<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <title>Performance Overview</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../../../../../../../doc/src/boostbook.css" type="text/css"> <meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.74.0"> <link rel="home" href="../../index.html" title="Math Toolkit"> <link rel="up" href="../perf.html" title="Performance"> <link rel="prev" href="../perf.html" title="Performance"> <link rel="next" href="interp.html" title="Interpreting these Results"> </head> <body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"> <table cellpadding="2" width="100%"><tr> <td valign="top"><img alt="Boost C++ Libraries" width="277" height="86" src="../../../../../../../boost.png"></td> <td align="center"><a href="../../../../../../../index.html">Home</a></td> <td align="center"><a href="../../../../../../../libs/libraries.htm">Libraries</a></td> <td align="center"><a href="http://www.boost.org/users/people.html">People</a></td> <td align="center"><a href="http://www.boost.org/users/faq.html">FAQ</a></td> <td align="center"><a href="../../../../../../../more/index.htm">More</a></td> </tr></table> <hr> <div class="spirit-nav"> <a accesskey="p" href="../perf.html"><img src="../../../../../../../doc/src/images/prev.png" alt="Prev"></a><a accesskey="u" href="../perf.html"><img src="../../../../../../../doc/src/images/up.png" alt="Up"></a><a accesskey="h" href="../../index.html"><img src="../../../../../../../doc/src/images/home.png" alt="Home"></a><a accesskey="n" href="interp.html"><img src="../../../../../../../doc/src/images/next.png" alt="Next"></a> </div> <div class="section" lang="en"> <div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"> <a name="math_toolkit.perf.perf_over"></a><a class="link" href="perf_over.html" title="Performance Overview"> Performance Overview</a> </h3></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p> By and large the performance of this library should be acceptable for most needs. However, you should note that the library's primary emphasis is on accuracy and numerical stability, and <span class="emphasis"><em>not</em></span> speed. </p> <p> </p> <p> In terms of the algorithms used, this library aims to use the same "best of breed" algorithms as many other libraries: the principle difference is that this library is implemented in C++ - taking advantage of all the abstraction mechanisms that C++ offers - where as most traditional numeric libraries are implemented in C or FORTRAN. Traditionally languages such as C or FORTRAN are perceived as easier to optimise than more complex languages like C++, so in a sense this library provides a good test of current compiler technology, and the "abstraction penalty" - if any - of C++ compared to other languages. </p> <p> </p> <p> The two most important things you can do to ensure the best performance from this library are: </p> <p> </p> <div class="orderedlist"><ol type="1"> <li> Turn on your compilers optimisations: the difference between "release" and "debug" builds can easily be a <a class="link" href="getting_best.html" title="Getting the Best Performance from this Library">factor of 20</a>. </li> <li> Pick your compiler carefully: <a class="link" href="comp_compilers.html" title="Comparing Compilers">performance differences of up to 8 fold</a> have been found between some windows compilers for example. </li> </ol></div> <p> </p> <p> The <a class="link" href="../perf.html" title="Performance">performance section</a> contains more information on the performance of this library, what you can do to fine tune it, and how this library compares to some other open source alternatives. </p> <p> </p> </div> <table xmlns:rev="http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~gregod/boost/tools/doc/revision" width="100%"><tr> <td align="left"></td> <td align="right"><div class="copyright-footer">Copyright © 2006 , 2007, 2008, 2009 John Maddock, Paul A. Bristow, Hubert Holin, Xiaogang Zhang, Bruno Lalande, Johan Råde, Gautam Sewani and Thijs van den Berg<p> Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at <a href="http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt" target="_top">http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>) </p> </div></td> </tr></table> <hr> <div class="spirit-nav"> <a accesskey="p" href="../perf.html"><img src="../../../../../../../doc/src/images/prev.png" alt="Prev"></a><a accesskey="u" href="../perf.html"><img src="../../../../../../../doc/src/images/up.png" alt="Up"></a><a accesskey="h" href="../../index.html"><img src="../../../../../../../doc/src/images/home.png" alt="Home"></a><a accesskey="n" href="interp.html"><img src="../../../../../../../doc/src/images/next.png" alt="Next"></a> </div> </body> </html>