Hi Tommi, That is true, but it is also the most extreme comparison possible. A crude estimate of the ranking of drivers would be:
NVIDIA > Intel (these are open source by default) > AMD > radeon (open source amd) > Nouveau (open source nvidia) While both NVIDIA and AMD hardware are of similar speed (trying to avoid flame war), both are faster than the Intel hardware. But with the open source modern intel drivers (i.e. near current mesa (I think we are at 10.3)). On any of the recent Intel hardware you should have more than enough gpu ooomph for freeview. (as an example. You can try it out on a friend's macbook air. The current intel linux drivers are faster than the mac drivers and freeview runs great on a macbook air). HTH, D On Thu, Sep 4, 2014 at 4:09 PM, <r...@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu> wrote: > > Hi Dan, > > Thanks. While I agree that all kinds of GPUs might be sufficient as far as > the hardware and FS computations go, the drivers in fact make a major > difference for visualizations. For my card the proprietary NVIDIA drivers > turned out to be 10-20 times faster than the CentOS 6.5 Noveau drivers. > For example freeview with a couple of layers and little bit of 3D > rendering is unusable with the Noeveau drivers and works like a charm with > the NVIDIA drivers - the difference is really like day and night. > > Cheers, > > Tommi > >> Just to add. If you are not using the CUDA options (which in my >> understanding aren't being updated anyway), I find that the gpu >> included in modern Intel cpus is more than sufficient for my >> FreeSurfer and MNE uses. >> >> >> HTH >> D >> >> On Fri, Aug 22, 2014 at 4:15 PM, Z K <zkauf...@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu> wrote: >>> Tommi, >>> >>> Here at the Martinos Center we use the proprietary drivers from NVIDIA. >>> We have no reasons to believe the Nouveau drivers would work better, but >>> that isnt to say one doesnt exist. >>> >>> -Zeke >>> >>> On 08/22/2014 03:23 PM, r...@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu wrote: >>>> >>>> Hi, >>>> >>>> Is there a FreeSurfer/MNE (maybe even FSL, TrackVis) recommendation to >>>> use >>>> the "noveau" drivers that come with CentOS 6.5 or would it be better to >>>> go >>>> with the proprietary drivers from NVIDIA? >>>> >>>> I would imagine that since FS 5.3 does not use GPU for analysis, this >>>> is >>>> mainly relevant for visualization (freeview etc) requiring 3D rendering >>>> of >>>> volumes, surfaces, and tractography results simultaneously. >>>> >>>> In case it matters, Dell Precision T7500 + NVIDIA Quadra FX 5800 here. >>>> >>>> Thanks! >>>> >>>> Tommi >>>> >>>> --- >>>> Tommi Raij, MD, PhD >>>> >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Freesurfer mailing list >>>> Freesurfer@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu >>>> https://mail.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/freesurfer >>>> >>>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Freesurfer mailing list >>> Freesurfer@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu >>> https://mail.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/freesurfer >>> >>> >>> The information in this e-mail is intended only for the person to whom >>> it is >>> addressed. If you believe this e-mail was sent to you in error and the >>> e-mail >>> contains patient information, please contact the Partners Compliance >>> HelpLine at >>> http://www.partners.org/complianceline . If the e-mail was sent to you >>> in error >>> but does not contain patient information, please contact the sender and >>> properly >>> dispose of the e-mail. >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> Freesurfer mailing list >> Freesurfer@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu >> https://mail.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/freesurfer >> >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Freesurfer mailing list > Freesurfer@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu > https://mail.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/freesurfer _______________________________________________ Freesurfer mailing list Freesurfer@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu https://mail.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/freesurfer