Re: [Qgis-user] RAM and processing speed requirements for QGIS
On Tue, 19 Apr 2022 at 19:46, Helena Farrell via Qgis-user < qgis-user@lists.osgeo.org> wrote: > 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! > We have a fleet of Macs up to 10 years old, and even the oldest are (mostly) happy running QGIS, albeit a little slowly depending on the task. Your 8GB will be more than enough unless you're doing very large datasets. A big help will be to use an SSD, for our old iMacs we've plugged in external SSDs via USB3 which makes a huge difference. Cheers! John. ___ 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
Re: [Qgis-user] RAM and processing speed requirements for QGIS
Hi Helena/List, For all the good intentions everyone who has responded to you, have had - they are truly "not that useful" So, before I get shot: Yes, more memory, HD->SSD->NVMe does help a lot - but did Mac's have M.2 slots 7 years back? If yes, were they configured as NVMe or SATA? Is "new" Mac memory different from 7-year-old Mac memory? (yes, of course it is) So let's get pragmatic: Buying any of the suggested HW to upgrade might be throwing good money after bad - because if they do not help you sufficiently, you will still have to buy a newer PC, and you may end up being stuck with components you cannot use in your newer PC. So, judging by your original post below - you have not even tried QGIS yet. It is free! Download it. Try it. If your electricity bill goes up because you are boiling your kettle more often than normal (while waiting for QGIS to respond), then buy a new PC - that is, if you are unable to_borrow _extra memory to see if that helps sufficiently. If you buy a new PC, then yes, look at all the responses you have received. Buy at least 16GB memory - preferably 32GB Do not buy any 'old' HDs (those with moving parts) unless you need >4TB of disk space. (very easy with GIS data) - but keep system & swap on the fastes SSDs you can afford. If you buy SSDs, make sure they are NVMe and not SATA-SSDs. No matter what GIS SW you choose, it will need a 'decent' PC if you are asking it to do stuff more than just play around with simple maps. Hope this helps you with your way forward. Kind regards, Zoltan On 2022-04-20 14:00, Patrick Dunford via Qgis-user wrote: As others have written it will depend on the tasks you are doing. The performance of any computer can be significantly improved by replacing HDDs with SSDs. Modern computers using the NVMe standards for SSD (M.2 interface etc) can offer a great deal of speed improvement for SSD storage over SATA which is very significant when working on intensive projects that use a lot of resources. The PC platform is significantly easier to expand if resource needs change. My seven year old system started out with 8 GB of RAM and currently has 32 GB, whilst the swap file performance (virtual memory) has been significantly improved with SATA and M.2 SSD storage (now at 200 GB). The latter provides almost limitless performance capability enhancements to the system at modest cost without having to upgrade the entire system. I use Ubuntu as the operating system for this computer. On 20/04/22 06:46, Helena Farrell via Qgis-user wrote: 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! ___ 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 ___ 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 -- = Zoltan Szecsei GPrGISc 0031 Director, Geograph (Pty) Ltd. GIS and Photogrammetric Services Cape Town, South Africa. Mobile: +27-83-6004028 (Signal, not WhatsApp) www.geograph.co.za = ___ 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
Re: [Qgis-user] RAM and processing speed requirements for QGIS
As others have written it will depend on the tasks you are doing. The performance of any computer can be significantly improved by replacing HDDs with SSDs. Modern computers using the NVMe standards for SSD (M.2 interface etc) can offer a great deal of speed improvement for SSD storage over SATA which is very significant when working on intensive projects that use a lot of resources. The PC platform is significantly easier to expand if resource needs change. My seven year old system started out with 8 GB of RAM and currently has 32 GB, whilst the swap file performance (virtual memory) has been significantly improved with SATA and M.2 SSD storage (now at 200 GB). The latter provides almost limitless performance capability enhancements to the system at modest cost without having to upgrade the entire system. I use Ubuntu as the operating system for this computer. On 20/04/22 06:46, Helena Farrell via Qgis-user wrote: 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! ___ 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 ___ 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
Re: [Qgis-user] RAM and processing speed requirements for QGIS (Helena Farrell)
Helena Farrell wrote: 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? I am running QGIS on a 2012 Mac Mini (2.3 GHz Intel Core i7) with 8 GB RAM running OS X 10.13.6 (High Sierra). I use multiple vector layers plus a buildings layer, DEM, areal photography (color 1 foot res) covering a 30 square mile area. Performance seems excellent. I have replaced my hard drive with SSD which may be making a significant difference. I recommend trying QGIS on your old Mac - you may be surprised... Cordially, Garth Fletcher ___ 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
Re: [Qgis-user] RAM and processing speed requirements for QGIS
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 on behalf of Helena Farrell via Qgis-user Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2022 06:46 To: 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
Re: [Qgis-user] RAM and processing speed requirements for QGIS
Hi Helena, I ise an old HP with 8GB RAM with Qgis. But I think any answer should depends on the tasks you like to do with Qgis. Create an atlas, use gdal to transorm etc. Different tasks caused different workloads I guess. For a lot of tasks I use a dynamic swap space (Linux) on a physical drive. Am 04/19/ schrieb Helena Farrell via Qgis-user: >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! > > ___ > 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 -- Kind regards Piet GPG Fingerprint: 1D9D DAD5 BD91 A5E8 C5DB B400 D286 3A10 4969 7909 signature.asc Description: PGP signature ___ 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
[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! ___ 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
