What version of STATA MP to buy? (How many cores?)

[Tim Umbach]

Hi all,

I have just started a new job and get to buy a new copy of STATA for my work PC. However, I'm not certain which version to buy, except that it should be MP due to the kind of estimations I want to run. My work PC has an i7-3770 processor with 4 'real' cores and 8 logical cores. Does that mean I should buy STATA MP with 4 cores? Or 8?

Also, obviously the OS and other applications will need some computing power for themselves. I'm not planning to run anything processing-intensive alongside STATA, but I'm still sure STATA will never be able to use all 4 cores, or am I wrong? So does that mean I should buy the 2-core version?

So if someone knowledgable on this question could give me some advice, I would be grateful.

Best regards,

Tim

[Doug Hemken]

I can't give you guidance on physical versus logical cores, but you don't need or want to reserve (buy less) capability for the OS. Just an observation from someone who uses 4,8,16 core versions (on different computers).

[Doug Hemken]

You should probably just contact StataCorp directly - they want to match you up with the product that will make you happiest.

[Sergiy Radyakin]

Tim,

a simple strategy of cost-benefit analysis implies to compare the expected costs versus the expected benefits. The expected cost is $1372 according to this schedule
https://www.stata.com/order/federal-...108W-Rel15.pdf

The expected benefit's value is a bit more complex to compute. What is the price of your time in USD/hour?


Stata will use the smaller from the number of actual cores and number of licensed cores. So it is not that you must buy some certain license for your PC. You can run Stata with lic=4cores on an 8 cores machine. But you would probably want to avoid buying license capacity that you can't utilize (and you will not be able to utilize more than 8 on this machine). However your planning horizon might span into the time when you buy a newer machine with more CPU power where you can make use of that license allowance.

This (rather old) discussion may be relevant:
https://www.stata.com/statalist/arch.../msg00129.html

Sergiy

[Tim Umbach]

Hi Sergiy and Doug,

thanks for your insights. I ordered the 4-core version now, as I read in the old thread Sergiy posted that the physical cores matter most. I haven't done a CBA, since I don't really know what we have to pay for the license, as we bulk buy. And because it's not my money

Best regards,

Tim