Memory limitations

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janus
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Memory limitations

Postby janus » 17 Jun 2009

At the moment I can't plot indicator lines (ie, using plotn) starting from the beginning of a chart to show say a swing indicator, and at the same time reference historical values in a data series (eg, using close[m] where m can be a large positive number). I have two choices, neither of which are completely satisfactory.

One, is to use trend lines via the TL_New functions instead of indicator lines via plotn. Two, on each bar I store the current value of the data series in arrays and use the arrays to reference past values, and keep using plotn.

The downside of using trend lines is they are resource hungry and consume a lot of memory, as well as CPU when scrolling, especially when the number of trends reach into the 100's of 1000's. When I had too many trend lines the screen freezes for many seconds. At one stage MC completely crashed on me. I also can't change the line style and color on the chart as the "indicator" is made up of too many line segments to do so.

The downside of using arrays with the second method is they effectively duplicate the data series and end up consuming a lot of memory. However, at least I can use plotn satisfactorily.

My preference at the moment is to use the second method since plotn is a far more efficient way of displaying an indicator. The problem I encounter using either method is I can easily run out of memory. Is there a way to increase how much memory MC can use? Often MC aborts with the "out of memory" error even when there's about 1 GB of free memory. This makes me think the program is too restrictive in the amount of memory it can use. Surely, there must be a way to increase this limit. Any ideas?

Before someones suggest it, I can't separate the study into two different ones as they share too many computations. I suppose I could use global variables but that would slow down the studies considerably. It already takes several minutes to run as it is. I shouldn't have to resort to such tactics anyway if I just get around the "out of memory" issue. After all, I do have plenty of free physical memory. Even so, we are using a virtual memory operating system so we should be able to go beyond the physical limit, although it will not be advisable as it would be a significant performance hit.

Any other ideas?

tcat
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Memory limitations?

Postby tcat » 12 Nov 2009

I am also facing memory limitations from MC. I'm running Windows 7 64bits, CPU is a Q9450 and I currently have 5gig memory. MC seems to saturate memory allocation to 3.67 Gig with error msg and graph display turning weird. I still have about 1.3 Gig memory left to be used though.

Is MC limiting the amount of memory it can use?

Thierry

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Postby geektrader » 12 Nov 2009

MC is still a 32bit application (even if you run it on a 64bit system, I do as well) it can only use max of around 3,5gig of memory since that´s the limit of 32bit allocatable address-space.

Hence I hope for a 64bit version of MC as well as it would remove those memory-limits for real complex indicators and long charts.

Currently there is no way around though in 32bit.

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pivot
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Postby pivot » 13 Dec 2009

Yes I long for the day of a 64bit version I am new to MC and just realized that when I want to test 10 years of 1min data it can't load all the data it stops at 11/2006 when my data goes back to 1999. I too run a 64bit XP with 8gb ram and Quad CPUs and I see it max out at 3.5gbs too.... And I am told that MC only ever runs at 1gb. bring on the next generation! Mind you I can't complain when I run Optimizations it does rock because it can use the multi-core processors efficiently unlike its cousin.... :wink: can't wait to see a 64bit Opimization! :wink: :wink:

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TJ
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Postby TJ » 13 Dec 2009

pls see this thread:

Maximum Number of Bars that can be Loaded
http://forum.tssupport.com/viewtopic.php?p=13656

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pivot
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Postby pivot » 13 Dec 2009

8) thanks TJ just udated the registry to 16million bars instead of 1million.

You solved that so how about the 64 bit question.... :lol:

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TJ
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Postby TJ » 13 Dec 2009

8) thanks TJ just udated the registry to 16million bars instead of 1million.

You solved that so how about the 64 bit question.... :lol:

10 years of 1 min bar is about 1 million bars...

you have a long way to go before you run out of bits.



This is not to say 64 bit is not needed,
64 bit is inevitable,
but I haven't seen anybody ran out of room in 32 bits yet.

The most famous and demanding MultiCharts user is Bill.
He runs 28 huge workspaces with dual datastreams in each workspace.
He does all these with 4 instances of MultiCharts...
and fits everything into the confines of 4 GB of Ram.


32 bits is at the end of life... but it is no where near death yet.

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TJ
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Postby TJ » 13 Dec 2009

8) thanks TJ just udated the registry to 16million bars instead of 1million...
:lol:

don't over do it now...

the OS might be reserving the memory,
making your available memory smaller for other applications.


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