Frequently Asked Questions
What hardware do I need
SI is a high performing graphics application. It has been written to use older graphics cards, but requires up to date Vulkan drivers. SI will adapt to the hardware you have to a degree, but better hardware will give better results. If your'e not sure, try the Community Edition first.
Minimum
Discrete or recent integrated GPU with a Vulkan 1.2 driver and 2 GB VRAM (1080p, small projects)
(Roughly, that means NVIDIA GTX 10-series or newer, AMD RX 400 (Polaris) or newer, and Intel Gen9+ on Linux or Iris Xe/Arc on Windows.)
64-bit multi-core CPU with at least 4 threads
System RAM 8GB
64 bit Linux or Windows
Recommended
Discrete NVIDIA/AMD, or Intel Arc GPU with 4 GB VRAM at 1080p/1440p; 8 GB+ VRAM at 4K or with large volumes/point clouds, 16 GB+ to use local hosted AI
Recent 8-core / 16-thread CPU, e.g. Ryzen 7 or Core i7 from the last ~5 years (more cores are better)
System RAM 16 GB+ (the governor keeps 1–4 GB free)
64 bit Linux or Windows
Driver
Windows: Current vendor driver
Linux: Mesa (RADV/ANV) or the NVIDIA proprietary driver
Hard Disc
Large datasets are handled by paging only what is required from your hard disc. Spinning hard discs are fine, but you will get a big performance lift from a SSD or NVMe drive.