System requirements for version 25
Check the minimal and recommended system configurations when using the latest version of FEM-Design.
| Minimal configuration | Recommended configuration | |
|---|---|---|
| System | Windows 10 (version 1703 if using web-based license system) Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.2 runtime | Windows 10 or 11 (with latest updates) Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8.1 runtime |
| RAM | 4 GB | 32 GB |
| CPU | Intel Core 4th gen. supporting AVX2 | Intel or Ryzen with 6 or 8 real cores. "threads" and "E-cores" don't help. |
| Free disk space | 40 GB | 500 GB |
| Monitor | 1280x800 resolution | 1920x1080 resolution |
| Video card | OpenGL 3.3 or DirectX 11 compatible video card | OpenGL 4.6 or DirectX 11 compatible video card |
| Other | SSD (Solid-state drive) |
The program generates several Gbytes of result files. Using HDD instead of SSD results in massive degradation of performance.
Some parts of the program use all the CPU cores, so having more of them improves overall performance. The parts that are not parallelized benefit from higher CPU and RAM clock speeds (single-core benchmark score). The program mostly does floating point calculations that require fully functional core. "Hyperthreading" adds to the OS-reported core count, but duplicates only a small part, not what the program requires, so their presence can even make the execution slower.
At this point we have limited experience with the new Intel hybrid model. If you have such CPU, we recommend using Windows 11 that at least has chance for better load balancing. But even with that, the E- cores may actually decrease performance instead of increasing it.
We have reports of graphical issues (crashes, incorrect shading etc.) from notebook graphic cards with NVIDIA's Ada architecture (e.g. RTX 1000 Ada, RTX 3500 Ada). This is likely caused by a bug in the driver software and not in FEM-Design. It might also affect other 3D software on your computer. If you have such a card and see graphical issues, please try running FEM-Design on the integrated graphics card. You can also try turning "Threaded optimization" off in NVIDIA Control Panel.