Before You Start

• This article assumes you intend to use the latest version of GeoStudio available.
• Generally, these recommendations apply to any version of GeoStudio.

GeoStudio Minimum System Requirements

• Internet Connection
  • For the Subscription Entitlement Service (SES) Licensing used in all GeoStudio software, an internet connection is required.

• For 2D analyses:
  • Operating System: Windows 11, Windows 10
    • Installers require the latest Visual C++ Redistributable runtime libraries installed
  • Processor: Intel Pentium 4 or better, or AMD Opteron or Athlon 64 or better (GeoStudio is optimized for multi-core Intel processors.)
  • System Memory: 4GB RAM
  • Storage: 64 GB hard disk space 
  • Display: 1024x768 screen resolution
  • Graphics Requirements: NVIDIA® GT 300, ATI® Radeon® HD 4000 Series, Intel® HD Graphics 3000/2000.

• For 3D analyses:
  • Operating System: Windows 11, Windows 10
    • Installers require the latest Visual C++ Redistributable runtime libraries installed
  • Processor: Intel i5 or better (GeoStudio is optimized for multi-core Intel processors.)
  • System Memory: 8GB RAM
  • Storage: 256 GB hard disk space 
  • Display: Full HD
  • Graphics Requirements: 2GB VRAM / DirectX 10+ support, e.g. NVIDIA GeForce, AMD Radeon
    • For 3D features, your graphics card must support Direct3D® Feature Level 10_1 or greater.

Note: as GeoStudio is updated, the requirements on this page will be updated as necessary.

GeoStudio Recommended System Requirements

• For 2D analyses:
  • Operating System: Windows 10 x64 or higher
  • Processor: Intel® i5, i7, i9, AMD Ryzen
  • System Memory: 16GB RAM
  • Storage: 500GB
  • Display: Full HD
  • Graphics Requirements: 2GB VRAM / DirectX 10+ support, e.g. NVIDIA GeForce, AMD Radeon

• For 3D analyses:
  • Operating System: Windows 10 x64 or higher
  • Processor: Intel® i7, i9, AMD Ryzen
  • System Memory: 16GB RAM or more
  • Storage: 500GB
  • Display: Full HD or higher
  • Graphics Requirements: NVIDIA GTX 16 series, NVIDIA RTX 20 series with 4GB memory or better

System Considerations for Optimal Performance

When purchasing or upgrading a PC or considering where to install GeoStudio, consider the following:

• Multi-core processor:
  • SLOPE/W, the GeoStudio “flow products” (SEEP/W, TEMP/W, AIR/W, and CTRAN/W), and SIGMA/W are formulated to take advantage of every thread available.  
  • All else being equal, more cores (or threads) will equal faster solve times.
  • It isn’t quite linear: solve time will not be halved by doubling the number of threads, but this is where the most improvement can be seen.
  • It's generally worthwhile having at least 4-6 cores.
• Clock speed:
  • Doubling the clock speed will result in halving the solve time.
• Hard drive:
  • The GeoStudio solvers write a lot of data to disk while solving, and a lot of data is read from disk while viewing results.
  • Fast disk access will result in:
    • Faster solve times.
    • Optimal response time when viewing of results:
      • Contouring.
      • Graphing.
      • Viewing results across multiple time steps or analyses.
    • A Solid State drive (SSD) will provide the best performance.
    • Working across a network drive may negatively impact performance if the network connection speed is slow.
• RAM:
  • Memory usage is very project-dependent and application-dependent.
  • In general a typical 2D problem can be solved with 2-3 GB of RAM.
    A 2D problem using 4 GB of RAM and upwards is not abnormal but would be considered large.