Poor performance on Ubuntu w/ discrete graphics vs basic b laptop
I'm looking for trouble shooting tips on poor graphics performance on linux. I have read through the FAQ's and done a basic search of the chimera list. Observed: Symptom: Prohibitively slow rendering when just rotating a map, especially if a model is loaded as well. When using Isolde (and presumably anything with clipper) performance is more "normal" as only a small portion of the map is displayed. System: This is observed on Ubuntu distros (both 20.04 22.04) with their respective Chimerax packages, tested versions 1.6.1 and 1.9. Nvidia drivers installed via the cuda toolkit (535.183.01 CUDA Version: 12.2 ) GPUs are either rtx 3090 or 4090s Point of reference: Performance is compared to my relatively very underpowered Windows thinkpad w/o discreet graphics. Thanks for any pointers to resources! Ben Sent with [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/mail/home) secure email.
I assume you rebooted after installing the graphics driver. You can confirm that ChimeraX is using the Nvidia driver by starting ChimeraX and bringing the Report a Bug dialog (in the Help menu), and looking at the OpenGL information is the Gathered Information text box. The top three lines are about OpenGL. For example:
OpenGL version: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 572.70
OpenGL renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970/PCIe/SSE2
OpenGL vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
If any of those lines don't have NVIDIA in them, then you haven't completely installed the Nvidia driver, or you're trying to run ChimeraX remotely, which is unsupported because of all of the ways it can wrong (it can work). HTH, Greg On 3/19/2025 9:55 AM, ben via ChimeraX-users wrote:
I'm looking for trouble shooting tips on poor graphics performance on linux.
I have read through the FAQ's and done a basic search of the chimera list.
*Observed:* * * /Symptom:/ / / Prohibitively slow rendering when just rotating a map, especially if a model is loaded as well. When using Isolde (and presumably anything with clipper) performance is more "normal" as only a small portion of the map is displayed.
/System:/ / / This is observed on Ubuntu distros (both 20.04 22.04) with their respective Chimerax packages, tested versions 1.6.1 and 1.9.
Nvidia drivers installed via the cuda toolkit (535.183.01 CUDA Version: 12.2 )
GPUs are either rtx 3090 or 4090s
/Point of reference:/ / / Performance is compared to my relatively very underpowered Windows thinkpad w/o discreet graphics.
Thanks for any pointers to resources!
Ben
Sent with Proton Mail <https://proton.me/mail/home> secure email.
_______________________________________________ ChimeraX-users mailing list --chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu To unsubscribe send an email tochimerax-users-leave@cgl.ucsf.edu Archives:https://mail.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/archives/list/chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu/
Hi Greg, That's very helpful info, thank you. The debug line shows Chimerax is using the opengl via mesa drivers. I suspect this has something to do with remote access via a NoMachine virtual desktop to these servers rather than an incompletely installed cuda driver. I tried to purge those, but when re-installing chimerax (sudo apt install ./ucsf-chimerax_1.9ubuntu20.04_amd64.deb ) the openmesa drivers were installed as a dependency I checked my install scripts for cuda and I at least do not specify the --no-opengl-libs. I'll poke around a bit more and see if I can figure anything else out. Cheers, Ben Sent with [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/mail/home) secure email. On Wednesday, March 19th, 2025 at 1:21 PM, Greg Couch <gregc@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
I assume you rebooted after installing the graphics driver.
You can confirm that ChimeraX is using the Nvidia driver by starting ChimeraX and bringing the Report a Bug dialog (in the Help menu), and looking at the OpenGL information is the Gathered Information text box. The top three lines are about OpenGL. For example:
OpenGL version: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 572.70
OpenGL renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970/PCIe/SSE2
OpenGL vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
If any of those lines don't have NVIDIA in them, then you haven't completely installed the Nvidia driver, or you're trying to run ChimeraX remotely, which is unsupported because of all of the ways it can wrong (it can work).
HTH,
Greg
On 3/19/2025 9:55 AM, ben via ChimeraX-users wrote:
I'm looking for trouble shooting tips on poor graphics performance on linux.
I have read through the FAQ's and done a basic search of the chimera list.
Observed:
Symptom:
Prohibitively slow rendering when just rotating a map, especially if a model is loaded as well. When using Isolde (and presumably anything with clipper) performance is more "normal" as only a small portion of the map is displayed.
System:
This is observed on Ubuntu distros (both 20.04 22.04) with their respective Chimerax packages, tested versions 1.6.1 and 1.9.
Nvidia drivers installed via the cuda toolkit (535.183.01 CUDA Version: 12.2 )
GPUs are either rtx 3090 or 4090s
Point of reference:
Performance is compared to my relatively very underpowered Windows thinkpad w/o discreet graphics.
Thanks for any pointers to resources!
Ben
Sent with [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/mail/home) secure email.
_______________________________________________ ChimeraX-users mailing list -- chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu To unsubscribe send an email to chimerax-users-leave@cgl.ucsf.edu Archives: https://mail.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/archives/list/chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu/
Try running ChimeraX directly on the desktop. If you have the Nvidia driver installed correctly, that same test will show that. As for using NoMachine, that is unsupported. Remote display messes things up. That said, if you get VirtualGL working with NoMachine, the performance can be acceptable. But you'll need to work with NoMachine if there are any problems. Good luck, Greg On 3/19/2025 10:57 AM, ben wrote:
Hi Greg,
That's very helpful info, thank you.
The debug line shows Chimerax is using the opengl via mesa drivers. I suspect this has something to do with remote access via a NoMachine virtual desktop to these servers rather than an incompletely installed cuda driver.
I tried to purge those, but when re-installing chimerax (sudo apt install ./ucsf-chimerax_1.9ubuntu20.04_amd64.deb ) the openmesa drivers were installed as a dependency
I checked my install scripts for cuda and I at least do not specify the --no-opengl-libs.
I'll poke around a bit more and see if I can figure anything else out.
Cheers, Ben
Sent with Proton Mail <https://proton.me/mail/home> secure email.
On Wednesday, March 19th, 2025 at 1:21 PM, Greg Couch <gregc@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
I assume you rebooted after installing the graphics driver.
You can confirm that ChimeraX is using the Nvidia driver by starting ChimeraX and bringing the Report a Bug dialog (in the Help menu), and looking at the OpenGL information is the Gathered Information text box. The top three lines are about OpenGL. For example:
OpenGL version: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 572.70
OpenGL renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970/PCIe/SSE2
OpenGL vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
If any of those lines don't have NVIDIA in them, then you haven't completely installed the Nvidia driver, or you're trying to run ChimeraX remotely, which is unsupported because of all of the ways it can wrong (it can work).
HTH,
Greg
On 3/19/2025 9:55 AM, ben via ChimeraX-users wrote:
I'm looking for trouble shooting tips on poor graphics performance on linux.
I have read through the FAQ's and done a basic search of the chimera list.
*Observed:* * * /Symptom:/ / / Prohibitively slow rendering when just rotating a map, especially if a model is loaded as well. When using Isolde (and presumably anything with clipper) performance is more "normal" as only a small portion of the map is displayed.
/System:/ / / This is observed on Ubuntu distros (both 20.04 22.04) with their respective Chimerax packages, tested versions 1.6.1 and 1.9.
Nvidia drivers installed via the cuda toolkit (535.183.01 CUDA Version: 12.2 )
GPUs are either rtx 3090 or 4090s
/Point of reference:/ / / Performance is compared to my relatively very underpowered Windows thinkpad w/o discreet graphics.
Thanks for any pointers to resources!
Ben
Sent with Proton Mail <https://proton.me/mail/home> secure email.
_______________________________________________ ChimeraX-users mailing list --chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu To unsubscribe send an email tochimerax-users-leave@cgl.ucsf.edu Archives:https://mail.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/archives/list/chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu/
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