Re: st: Why is Mata much slower than MATLAB at matrix inversion?

[Richard Herron <richard.c.herron@gmail.com>]

Patrick, -cholinv()- requires a symmetric positive definite matrix,
but I don't think you M matrix is PD. Try -luinv()-.

Although for most use cases your matrix will be symmetric, right? Then
you should use -invsym()- or a solve function.

Richard Herron


On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 9:22 PM, Patrick Roland <patrick.rolande@gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> I'm comparing two code snippets. In Mata:
>
> mata
> timer_on(1)
> M = rnormal(2000,2000,0,1)
> J = cholinv(M)
> timer_off(1)
> timer()
> end
>
> In MATLAB:
>
> tic;
> M = normrnd(0,1,2000,2000);
> J = inv(M);
> toc;
>
> I find that MATLAB is about 20 times faster (1.5 seconds vs 30
> seconds). Is there something I'm missing here, or is MATLAB just much
> faster at matrix inversion? I'd much prefer to use Mata because of
> integration with Stata, but if the speed difference is going to be on
> this order then MATLAB is more attractive.
>
>
> Any input here is appreciated.
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