To expand on Tom's advice, to figure out what your lab should have in it, you should collect examples of the kind of data you want to look at and test it on the computer configuration you're considering. It could be that the graphics is fine, but the CPU is too slow. But as Tom said, for much data, a current Intel CPU/graphics combination is adequate. Many AMD CPU/graphics combinations would be adequate too -- generally, for the same price, an AMD system will have better graphics and a slower CPU than an Intel system, so depending on the data, that can be a good tradeoff. Tom's Hardware has an Intel & AMD Processor Hierarchy, http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html that should help. Historically, AMD's graphics driver has been better than Intel's, which is another issue to consider.

To get an idea of what you'd need for larger system, look at the Chimera benchmarks at http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/trac/chimera/wiki/benchmarks (need more results, so everyone please run the benchmark on your setup), and check Tom's Hardware's Desktop GPU Performance Hierarchy Table, http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html to see where various graphics cards rank.

HTH,

Greg

On 02/24/2016 03:08 PM, Tom Goddard wrote:

Hi Fabian,

Intel graphics built into most computers is adequate for most uses of Chimera. If you want to manipulate molecules with a hundred thousand atoms or large density maps (512 ** 3 or larger) the rendering will be smoother with any consumer video game playing graphics card from nvidia or amd. Usually such large systems are not used in tutorials that would be presented in teaching lab. The most common trouble with graphics and Chimera is caused by old graphics drivers (> 3 years old). Update to date graphics drivers for laptops are often not available.

Tom

On Feb 24, 2016, at 7:39 AM, Fabian Technion <wrote:

Hi,

I would like to know your reccomendation for a minimal graphic card standard that will work nicely with chimera. It is for 20 PC for a teaching room.

Thanks a lot in advance,

Fabian

Dr. Fabian Glaser

Head of the Structural Bioinformatics section

Bioinformatics Knowledge Unit - BKU

The Lorry I. Lokey Interdisciplinary Center for Life Sciences and Engineering
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, ISRAEL

fglaser at technion dot ac dot il
Tel: +972 4 8293701
http://bku.technion.ac.il

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