VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Thu Apr 18 2019 - 22:11:31 CDT

Hi,
  The use of an eGPU for high performance graphics should be completely
independent of the application code itself. If you have an eGPU on your
system and VMD doesn't see it, this is a function of the OpenGL driver
on the Mac, as there are no programming interfaces OpenGL for selection
of back-end rendering hardware to use for a given OpenGL context. This
is determined entirely by the windowing system and underlying OpenGL drivers.
I would look into MacOS X documentation to see if there's a way you can
force the use of the eGPU. One suggestion might be to try disabling the
on-board GPU when you want to use the eGPU and see what the outcome is.
If this is a laptop, then I'd suggest closing the lid on the laptop
and try running VMD from a display attached to the eGPU and see what
you get. I've heard others discuss this topic in relation to other
applications before and every OS has a different scheme to force the
use of the eGPU when launching an application (whether game, windowed
graphics app, or otherwise).

Best,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
  
On Thu, Apr 18, 2019 at 11:08:22AM -0400, Ross Gunderson wrote:
> Hi VMD users,
> I was wondering if there is a way to utilize an eGPU for VMD? I have a
> Mac, running VMD 1.9.4a12, and VMD only recognizes the GPU of the laptop.
> Thanks,
> - Ross 

-- 
NIH Center for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/           Phone: 217-244-3349
http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/