David, As long as you run Windows XP and not Vista, most modern "shared-memory" GPU systems should have sufficient performance for PyMOL. If you're thinking of new systems, it is no secret that I unabashedly favor and recommend the Windows-&-Linux-capable PC laptops made by that consumer-products company based out of Cupertino. The GMA950 is a fine mid-range solution -- but be sure to upgrade to 2 GB of RAM so that you can dedicate 1G to virtualized operating system instances. Cheers, Warren
_____ From: pymol-users-boun...@lists.sourceforge.net [mailto:pymol-users-boun...@lists.sourceforge.net] On Behalf Of David A. Horita Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 8:53 AM To: pymol-users@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [PyMOL] low-end graphics cards/laptops Hi, While I've seen a number of examples of good graphics cards to use with Pymol, I'd like some feedback on what an acceptable low-end is for a Windows laptop computer. Specifically, is the Intel GMA950 completely useless or just not very good. Likewise, does the X3100 help (this seems to be weak on driver support)? My current system uses an ATI Mobility Radeon 9200, which is a few years old and not a high-end gaming/workstation card, but lets me spin a molecular cartoon or surface of a ~300 residue protein without any problems (if the 950 or X3100 equal this level, I'll be satisfied). Many of the current crop of <5 lb notebooks use integrated graphics for price and battery life. If these units don't provide sufficient graphics power for Pymol/VMD/Deepview, the useful market shrinks substantially. Thanks, David ----------------------------- David A. Horita, Ph.D. Department of Biochemistry Wake Forest University School of Medicine Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1016 Tel: 336 713-4194 Fax: 336 716-7671 email: dhor...@wfubmc.edu web: http://www1.wfubmc.edu/biochem/faculty/Horita.htm <http://www1.wfubmc.edu/biochem/faculty/Horita.htm/>
