[chimerax-users] windows 10 GPU acceleration?

[Tom Goddard]

Hi Chuck!

  Yes ChimeraX and Chimera should both be using your laptop Nvidia 2080 GPU and not the Intel graphics.  Chimera(X) does not choose the GPU and does not even know that there is more than one -- nothing in the OpenGL graphics library gives that information.  It is up to the Windows operating system to decide what GPU used, and it usually makes the right choice.  There is in fact a flag in ChimeraX that tells Windows it should use the Nvidia GPU if available.

  You can see for certain which GPU is being used in Chimera with the command

	graphics driver

Here's what it reports in the log on my laptop

OpenGL version: 4.1 ATI-3.10.18
OpenGL renderer: AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 OpenGL Engine
OpenGL vendor: ATI Technologies Inc.

Yours should either save Nvidia or Intel in the output.  It may say Nvidia but your 2080 GPU use does not seem to get much use.  The GPU will only be used when the graphics are changing -- for instance, use the command "roll" to set the models in motion (and command "stop" to halt them).  Even when the graphics is constantly changing if your model is small and lighting mode is simple, it will probably show the GPU is hardly working.    Use "full" or "soft" lighting to get ambient shadows and that should load the GPU some ("lighting full", or "lighting soft").

  The high performance graphics mode you set in Windows should certainly make the Nvidia GPU get chosen.  

  If ChimeraX "graphics driver" says the Intel GPU is being used then something is clearly messed up.  But it must have something to do with your Windows and graphics driver configuration.  In fact are you sure you have a working Niovida graphics driver installed?  Are there any other apps you use where you see the Nvidia GPU in use?

	Tom



> On Jan 24, 2021, at 10:09 AM, Sindelar, Charles <charles.sindelar at yale.edu> wrote:
> 
> Dear Tom, Elain, Eric et al, happy new year to you and I hope all is well.
>  
> I was wondering how much GPU acceleration I can hope for with my new Dell XPS 17, for either ChimeraX or Chimera? Right now I am noticing that when I use the programs, all the graphics load goes to my integrated Intel graphics GPU, and frame rates are not impressive. The Nvidia 2080, which should be awesome, sits idling. This is on Windows 10. I tried setting the Windows “Graphics Settings” control panel for “high performance”, which should try to make Chimera(X) use the NVidia, as far as I know, but nothing happens. 
>  
> Thanks and cheers! - Chuck
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