to express in terms of a "snail factor"
>( = time in v5.2/ time in v8).
Trying to compare the speed of an execution for computations
from version to version in Mathematica is pretty much hopeless
particularly for Integrate. It is certain Integrate has changed
significantly from version 5.2 to 8. If Integrate did nothing
more than a simply look for known integral solutions version 8
would have to be slower for some integrals since version 8 can
solve more integrals. Look up time has to scale at least as the
number of integrals tabulated. And given the need to arrange the
integrand in some canonical order, my estimate here of linear
with number of integrals is likely optimistic.
But I am sure Integrate is far more than a look up table.
Somehow the code has to decide what method to use for the
integration. More capability means more code to determine what
to do and more execution time.
I would expect many very simple integrals such as say
Integrate[x^2, {x,0,1}]
to be unchanged from version 5.2 to version 8 with respect to
execution time. But more complex integrals could go either way.
=46inding one slower in version 8 or finding one faster in version
8 really wouldn't say much about the performance difference
between version 8 and version 5.2.
And ultimately, if version 5.2 works better for you then use it
not version 8. For myself version 8 offers so much more than
version 5.2, I cannot see using version 5.2 instead of 8 no
matter how much faster version 5.2 was for some particular integral.