Out of memory: Have to restart matlab

Hello,

Is there something besides 'pack ' and 'clear' to avoid having to restart matlab when working with large files (~500 MB) on a 4GB memory (Macbook Air) laptop?

Thanks, S

[Walter Roberson]

Note: If you use large arrays in MS Windows, then memory fragmentation will eventually require you to restart to get an array of maximum size.

I do not know the situation for OS-X.

I have never encountered this kind of situation on MATLAB for 64 bit Linux.

[Ryan G]

In windows there is the memory shield option

http://www.mathworks.com/help/techdoc/ref/matlabwindows.html

(search shieldoption)

Unfortunately I was not able to find a mac equivalent but this might help you find something.

Answer 1

[Ken Atwell]

Are you using a new-ish version of (64-bit) MATLAB on your Mac, or and older 32-bit version? I ask because 64-bit addressing should go a very long way to avoiding out-of-memory errors due to fragmentation.

Can you tell us what version of MATLAB you are using, and be more specific about the problems you are encountering that force you to restart MATLAB?

[susan]

Hi I am running 7.5 (R2007b).

I am working with large files and making large arrays. Problem is that even though I clear these variables as I move on (after saving them), I get the out of memory problem. However, if I save them and then restart matlab, I can reload them and work with them..

[Ken Atwell]

Thanks for the clarification. R2007b was a 32-bit release, and fragmentation over time is inevitable. If you have the means to migrate to newer 64-bit version (10b and later are only available in 64-bit form), I believe you will have a much better experience.

If you must remain on 32-bit MATLAB, Ryan's suggestions are probably the best you can do.

[Walter Roberson]

The MacBook Air with 4Gb was not released until 2011. The supported operating systems for that generation of MacBook Air are Lion and Mountain Lion. R2007b is, however, not supported on either of those: the earliest version supported on Lion is R2009a.

The hardware and software combination being used is thus not supported.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Air#Specifications

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1159

Answer 2

[Ryan G]

You can try utilizing

clear all; clear mex; clear functions;

to dig a little deeper while clearing but my guess is this would still eventually lead you OOM with no out.