The system specs listed are very low
— in the Windows realm, they don’t even mention Windows 7 or 8
(although I am sure that those would probably be fine since they are successors
to XP & Vista). They also mention a Pentium 4 processor with 512 MB RAM
— a processor that was common from 2000 to 2008. Most systems now are
Core i5 or Core i7, and even low-end systems have at least 1 or 2 GB of RAM, so
512 MB RAM is a very low requirement. In the Mac realm, the G4 processor (minimum requirement) is 10-15 years
old, and predates the intel Macs. OS X 10.3 is also very low — their up
to 10.10 (Yosemite) now (having left the era of the “big cats”
behind several versions ago). And even my iPhone has more RAM than the 512 MB
minimum requirement they specify. From my own experience with molecular dynamics simulations, I do think
that a discrete graphics card will be an advantage, however. And as a Mac user,
I may disagree with the statement that, “Macintosh computers often come
with sufficient graphics processing power, so no additional card is
necessary.” In fact, the higher end MacBook Pros do come with quite
powerful nVidia or AMD graphics boards (the new ones have intel graphics as
well, which they use for light tasks such as word processing, and switching into
the higher discrete graphics for gaming or graphics visualization as needed). I
have had students working with the FoldIt protein folding game using low-end
Macs without discrete graphics cards that have not been able to complete the
introductory levels of the game, as their computer crashed for not enough power
(but these students also had low amounts of RAM as well). Intel-based graphics has also come a long way, too.
And an intel-based graphics with sufficient system RAM (say at least 8-16 GB)
should be able to perform at least comparatively to some of the earlier discrete
graphics boards from several years ago (such as the nVidia Geforce Ti4600
mentioned). But if you have 4 or less GB of system RAM, you could have
problems. I think if
you’re uncertain whether your system meets the minimum requirements, the
best approach would be to contact the workshop organizers and send them your
system specs and ask them directly what their recommendation is. After all, they
should be familiar with everything that they are planning to conduct, and would
be most knowledgeable in finding out where your system falls short. Derek J. Cashman, Ph.D.
derek.cashman-.-gmail.com "A drug is any substance which, when injected into a rat, produces a publishable, scientific paper." |