2018

VERSION: 08 PUBLISHED: 03/08/18 REVIEW DATE: 31/07/19 OWNER: Alan Sweetenham

HARDWARE

KEYWORDS: HARDWARE, CORE, PROCESSOR, GRAPHICS, DRIVER, RAM, STORAGE

SOLIDWORKS HARDWARE RECOMMENDATIONS

Below is a summary of key components of an ideal SOLIDWORKS PC, all of this document is important but if you only read one page make it this
one!, if you are unsure about more complex requirements such as Simulation and Visualisation products see appendix from page 12 onwards.

P ROCESSOR (CPU)
This carries out the majority of calculations within SOLIDWORKS; the most common limiting factor is the speed in GHz of the CPU, the faster
(GHz) the better.Look for the maximum “Turbo Boost” speed as the best guide of performance for most SOLIDWORKS tasks. For SOLIDWORKS
parts and assemblies typically 2 cores are used, not all tasks are multi-threaded however drawings with many views, simulation, rendering tasks
can benefit significantly from CPUs with more cores.

i5/ i7 VS Xeon- The main advantage of Xeon CPU’s is they support error correcting code (ECC) ram which can correct for random hardware
errors and in some 6core + CPU’s contain more cache which may benefit simulation tasks which product huge amounts of data while solving.
Intel Core i5/i7 and Xeon still have a significant lead in SOLIDWORKS performance over AMD Processors as of August 2018

We recommend- High GHz Intel 8 th Generation i5/ i7 Quad or Six Core or Xeon Equivalent

MEMORY (RAM)
When a document is opened in SOLIDWORKS it is loaded into RAM, you need enough so that Windows does not resort to using the hard disc
(virtual memory). RAM is rated in MHz for speed; each increase tends to yield marginal gains so cost is a key factor, often the prices for the latest
faster RAM is much higher. When buying new go for at least 8-16GB as this is the current sweet point for cost. ECC ram is recommended for
users who run long simulation runs / renders frequently.

We recommend a minimum of 8GB of DDR4 RAM

GRAPHICS C ARD
The graphics card is fundamental to your productivity. It assists the processor accelerating operations such as zooming and rotating. On-board
Intel HD graphics, consumer cards such as GeForce and Radeon (non Pro) are consumer level cards which are not supported. often giving poor
performance and stability. This is your productivity so you should not underestimate the potential hidden costs of having an unsupported setup

Workstation class graphics cards from the NVIDIA Quadro (Not NVS) range are the only graphics cards we recommend for use with SOLIDWORKS.
NVIDIA Quadros’ proven history of strong driver stability and performance means we only supply and recommend these. NVIDA are also the only
graphics cards to accelerate SOLIDWORKS Visualize rendering and those with 4GB or more memory support the new AI Denoiser meaning you
get your results back many times faster. Visualize Standard is included with all SOLIDWORKS Professional and Premium subscriptions.

You can check for supported Cards & drivers on the SOLIDWORKS website at https://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/videocardtesting.html

We recommend- NVIDIA Quadro P1000 or above Graphics Card

STORAGE (HARD DRIVE )

Solid State Drives (SSD) offer a significant performance upgrade and are recommended to at least be used for your operating system and
programs if budget allows. Try to allow for 25-50% free for best performance.

We recommend- Fast solid state drives (256GB +)

OPERATING S YSTEM (OS)

From SOLIDWORKS 2015 SOLIDWORKS is 64Bit Only, We now recommend Windows 10 Pro, Pro for Workstations or Enterprise 64bit. Pro for
Workstations is required for new PC’s with Xeon CPUs. SOLIDWORKS have announced that SOLIDWORKS 2020 SP5 will be the last release which
will install and support Windows 7 64bit. SOLIDWORKS 2021 will not install on Windows 7,

Windows 8/8.1 are not supported for versions 2018 or newer

We recommend- Windows 10 Pro, Pro for Workstations or Enterprise 64bit

MONITOR
If buying a new monitor we recommend resolution of 1920x1080 at a minimum size of 1.5.6 inches for laptops or 21.5 inches for desktops.
Please note that while resolutions above 1920x1200 such as 4K screens are better supported by SOLIDWORKS 2018 onwards we do not
recommended on screens below 27inches in size and certainly do not currently recommend these in laptops.

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HARDWARE

RECOMMENDED D ELL H ARDWARE FOR SOLIDWORKS

We have partnered with Dell for many years for both our own internal use and to provide systems to our customers so that they can benefit from
the discounts we receive and the reassurance that it will be ideally specified for SOLIDWORKS.

Dell ProSupport

All systems come with 3 years Dell ProSupport with highly trained technicians based in Ireland. In the event an issue cannot be solved over the
phone they will typically dispatch an engineer to fix the system the following working day. We can also work with the Dell team to diagnose if it
is a Hardware or Software issue if needed.

Below is a guide of what we recommend for most users. These are only guidelines for the majority of users, if you have a question please contact
your account manager or [email protected] for advice. Specifications are correct as of August 2018 although our website always
has the most up to date specifications, see https://www.solidsolutions.co.uk/solidworks/Hardware/

With such a range of products we have added a new performance guideline for then most commonly used products provided by Solid Solutions

Key

SOLIDWORKS SOLIDWORKS Composer

SOLIDWORKS Simulation SOLIDWORKS Electrical
SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation Cam
SOLIDWORKS Plastics SOLIDWORKS Visualize

With the vast range of SOLIDWORKS solutions now available what is required to improve performance varies. For instance adding more fast cores
may benefit Simulation products whereas SOLIDWORKS Visualize would benefit from a higher spec Quadro graphics card. You can start to see
why it may not be as simple as just spending more, what you invest in is key and we aim to help you get the most for your money.

E.g. on the left is the lowest performance for SOLIDWORKS and on the right denotes best performance

If you aren’t sure what is most suitable please get in contact with your account manager or [email protected]

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HARDWARE

Desktop Entry Level- Dell Precision™ 3420 SFF- Small Form Factor PC, aimed at SOLIDWORKS who create less complex assemblies/parts.

Processor: Intel Core i5-8500 6 core/6 threads 3.0GHz (Turbo Boost up to 4.0 GHz)

Memory: 16GB (2 x 8GB) 2666MHz DDR4 Non ECC Ram

OS/Boot Drive: 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive.

Additional Hard Drive: 500GB 3.5 Inch 7200 RPM Hard Drive

Chassis: 260W with 8x DVD+/-RW and SD Card Reader

Graphics Card: 4 GB NVIDIA Quadro P1000

Mouse: Dell Optical (Not Wireless) Scroll USB (3 Button Scroll) Black Mouse

Keyboard: QuietKey USB Keyboard Black

Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64bit

Support: 3 Year Dell ProSupport and Next Business Day On-Site Service

Performance guidelines

Desktop All Rounder- Dell Precision™ 3620MT- The Best balance for price and performance for general SOLIDWORKS as well as occasional
simulation/rendering

Processor: Intel Core i5-8600 6 core/6 threads 3.1GHz (Turbo Boost up to 4.3 GHz)

Memory: 16GB (2 x 8GB) 2666MHz DDR4 Non ECC RAM

Hard Drive: 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive.

Additional Hard Drive: 1TB 2.5 Inch 7200 RPM Hard Drive.

Chassis: 460W with 8x DVD+/-RW , SD Card Reader & Dust Filter

Graphics Card: 5GB NVIDIA Quadro P2000

Mouse: Dell Optical (Not Wireless) Scroll USB (3 Button Scroll) Black Mouse

Keyboard: QuietKey USB Keyboard Black

Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64bit

Support: 3 Year Dell ProSupport and Next Business Day On-Site Service

Performance guidelines

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HARDWARE

Desktop High End - Dell Precision™ 3620MT - Aimed at users with large datasets with the fastest CPU available, high end 8GB Quadro P4000
graphics card and 32GB of Ram this is great for users with large datasets, as well as being strong for more occasional Simulation and Rendering.

Processor: Intel Core i7-8700K 6 cores/12 threads 3.7GHz (Turbo Boost up to 4.7 GHz)

Memory: 32GB (2x16GB) 2666MHz DDR4 ECC RAM

Hard Drive: 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive.

Additional Hard Drive: 1TB 3.5" Serial ATA (7,200Rpm) Hard Drive

Chassis: 460W with 8x DVD+/-RW , SD Card Reader & Dust Filter

Graphics Card: 8 GB NVIDIA Quadro P4000

Mouse: Dell Optical (Not Wireless) Scroll USB (3 Button Scroll) Black Mouse

Keyboard: QuietKey USB Keyboard Black

Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64bit

Support: 3 Year Dell ProSupport and Next Business Day On-Site Service

Performance guidelines

MORE CORES?
Although a 4-6 core machine is the best balance between cost and performance for most SOLIDWORKS only users if you use Simulation or CPU
based rendering tools such as Photoview 360 extensively you may see a benefit from a system with more cores. Also note that 2D Drawings with
many views benefit from an increase in cores, but most tasks in SOLIDWORKS prefer fewer faster cores rather so adding more than 6 cores is
typically only beneficial for Simulation and CPU best rendering tools (not Visualize with is graphics card (GPU) accelerated.

EXPECTED IMPROVEMENT
This will vary between different aspects of the software for instance with Photoview 360 if you double the amount of cores the render time can
be as much as halved. With Simulation and Flow Simulation it is not so clear cut but is often still very beneficial. Please see appendix page 11-
X15 for more information on types of simulation and how benefits vary between different tasks.

Also note that our Simulation specs include ECC RAM. This can correct for random calculation errors which all PC’s experience. This is one reason
why servers that have to run 24/7 365 days a year also use Xeon CPU’s and ECC ram.

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HARDWARE

Desktop High End Simulation - Dell Precision™ 3630 - Aimed at users who use Simulation tools extensively, with 6 core Xeon CPU and error
correctly ECC RAM.

Processor: Intel Xeon Xeon E-2186G 6 Cores/ 12 threads 3.8GHz, Turbo boost up to 4.7 GHz)

Memory: 32GB (2x16GB) 2266MHz DDR4 ECC DIMM

Hard Drive: 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive.

Additional Hard Drive: 1TB 3.5" Serial ATA (7,200Rpm) Hard Drive

Chassis: 460W with 8x DVD+/-RW , SD Card Reader & Dust Filter

Graphics: 8GB NVIDIA Quadro P4000

Mouse: Dell Optical (Not Wireless) Scroll USB Black Mouse

Keyboard: QuietKey USB Keyboard Black

Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64bit

Support: 3 Year Dell ProSupport and Next Business Day On-Site Service

Performance guidelines

Desktop High End Visualize - Dell Precision™ 3630 - Aimed at users who want the best balance for SOLIDWORKS Visualize with latest high
end Pascal generation NVIDIA Quadro Graphics,

Processor: Intel Core i7-8700K 6 cores/12 threads 3.7GHz (Turbo Boost up to 4.7 GHz)

Memory: 32GB (2x16GB) 2666MHz DDR4 Non ECC DIMM

Hard Drive: 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive.

Additional Hard Drive: 1TB 2.5" Serial ATA (7,200Rpm) Hard Drive

Optical Drive: 16x DVD+/-RW Drive

Graphics: 2x 8GB NVIDIA Quadro P4000

Mouse: Dell Optical (Not Wireless) Scroll USB Black Mouse

Keyboard: QuietKey USB Keyboard Black

Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64bit

Support: 3 Year Dell ProSupport and Next Business Day On-Site Service
Performance guidelines

*Also available with Single 16GB P5000 for very large datasets contact [email protected] if unsure.

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HARDWARE

Desktop Ultimate Simulation- Dell Precision™ T5810- Aimed at users who carry out extremely large simulation tasks particularly users who
want to run multiple tasks at once

Processor: 1 x Xeon W-2145 (3.7GHz, Turbo boost up to 4.5GHz, (8 cores)

Memory: 64GB (8x8GB) 2666MHz DDR4 ECC RDIMM

Hard Drive: 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive.

Additional Hard Drive: 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive.

Optical Drive: 8x DVD+/-RW Drive

Graphics: 8GB Quadro P4000

Mouse: Dell Optical (Not Wireless) USB Black Mouse

Keyboard: QuietKey USB Keyboard Black

Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64bit

Support: 3 Year Dell ProSupport and Next Business Day On-Site Service

Performance guidelines

Desktop Ultimate Flow Simulation- Dell Precision™ 7920- Primarily aimed at Flow simulation users with large datasets users but also
beneficial for CPU based rendering tools such as Photoview 360 and possibly for other simulation types where multiple studies are run at once.

Processor: 2 x Intel Xeon Gold 6136 (3.0GHz, Turbo boost up to 3.7GHz, (12 cores per CPU 24 Cores total )

Memory: 64GB (4x16GB) 2666MHz DDR4 ECC RDIMM

Hard Drive: 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive.

Additional Hard Drive: 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive.

Optical Drive: 8x DVD+/-RW Drive

Graphics: 8GB Quadro P4000

Mouse: Dell Optical (Not Wireless) USB Black Mouse

Keyboard: QuietKey USB Keyboard Black

Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64bit

Support: 3 Year Dell ProSupport and Next Business Day On-Site Service

Performance guidelines

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HARDWARE

Laptop Entry Level - Dell Precision™ 7530 -15.6inch laptop, aimed at users who don’t produce large assemblies or very complex parts but still
a very capable machine for key functions of SOLIDWORKS parts, assemblies & drawings.

Processor: Intel Core i5-8300H Quad Core (2.30GHz Turbo Boost up to 4,0GHz)

Display: 15.6inch Ultra Sharp FHD 1920x1080 With Cam & Mic

Memory: 8GB (1x 8GB) 2666MHz DDR4 Dual Channel

OS/Boot Drive: 256GB M.2 PCIe Solid State Drive
Optical Drive: No internal optical drive available
Graphics Card: NVIDIA Quadro P1000 with 4GB GDDR5 dedicated memory
Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64bit
Support: 3 Year Dell ProSupport with next business day on-Site Service

Performance guidelines

Laptop- All Rounder - Dell Precision™ 7530

15.6inch laptop giving the best balance between cost and performance. This system supports higher spec graphics card and more RAM has been
added along with a Solid State Drive for improved performance. A very capable machine for key functions of SOLIDWORKS parts, assemblies &
drawings and occasional renders/ simulation.

Processor: Intel Core i5-8400H Quad Core (2.50GHz Turbo Boost up to 4,2GHz)

Display: 15.6inch Ultra Sharp FHD 1920x1080 With Cam & Mic

Memory: 16GB (2 x 8GB) 2400MHz DDR4 Non ECC Ram

OS/Boot Drive: 512GB M.2 PCIe Solid State Drive

Optical Drive: No internal optical drive available
Graphics Card: NVIDIA Quadro P2000 with 4GB GDDR5 dedicated memory
Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64bit

Support: 3 Year Dell ProSupport and Next Business Day On-Site Service

Performance guidelines

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HARDWARE

Laptop All Rounder-17 Inch Option-Dell Precision™ 7730

Larger 17.3 Inch mobile desktop replacement system with more powerful graphics than the 15inch version. A very capable machine for key
functions of SOLIDWORKS parts, assemblies & drawings and occasional renders/ simulation.

Processor: Intel Core i5-8300H Quad Core (2.50GHz Turbo Boost up to 4,2GHz)

Display: 17.3inch Ultra Sharp FHD 1920x1080 With Cam & Mic

Memory: 16GB (2 x 18GB) 2666MHz DDR4 Non ECC Ram

OS/ Boot Drive: 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive.
Optical Drive: No internal optical drive available
Graphics Card: NVIDIA Quadro P3200 w/6GB GDDR5 dedicated memory
Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64bit
Support: 3 Year Dell ProSupport and Next Business Day On-Site Service

Performance guidelines

Laptop High End- Dell Precision™ 7530

15.6inch laptop giving the best balance between cost and performance. This system supports higher spec graphics card and more RAM has been
added along with a Solid State Drive for improved performance. A very capable machine for key functions of SOLIDWORKS parts, assemblies &
drawings and occasional renders/ simulation.

Processor: Intel Core i7-8850H Six Cores, 12 Threads 2.60GHz,(Turbo boost up to 4.3GHz)

Display: 15.6inch Ultra Sharp FHD 1920x1080 With Cam & Mic

Memory: 32GB (2 x 16GB) 2666MHz DDR4 Non ECC Ram

OS/Boot Drive: 1TB M.2 PCIe Solid State Drive

Optical Drive: No internal optical drive available
Graphics Card: NVIDIA Quadro P3200 with 6GB GDDR5 dedicated memory
Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64bit
Support: 3 Year Dell ProSupport and Next Business Day On-Site Service

Performance guidelines

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HARDWARE

Laptop High End- 17 Inch Option- Dell Precision™ 7530

Processor: Intel Core i7-8850H Six Cores, 12 Threads 2.60GHz,(Turbo boost up to 4.3GHz)

Display: 17.3inch Ultra Sharp FHD 1920x1080 With Cam & Mic

Memory: 32GB (2 x 16GB) 2666MHz DDR4 Non ECC Ram

OS/Boot Drive: 1TB M.2 PCIe Solid State Drive

Optical Drive: No internal optical drive available
Graphics Card: NVIDIA Quadro P3200 with 6GB GDDR5 dedicated memory
Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64bit
Support: 3 Year Dell ProSupport and Next Business Day On-Site Service

Performance guidelines

Laptop High End Simulation - Dell Precision™ 7730

Aimed at heavy Simulation use with the fastest mobile CPU available benefiting both SOLIDWORKS and Simulation in particular. As this is a Xeon
CPU it also supports error correcting RAM ensuring increased reliability for long simulation runs

Processor: Intel Core Xeon E-2186M Six Cores, 2.9GHz, (Turbo boost up to 4.6GHz)

Display: 17.3inch Ultra Sharp FHD 1920x1080 With Cam & Mic
Memory: 32GB (2x 16GB) 2266MHz ECC DDR4 Dual Channel
OS/Boot Drive: 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive
Additional Hard Drive: 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive
Optical Drive: No internal optical drive available
Graphics Card: NVIDIA Quadro P3200 w/6GB GDDR5 dedicated memory
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro for Workstations 64bit (4 Cores plus)

Support: 3 Year Dell ProSupport and Next Business Day On-Site Service

Performance guidelines

Note this is really as high as you can go with regards to performance for Simulation in a workstation class laptop, it doesn’t get 5 stars to
indicate that you may wish to consider a Desktop with more cores if performance is your priority.

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Laptop High End Visualize - Dell Precision™ 7720

17.3 Inch mobile desktop replacement system with the best performance vs price ratio for SOLIDWORKS Visualize. This is also our first VR Ready
certified specification in a laptop.

Processor: i7-8850H 6 Cores, 12 Threads 2.60GHz,(Turbo boost up to 4.3GHz

Display: 17.3inch Ultra Sharp FHD 1920x1080 With Cam & Mic
Memory: 32GB (2 x 16GB) 2666MHz DDR4 Non ECC Ram
OS/ Boot Drive: 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive.
Optical Drive: No internal optical drive available
Graphics Card: NVIDIA Quadro P4200 w/8GB GDDR5 dedicated memory
Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64bit

Support: 3 Year Dell ProSupport and Next Business Day On-Site Service

Performance guidelines

Note that the Quadro P5200 is the highest specification mobile Quadro card available but this adds approx. £500 to the price for around
15% performance improvement we made some compromise, for large datasets the P5200s 16GB memory may also be worthwhile.

Laptop – Ultra Portable – Dedicated Use- Dell Precision™ 5520

The sleekest model in the range at just 17mm maximum thickness and starting at just 1.8kg this still packs in a quad core CPU and 4GB NVIDIA
Quadro professional graphics and has been specified for a user who is dedicated to using SOLIDWORKs but for whom portability is key.

Processor: i7-8850H 6 Cores, 12 Threads 2.60GHz,(Turbo boost up to 4.3GHz

Display: 15.6" Ultra Sharp FHD IPS 1920x1080 Wide View Anti-Glare LED-backlit

Memory: 16GB (1 x 16GB) 2666MHz DDR4 Non ECC Ram

Boot/OS Drive: 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive Boot Drive
Optical Drive: No internal optical drive available
Graphics Card: NVIDIA Quadro P2000 w/4GB GDDR5 dedicated memory
Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64bit
Support: 3 Year Dell ProSupport and Next Business Day On-Site Service

If you are unsure of your requirements please contact [email protected] for help.

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Appendix- FAQ and Performance data

FAQ
I S SOLIDW ORKS SUPPORTED ON MAC?
SOLIDWORKS will not install natively on Apple computers. However, some customers run successfully on Mac OSX based systems, using
emulation (parallels) or Boot Camp (installing windows on mac to dual boot). Please note that SOLIDWORKS may suffer from the lack of graphics
acceleration on Apple Mac based machines, as pro level graphics along with certified graphics drivers are not available this is particularly
noticeable on more complex data sets such as assemblies with many components.

WHAT ABOUT VIRTUALISATION?

SOLIDWORKS have tested to confirm that the software will install on certain virtualisation platforms, however support in terms of performance
and stability is down to the virtualisation provider and graphics card manufacturer. The latest NVIDIA GRID based setups support everything
including accelerating SOLIDWORKS Visualize when using the new Pascal generation Tesla cards.

See http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/11168_ENU_HTML.htm However note that supported does not mean that performance will be
up to scratch, graphics acceleration is lacking in many solutions. SOLIDWORKS have tested drivers for certain NVIDIA GRID cards on Citrix Xen
and VM Ware platforms.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DATA MANAGEMENT (PDM)

Ideally a dedicated Windows server/s should be used for either a SOLIDWORKS Workgroup PDM or SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard and Professional
vaults. Besides giving maximum performance for the CAD users, using a dedicated server provides a location to store company standards and
templates. For hardware specifications for a PDM system, please visit:

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/PDMSystemRequirements.html

DOES SOLIDWORKS USE MORE THAN ONE CORE?

This is common misconception in some operations SOLIDWORKS is multi-threaded. Many of the activities such as dialogue box interaction;
drawings etc. take advantage of this technology. Even a cut extrude with many profiles is multi-threaded, however, the solving process
(rebuilding) used for parametric modelling is by nature very linear i.e. one feature must be rebuilt before the next therefore SOLIDWORKS will not
always use all the available cores the full use of 1-2 cores is more typical during a rebuild so less faster cores are better than more slower cores.

However, drawings with multiple views, most simulation and photoview 360 rendering tasks also benefit significantly from multiple cores to
varying degrees more detail on this follows below.

SLOWDOWNS - SHOULD I ADD MORE RAM ?

Adding more RAM will not solve performance issues unless you are running out, tools such as the windows performance monitor or even at a
basic level the task manager. Run your normal tasks and see if you are running low (the SOLIDWORKS performance Monitor should also alert
you) you only need enough so that you don’t run out this would start using virtual memory on your hard disc which is many times slower. Often
using best practices in the software can speed things up otherwise you have to identify where the bottlenecks are before upgrading hardware.

PHOTOVIEW 360- HOW CAN I SPEED UP MY RENDERS

Photoview 360 only uses CPU for rendering and the scaling for is this pretty much linear, i.e. if you go from 4 cores to 8 cores you would expect
the render to take around half the time. However, some tasks such as lighting calculations are less multithreaded so this is only a rough guide.
Despite not using the graphics card for rendering a certified card is still recommended.

Network rendering is also supported so long as the machine running the render is on subscription. Other PC’s can install the free network render
client. A benefit is typically seen when a single render takes more than 5 minutes. More info can be seen on MySolidSolutions.

Note that the clients Pc’s should be reasonably modern in order to be of benefit and have an Open GL capable graphics card we have seen issues
with on board graphics e.g. servers. If unsure a low end Quadro or Fire Pro card would be the safest bet.

SOLIDWORKS VISUALISE- HOW CAN I SPEED UP MY RENDERS ?

SOLIDWORKS Visualize Standard is a new standalone product for which a complimentary license is provided with each SOLIDWORKS
Professional and Premium subscription. SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional available at extra cost including animation and many other functions
to leverage your 3d data. Both options and can be installed either on the SOLIDWORKS users system or on another users system.

Speed in Visualize is primarily down to using NVIDIA GPU (graphics card) CUDA cores to achieve massive speed ups vs traditional CPUs. AMD
graphics cards will not accelerate this process however the software will still run in CPU only mode on such setups.

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Also note that the new Visualize AI denoiser included in versions 2018 SP3 and above is only supported on NVIDIA graphics cards with 4GB or
more of dedicated video memory. This can be used to reduce the number of passes required to eliminate noose/artefacts in the render by up to
10 times. I.e. if you need 1000 passes in a traditional rendering tool you may be able to use as little as 100 using the denoiser.

When working in Visualize a mid-high end NVIDIA card (Quadro P2000+ ) will show significant acceleration with 4GB will be enough in most
cases but large assemblies may demand more otherwise it will revert to CPU mode which is considerably slower. Adding a second card of the
same specification will reduce render times by as much as half.

Below are some results taken from the SOLIDWORKS Visualize Benchmarks, for a benchmark project to render at 1920x1080 for 500 passes the
CPU mode is the performance you would get without a supported NVIDIA graphics card.

Model 1 x Quadro 5GB P2000 1 x Quadro P4000 8GB 2x Quadro P4000 8GB
(Desktop) (Desktop) (Desktop)

Approx £360 Approx £725 Approx £1500

CUDA Cores 1024 1792 3584

Render Time 3 Mins 33 Secs 2 Mins 13 Secs 1 Min 10 Seconds

We can see performance scales pretty linearly with the number of CUDA cores. Cards with More CUDA cores are available but cost significantly
more, the P5000 has 2560 cores and costs approx. £1500 and the P6000 has 3840 but costs over £4000 for the card alone. These cards are
however useful if you need more video memory for very complex scenes as the scene must fit into the memory of the smallest card installed on
the system, if you have dual cards with differing amounts of memory the smallest of the two is your limiting factor, memory is not additive.

W HICH SIMULATION TYPES B ENEFIT MOST F ROM MULTI C ORE PROCESSORS?

Most simulation types see some benefit from multiple cores; simulations using the direct sparse solver see the most benefit.

Keep in mind that if you have capacity to spare in terms of available cores and RAM you should be able to continue working productively in
SOLDIWORKS while carrying out simulations. In general if running a single study, performance improvements diminish with more than 4 cores
available to the study. For that reason, 4-8 cores is currently the sweet point as you should then have resources to continue to work in
SOLIDWORKS and other programs to a degree without affecting the solve time significantly.

Below you can find data based on some testing by SOLIDWORKS and Solid Solutions which is an indication only, there is no guarantee of how
well a particular simulation study will take advantage of multiple cores.

SOLIDW ORKS SIMULATION

M ESHING
From SOLIDWORKS 2011 the curvature based mesher can take advantage of multiple cores where as the standard mesher is mostly single
threaded.

S TATIC S IMU LATION - A SSEMBLIES AND P ARTS

A static simulation of an assembly with bolt connectors sees a 75% improvement in solve time using the direct sparse solver when going from 1
to 4 cores. Using the FFEPlus Solver this benefit may only be 15%

Below is a table produced by SOLIDWORKS showing the performance increase for static simulation of more cores on the various solvers; Direct
Sparse, FFEPlus and Large Problem Direct Spare Solvers.

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HARDWARE

The most computationally intensive stages of the analysis using a sparse solver are generally decomposition of stiffness matrix and solving
contact constraints. These are the stages which support multi-core, hence making them less time consuming.

O THER SOLIDW ORKS SIMULATION TYPES

N ON L INEAR S IMULATION
A similar setup as a non-linear simulation on a single part yields a 58% improvement using the direct spare solver but no improvement when
using the FFEplus.

T HERMAL S IMU LATION

Thermal simulation sees an 82% improvement using the direct sparse solver, again no improvement when using FFEPlus.

O THER S IMU LATION T YPES

Simulation types which are mostly single threaded are:

F ATIGUE
The fatigue solver itself uses only one core in testing but preparing to run a fatigue study involves running one or more static studies which do
benefit from multiple cores, overall there is an improvement.

F REQUENCY
Frequency saw less improvement in testing than most simulation types, contrary to the other simulation types direct sparse solver saw 0%
improvement whereas the FFEPlus Solver saw a 25% improvement.

O PTIMIZATION
Most of the time spent solving an optimization analysis is taken up by running loops of design iterations of the studies defined for constraints.
The benefit would depend on the type of study optimised.

L INEAR D YNAMI C
The actual post dynamic analysis and stress calculations use special solvers which used only one core in testing. However, performing a linear
dynamic analysis involves first finding resonant frequencies, which did show usage of more than one core when using the FFEPlus solver.

P RESSURE V ESSEL D ESIGN

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HARDWARE

The majority of the time taken to complete a pressure vessel analysis is running static studies that you wish to combine. The actual calculations
for combination of results used only one core during testing but as this made up a small percentage of the total time to perform the analysis
there was a significant performance improvement.

D ROP T EST
Only one solver type available, the test model used only one core.

SOLIDWORKS PLASTICS
SOLDIWORKS Plastics shows good gains for all parts of the process. Note the jump here this is thought to be as when using 12 cores in our
testing we were using all 10 cores from 1 CPU and 2 from the second, the data communication between the two likely being the cause of the
anomalous results.

FLOW SIMULATION
In SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation, great improvements were made in SOLIDWORKS 2012 and above to take advantage of more than 4 cores,
larger cell count models see the most benefit.

FLOW SIMULATION SPEED VS NUMBER OF CORES

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HARDWARE

. FROM SOLIDWORKS 2014 ONWARDS MESHING IS MULTITHREADED, WITH THE LARGEST GAINS BEING FOR LARGE MESHES

Complex Flow Simulation problems with a large cell count also typically show more benefit from core counts over 8 cores than smaller problems

If you require a quote or if you are unsure about your requirements please contact your account manager or [email protected]

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