TIMETRIAL: Speed comparison of Matlab 2020b vs Octave 6.2.0 as performed by the script TimeTrial.m 0. Conventional "for loop": Matlab 2020b elapsed time is 0.0030898 seconds. Matlab 2017b: .006 seconds. Matlab 2009 elapsed time is 1.446651 seconds. Matlab Online, R2018b Update 1: 0.003 seconds. Octave 6.2.0: 0.004385 seconds. ---------------------------------------------------------- 1. Matlab/Octave: vector/matrix notation: Matlab 2020b elapsed time is 0.0008408 seconds. Matlab 2017b: 0.0015 seconds. Matlab 2009 elapsed time is 0.004306 seconds. Matlab Online, R2018b Update 1: 0.0068 seconds. Octave 6.2.0: 0.0014789 seconds. time improvement factor for vector/matrix notation: 2.5773 ---------------------------------------------------------- 2. Random numbers Matlab 2020b elapsed time is 0.22488 seconds. Matlab 2017b: 4.7 seconds. Matlab 2009: 0.11 seconds. Matlab Online, R2018b Update 1: 0.36 seconds. Octave 6.2.0: 0.8973 seconds. ---------------------------------------------------------- 3. Comparison of types of noise Elapsed time is 1.849631 seconds. Matlab 2020b elapsed time is 1.813346 seconds. Matlab 2017b: 4.3 seconds. Matlab 2009: 6.5 seconds. Matlab Online, R2018b) Update 1): 3.996692 seconds. Octave 6.2.0: 6.7 seconds. ----------------------------------------------------------- 4. Smoothing and plotting Elapsed time is 0.0069 seconds. Matlab 2020b elapsed time is 0.0057 seconds. Matlab 2009: 0.015 seconds. Matlab 2017b Home: 0.013 seconds. Matlab Online, R2018b) Update 1): 0.011 seconds. Octave 6.2.0: 0.037 seconds. ----------------------------------------------------------- 5. Median filter Elapsed time is 0.022229 seconds. Matlab 2020b elapsed time is 0.031724 seconds. Matlab 2009: 0.04 seconds. Matlab 2017b Home: 0.043 seconds. Matlab Online, R2018b) Update 1): 0.056 seconds. Octave 6.2.0: 0.403 seconds. ----------------------------------------------------------- 6. smoothed second derivative using ProcessSignal Elapsed time is 0.016000 seconds. Matlab 2020b elapsed time is 0.018679 seconds. Matlab 2009: .03 seconds. Matlab 2017b Home: 0.03 seconds. Matlab Online, R2018b) Update 1): 0.023 seconds. Octave 6.2.0: 0.23 seconds. ----------------------------------------------------------- 7. Quantitative analysis by derivative spectroscopy Elapsed time is 0.093428 seconds. Matlab 2020b elapsed time is 0.088042 seconds. Matlab 2009: 0.06 seconds. Matlab 2017b Home: 0.2 seconds. Matlab Online, R2018b) Update 1): 0.23 seconds. Octave 6.2.0: 1.54 seconds. ----------------------------------------------------------- 8. Fourier Filter Elapsed time is 0.010701 seconds. Matlab 2020b elapsed time is 0.008563 seconds. Matlab 2009: 0.02 seconds. Matlab 2017b Home: 0.012 seconds. Matlab Online, R2018b) Update 1): 0.134 seconds. Octave 6.2.0: 0.03 seconds. ----------------------------------------------------------- 9. Polynomial least squares and plotting Elapsed time is 0.019853 seconds. Matlab 2020b elapsed time is 0.020015 seconds. Matlab 2009: 0.0067 seconds. Matlab 2017b Home: 0.03 seconds. Matlab Online, R2018b) Update 1): 0.054 seconds. Octave 6.2.0: 0.084 seconds. ----------------------------------------------------------- 10. Quadratic Least squares fit to Gaussian peak Elapsed time is 0.005542 seconds. Matlab 2020b elapsed time is 0.004623 seconds. Matlab 2009: 0.0024 seconds. Matlab 2017b Home: 0.023 seconds. Matlab Online, R2018b) Update 1): 0.024 seconds. Octave 6.2.0: 0.029 seconds. ----------------------------------------------------------- 11. Multilinear Regression Elapsed time is 0.036125 seconds. Matlab 2020b elapsed time is 0.042909 seconds. Matlab 2009: 0.015423 seconds. Matlab 2017b Home: 0.079676 seconds. Matlab Online, R2018b) Update 1): 0.1567 seconds. Octave 6.2.0: 0.16 seconds. ----------------------------------------------------------- 12 . findpeaks function on noisy synthetic data Elapsed time is 0.043177 seconds. Matlab 2020b elapsed time is 0.011349 seconds. Matlab 2009: 0.12 seconds. Matlab 2017b Home: .04 seconds. Matlab Online, R2018b) Update 1): 0.060 seconds. Octave 6.2.0: 0.1 seconds. ----------------------------------------------------------- 13. Demo Find Peak SNR Elapsed time is 0.023 seconds. Matlab 2020b elapsed time is 0.019 seconds. Matlab 2009: 0.16 seconds. Matlab 2017b Home: .05 seconds. Matlab Online, R2018b) Update 1): .045 seconds. Octave 6.2.0: .3 seconds. ----------------------------------------------------------- 14. Peakfit.m with plotting enabled Elapsed time is 0.036 seconds. Matlab 2020b elapsed time is 0.043675 seconds. Matlab 2009: 0.03 seconds. Matlab 2017b Home: 0.06 seconds. Matlab Online, R2018b) Update 1): 0.11 seconds. Octave 6.2.0: 0.34 seconds. ----------------------------------------------------------- 16. first-order least-squares fit error propagation Elapsed time is 0.025 seconds. Matlab 2020b elapsed time is 0.026 seconds. Matlab 2009: 0.574 seconds. Matlab 2017b Home: 0.4 seconds. Matlab Online, R2018b) Update 1): 0.9 seconds. Octave 6.2.0: 0.18 seconds. ----------------------------------------------------------- 17. first-order least-squares fit error propagation by the bootstrap method. Elapsed time is 0.061535 seconds. Matlab 2020b elapsed time is 0.03 seconds. Matlab 2009: 0.44 seconds. Matlab 2017b Home: 3.4 seconds. Matlab Online, R2018b) Update 1): 3.1 seconds. Octave 6.2.0: 0.182 seconds. ----------------------------------------------------------- 18. Monte Carlo comparison of full-peak iterative fit with Gaussfit method. Elapsed time is 1.284239 seconds. Matlab 2020b elapsed time is 1.764122 seconds. Matlab 2009: 7 seconds. Matlab 2017b Home: 5.6 seconds. Matlab Online, R2018b) Update 1): 4.7 seconds. Octave 6.2.0: 9.7 seconds. --------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: Comparison of elapsed time of Matlab 2020 vs Octave 6.2.0 see https://terpconnect.umd.edu/~toh/spectrum/TimeTrial.xlsx Task Matlab 2020 Octave 6.2.0 Ratio 0.0030898 0.004385 1.41918 1 0.0008408 0.0014789 1.75892 2 0.22488 0.8973 3.99012 3 1.849631 7.8 4.21705 4 0.0046 0.212 46.0869 5 0.031724 0.4771 15.0390 6 0.018679 0.242072 12.9595 7 0.088042 1.6477 18.7149 8 0.010701 0.1 9.34492 9 0.020015 0.337 16.8373 10 0.004623 0.11 23.7940 11 0.042909 0.2 4.66102 12 0.043177 0.3 6.94814 13 0.018744 0.34 18.1391 14 0.043675 0.34 7.78477 16 0.0262 0.270638 10.3296 17 0.061535 0.290768 4.72524 18 1.284239 8.86045 6.89937 Sum Sum Ratio 3.7773 22.430 5.938 CONCLUSION Matlab is faster overall but is comperable to Octave for simple tasks that do not involve plotting or dealing with very large arrays.