SOLIDWORKS requirements laptop

What are the minimum computer requirements for SolidWorks?

• A processor of 3.3Ghz or higher
• A 500Gb or larger Hard Drive Disk [HDD]
• At least 16Gb of RAM
• A quality Graphics Card by NVIDIA or AMD
• The latest operating system to future-proof your SolidWorks purchase

Now, lets look at each of these components in detail.

Get the fastest processor you can afford

You will need a fast Processor 3.3 Ghz or higher. You can have a slower processor, but SolidWorks might work too slowly and freeze. The faster the processor is, the more responsive SolidWorks will be. Most of computers and especially laptops nowadays come with multiple cores. The multi-core processor has several processing units [cores] where each of them reads and executes program isntructions.

For SolidWorks 2020 we recommend Intels i9 or Xeon 8-core processors.

Multi-core processor and SolidWorks

SolidWorks runs best on a fast single core processor. The reason behind this is that most of Mechanical Computer Aided Design [MCAD] software is single-threaded. SolidWorks specifies that Finite Element Analysis [FEA] in SolidWorks Simulation may benefit from multiple cores, however, they do not advise to use more than 8 cores. This is due to the fact that the cores have to communicate with each other to complete the task, which can slow things down. SolidWorks does not benefit from hyperthreading.

RAM for SolidWorks

Second consideration for doing SolidWorks graphic modelling is RAM [Random Access Memory] or main memory. In terms of RAM, you will need at least 16Gb. The larger the models you work on, the more memory the computer needs to keep things moving. In fact, you can forget about 8Gb as it will definately not be sufficient. We recommend you go for 32Gb or RAM or more for optimum performance.

SolidWorks Graphics cards

Additionally, you will need a professional level Graphics card [GPU], such as, ideally, NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 to RTX 5000. Heres a list of some of the suitable cards as of 2020:

Radeon Pro WX 9100	Quadro P1000
Radeon Pro WX 8200	Quadro P2000
Radeon Pro WX 7130	Quadro P3000
Radeon Pro WX 7100	Quadro P3200
Radeon Pro WX 5100	Quadro P4000
Radeon Pro WX 4170	Quadro P4200
Radeon Pro WX2100	Quadro P420
Radeon Pro WX3100	Quadro P5000
Radeon Pro W41xx	Quadro P5200
Quadro M6000	Quadro P520
Quadro M600M	Quadro P6000
Quadro M620	Quadro P6200
Quadro T1000	Quadro P620
Quadro T2000	Quadro RTX3000
Quadro M2200	Quadro RTX4000
Quadro M4000	Quadro RTX5000
Quadro M5000	Quadro RTX6000/ RTX8000

See more detailed Graphics card information by vendor on Solidworks website.

Hard drive requirements for SolidWorks

Solid State Drives [SSDs] are strongly recommended due to their excellent system responsiveness, faster boot times, and silent operation. They are also less power hungry than the traditional hard drives. We recommend at least 500Gb SSD, but if budget allows go for 1Tb+. One of the main advantages of SSD is that it does not have any moving parts as opposed to the traditional drive.

If you are on a tight budget, the traditional Hard Disk Drive [HDD] will work just fine, but do go for the faster RPM [revolutions per minute] drive: choose 7,200 RPM drive over the 5,400 RPM one.

Your computer will need to process information quickly in order to ensure good SolidWorks performance, so the difference in speed will have a substantial effect. The 7,200 RMP drive processes roughly 150Mb per second, while the 5,400 RPM drive only 100Mb per second.

Just to put things into perspective, the average SSD delivers around 1.2Gb-1.4Gb speed per second, while the top performing SSDs can achieve processing speeds of over 2Gb per second.

Operating system requirements for SolidWorks

It is always advisable to go for the latest OS as otherwise you will end up with no updates of support in a year or two. Currently, you can run SolidWorks 2018, 2019 and 2020 on Windows 10, 64-bit, we recommend you go for it to future-proof your purchase.

Would you like to run SolidWorks on a Mac computer? SolidWorks does not run on Mac OS, so you will need to use Boot Camp or Parallels to install Windows before you can use it.

Software requirements for SolidWorks

MS Word and Excel: 2013, 2016, 2019 64-bit versions for Solidworks 2020.

Best laptops for SolidWorks

If you are thinking of buying a laptop, you should budget for $2,000 or £2,000 at least. The benefits of owning a laptop are well known: you can take it on business trips, to clients premises, or take it home [this is especially useful in the times of COVID]. Its easy to attach to a large monitor and an external wired or wireless keyboard. The easiest way to manage all the wires is to get a thunderbolt dock.

Here is the list of vendors that produce SolidWorks-suitable laptops:

• HP
• Lenovo
• Dell
• Fujitsu
• MSI
• Panasonic
• Clevo [laptops]
• BOXX