GeoStudio System Requirements

Apr 04, 2023

This article reviews the software and hardware requirements for running GeoStudio.

Before You Start

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

GeoStudio Minimum System Requirements

The GeoStudio minimum system requirements are listed on the following page:
Downloads
As GeoStudio is updated, the requirements on the Download page will be updated as necessary.

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 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.