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Hardware Requirements

DesignBuilder is a professional graphics application and requires a high standard of computer hardware for successful use.  This page contains information on the minimum system requirements and also the recommended specification. The main areas you should pay attention to if you are buying or upgrading your computer system to run DesignBuilder are:

• Graphics adapter - a good 100% OpenGL compatible graphics adapter is required to run DesignBuilder. Most of the cards based on the Radeon chipset seem to work very well (provided they have the latest drivers installed) and we have had no problem with the mid-range and better NVIDIA cards.  Some graphics adapters integrated with the motherboard we have tested are unable to run DesignBuilder. See also note below on Windows Vista.

• Memory - DesignBuilder will use all the memory you can throw at it - at least 2 GB is recommended for serious modelling or more if you are running under Windows Vista which itself uses 1 GB.
• CPU speed - get as fast as you can afford.
• Cores - having more than one processor core does not necessarily speed up simulations in DesignBuilder version 1 but it does allow you to continue using your computer while simulations are running. Dual core processors also make the software more responsive in use.

Minimum Requirements

• Vista, XP or Windows 2000 running on   
• 1000 MHz processor
• 800x600 pixel screen
• 1 GB RAM
• 200 MB free disk space
• Pointing device
• 100% OpenGL compatible 3D graphics adapter with hardware acceleration running in 32-bit color mode

The above specification will allow you to successfully model small buildings using DesignBuilder but we recommend a more powerful computer for best results especially when working with larger building models.

Recommended

• Windows XP SP2
• 2.4 dual core processor or faster. Dual Core processors are recommended as they allow you to continue using your computer while simulations are carried out.
• 2 GB (or more) RAM.  
• 5 GB free disk space
• Pointing device
• 100% OpenGL compatible 3D graphics adapter with hardware acceleration running in 32-bit color mode
• 1280x1024 pixels or larger screens for efficiency during the modelling process and for displaying high-quality visualisation images and walk-throughs of DesignBuilder models and CFD results. DesignBuilder works well with wide screens.

Windows Vista

Advice from the developers: May 08, DesignBuilder works under Windows Vista, but we cannot wholeheartedly recommend it because many of the early graphics adapter drivers written for Vista still have bugs. If you do plan to purchase a computer with Windows Vista installed we recommend choosing an NVIDIA graphics adapter as these, in our experience, have more reliable drivers where new operating systems are released.

Graphics Card Settings

Many graphics cards allow you to customise driver settings.  The example screenshot below is for an NVIDIA card showing recommended settings.  Note antialiasing, anisotropic filtering and unified back/depth buffer have been changed from default settings to provide hardware accelerated optimal visualisations. The antialiasing option provides sharp lines without slowing program operation and unified back/depth buffer gives best results for dragging selection rectangles on some graphics cards allowing double buffering to be used for cursor dynamics.