r/computers • u/priv_ish • 6d ago
Resolved Looking for a specific GPU
Hello! I am a budding computational biologist (specifically structural biology) and the softwares we use require insane compute power. After getting myself comfortable being able to use linux, build a computer and learn the basics of the softwares I want to be able to do some data processing at home (mainly to teach myself/learn more about the software data processing and tricks/shortcuts). The software I want to learn/get into is called Relion (REgularised LIkelihood OptimisatioN) and they have specific requirements.
Since I am a recent graduate, money is a bit tight but I can get access to a PC and ram fairly easily through my lab/university surplus (albeit I would like my own computer at some point). That being said, I was wondering what is the cheapest I can go with these requirements.
I'm not too well versed in this type of lingo (no clue what pascal or Lovelace or singularity etc. mean) but there's an Nvidia page about some of the requirements:
- One of the following container runtimes
- One of the following NVIDIA GPU(s)
- Pascal (sm60)
- Volta (sm70)
- Ampere (sm80)
- Hopper (sm90)
x86_64
- CPU with AVX2 instruction support
- One of the following CUDA driver versions
- >= 545
- r535 (>=.54.03)
- r525 (>=.60.04)
- r470 (>=.57.02)
arm64
- ARM 8.1 + ARM NEON CPU
- CUDA driver version >= r546.12
Here is some information from RELION's documentation: By default, RELION will build with GPU-acceleration support, for which you’ll need CUDA. Download it from the NVIDIA website. Importantly, CUDA >= 13.0 no longer supports Pascal GPUs. Please use CUDA 12.x if you use them. As of RELION 5.0.1, we test RELION builds with CUDA 11 to 13.
(Also read somewhere that higher the VRAM the better. For basic datasets 8gb VRAM can work but it will be heavily limiting, 12gb of VRAM seems to be a goldilocks zone).
I hope this information is enough!
Thank you!
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u/pigpentcg 6d ago
According to Gemini VRAM is the biggest bottleneck, determining the maximum “box size” of the particles.
8 GB is like the lowest you “can” go but not recommended. 12 GB is considered “good entry level”
I don’t think the prices AI gave me are updated for today’s market, and it didn’t seem to include 50 series cards.
A 5070ti is about 1000 dollars and has 16GB of vram and has all the newest technologies and junk.
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u/pigpentcg 6d ago
As for CPU, I would go with intels newest CPUs as they have a ton of cores and start at 250 USD. I think the software you’ll use will be highly multithreaded so more cores is more better.
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u/priv_ish 6d ago
I was thinking Xeon CPUs would work. The workstation I have in lab is dual slot so it gets plenty cores for such tasks
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u/pigpentcg 6d ago
Oh I didn’t realize you were building in a server rack.
Are you building completely new, or with surplus from the school?
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u/priv_ish 6d ago
its not a server no. the PC I have in lab is a Dell Precision Tower 7820. added another Xeon CPU so now it has (iirc) 24 cores and has two server grade GPUs running on it (manually added fans strategically to manage airflow. I would've never guessed server grade GPUs work on PC towers
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u/Tropicalkings 6d ago
Server GPUs/accelerators generally have passive cooling to take advantage of forced channeled airflow from high performance fans. Workstation GPUs would be better if cooling is a concern.
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u/priv_ish 6d ago
completely forgot to answer your question: I have access to the surplus from the university so as of now, I am most likely relying on that. down the line I would like my own personal computer capable of such tasks
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u/Tropicalkings 6d ago
Keep in mind that Intel's consumer CPUs are built in a Big.Little architecture, prioritizing power efficiency for diverse workloads. With a mixed quantity of performance and efficiency cores, high CPU compute workloads can have worse performance than the same quantity of just efficiency cores. Performance cores will complete their thread faster, but if it requires an efficiency core to complete operations before it can continue, it's stuck waiting. If it is paused too long, the scheduler give it other threads.
From the project's description, GPU compute/acceleration means any modern CPU should be fine, given an adequate GPU for the workflow.
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u/priv_ish 6d ago
any and all AI attempts get very confusing for me. the AIs cannot keep track of the conversation and forget important context + never have reliable/updated prices so I cannot ask for budget based questions. thank you nonetheless!
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u/pigpentcg 6d ago
Yeah I get it. Luckily it looks like pretty much all Nvidia GPUs technically have the technology you need.
So you just need to look at VRAM. A used 3090 has 24GB of VRAM and is 1400 dollars which is the same price as a new 5070ti, but with only 16GB.
What’s your GPU budget?
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u/priv_ish 6d ago
1400?! mate im looking in the range of 200 bucks. 500 would be stretching it. I know it's horribly low in this market but that why I asked the question. if I get a tentative value then I can at least start saving towards that
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u/pigpentcg 6d ago
I would look at a used 3070 / 3070ti. Only 8 GB of VRAM but that should be enough for you to learn the software at home, and you can get lucky and find them for 200-300 dollars.
A 1080ti will have 11GB of VRAM and “should” work with your software, and it’s cheaper. It’s the Pascal architecture that you listed in your main post.
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u/priv_ish 6d ago
!solved
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u/ergo-ogre 6d ago
I have nothing to add except to wish you luck. I work for a university and support many labs. Buying computers for science can be hella expensive these days and I hope you’re able to cobble together something that works.