System requirements

Recommended system requirements

  • Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)1
  • Intel® Core™ 2 Duo/Quad 2.66 GHz or faster processor or equivalent
  • 4 GByte RAM
  • 10 GByte hard disk space (Install + User Files)
  • Dual monitors with at least 1680x1050(widescreen) or 1600x1200(4:3) screen resolution 
  • NVIDIA® GeForce® 80003 series, 256 MB (or more) graphics card2 or equivalent
  • USB2.0 port (if connecting to a NanoBoard-NB2 or NanoBoard-3000)
  • Adobe® Reader® 8 or above
  • DVD-Drive
  • Internet Connection
  • Internet Explorer 7 or above
  • Microsoft Excel (required for Bill of Materials templates)

Notes:

1. Testing also performed on Windows Vista and Windows XP.

2. To take advantage of the accelerated graphics engine, including 3D visualization, your graphics card must support DirectX 9.0c and Shader model 3.

3. Testing performed on a 8500 GT, 256mb

Minimum system requirements

  • Windows XP SP2 Professional1
  • Intel® Pentium™, 1.8 GHz processor or equivalent
  • 2 GByte RAM
  • 3.5 GByte hard disk space (Install + User Files)
  • Main monitor 1280x1024 screen resolution
    Strongly recommended: second monitor with minimum 1024x768 screen resolution
  • NVIDIA® GeForce® 6000/7000 series, 128 MB graphics card2 or equivalent
  • USB2.0 port (if connecting to a NanoBoard-NB2 or NanoBoard 3000)
  • Adobe® Reader® 8 or above
  • DVD-Drive
  • Internet Connection
  • Internet Explorer 7 or above
  • Microsoft Excel (required for Bill of Materials templates)

Notes:

1. Testing also performed on Windows Vista and Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit).

2. To take advantage of the accelerated graphics engine, including 3D visualization, your graphics card must support DirectX 9.0c and Shader model 3.

Performance comparison of graphics cards

Graphics cards are a critical hardware element that can have a large impact on both the performance and stability of systems. These benchmarks help you choose the right 3D PCB graphics engine for your needs and budget. Choose the right hardware requirements necessary to achieve stunning results, make the whole system more responsive and ‘feel’ better, and remove distractions to design caused by lags in the GUI. Altium Designer’s PCB and schematic editors have been optimized for use with DirectX 9.0c. As such, “workstation” graphics cards which do not have native DirectX 9.0c (or later) acceleration in hardware will have inferior performance, when compared to the same generation of “gaming” graphics cards. We therefore strongly recommend the use of gaming cards instead of workstation cards.

Performance comparison of graphics cards >

Installations required for FPGA design

Implementing an FPGA design in a device requires the installation of third-party software tools. These tools are available as downloads from FPGA vendor websites. A list of the vendor tools and devices supported by Altium Designer and links to the appropriate websites are provided in the Community section.