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-boun...@lists.osgeo.org> on behalf of Helena Farrell 
via Qgis-user <qgis-user@lists.osgeo.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2022 06:46
To: qgis-user@lists.osgeo.org <qgis-user@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!
[https://www.niwa.co.nz/static/niwa-2018-horizontal-180.png] 
<https://www.niwa.co.nz>
Brent Wood
Principal Technician - GIS and Spatial Data Management
Programme Leader - Environmental Information Delivery
+64-4-386-0529

National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd (NIWA)
301 Evans Bay Parade Hataitai Wellington New Zealand
Connect with NIWA: niwa.co.nz<https://www.niwa.co.nz> 
Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/nzniwa> 
LinkedIn<https://www.linkedin.com/company/niwa> 
Twitter<https://twitter.com/niwa_nz> 
Instagram<https://www.instagram.com/niwa_science>
To ensure compliance with legal requirements and to maintain cyber security 
standards, NIWA's IT systems are subject to ongoing monitoring, activity 
logging and auditing. This monitoring and auditing service may be provided by 
third parties. Such third parties can access information transmitted to, 
processed by and stored on NIWA's IT systems
_______________________________________________
Qgis-user mailing list
Qgis-user@lists.osgeo.org
List info: https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
Unsubscribe: https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user

Reply via email to