[Qgis-user] RAM and processing speed requirements for QGIS

[Brent Wood]

Hi Helena,

My 02c - it totally depends...

QGIS as an application does not require much memory or cpu, until you throw data at it and ask it to do something. Your data and tasks determine the requirements, not the bare application. I did some benchmarking a while ago - R requires up to 8x the memory to load the same vector datasets as QGIS - so at least compared to R, QGIS is very memory efficient.

Also - QGIS has no data management capabilities. If you want to manage your spatial data on the same computer, you will probably want to install a spatial database, which will run in parallel to QGIS. So having the resources to do this will help a bit. A dual core cpu is not good for parallel processing - two few cores to be efficient.

That said, a reasonable i5 cpu with 8Gb of memory is plenty for basic tasks. More is obviously better. An older 2.7Ghz i5 is probably minimal, i7 a bit better. Before spending on hardware, try it and see. If your system performs well enough for you, that is really all you need to know. If not, fire up the system diagnostics & see what your memory & cpu (& possibly disk) bottlenecks are to see what you need more of.

Personally, I find the best general purpose platform to install & run QGIS on is Linux. If you are into cartography and the Adobe tools to work with graphics, then a Mac. Windows only if you don't have a choice.


Cheers

Brent Wood

Principal Technician, Fisheries
NIWA
DDI:  +64 (4) 3860529

________________________________
From: Qgis-user <qgis-user-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> on behalf of Helena Farrell via Qgis-user <qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2022 06:46
To: qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org <qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org>
Subject: [Qgis-user] RAM and processing speed requirements for QGIS

Hello, I am seeking input on whether my 7 year old Mac with 8GB RAM and a 2.7gigahertz processor is likely to perform poorly at running QGIS. Since these are like the bare minimum in terms of power, and I assume QGIS is a data-heavy program, I may need to invest in a new computer. Anyone have advice on RAM and processing speed specifications  that I should look for and whether a PC be better than a Mac for running this program?

Thank you!
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Brent Wood
Principal Technician - GIS and Spatial Data Management
Programme Leader - Environmental Information Delivery
+64-4-386-0529

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