This guide is intended to assist in the selection of an OEM/off-the-shelf system for use with SOLIDWORKS. The recommendations are intended as advice for a general audience. The systems specified are extensions of the recommendations found on the SOLIDWORKS website and are based on available hardware, internal testing, and customer support experience.
Before purchasing any workstation, make sure that it is officially tested and certified by SOLIDWORKS on their hardware certification page.
Potential upgrades and their benefits are also listed by component type. These upgrades are intended for advanced users seeking to optimize their system.
This guideline applies to most SOLIDWORKS products. For specialty products, please see the links at the end of this document.
Hawk Ridge Systems Recommended System Summary
| Notebook PCs | |
| Out-Of-Box Solutions |
Lenovo ThinkPad P Series Mobile Workstations |
| Operating System | Windows 11 Professional 64-Bit |
| Graphics Card | NVIDIA RTX PRO 500/1000 Blackwell |
| Processor |
Intel CoreTM Ultra 7 AMD Ryzen AI 7/7 PRO |
| RAM | 32GB |
| Storage | 512GB SSD |
| Other (Required) | Microsoft Office 2024, 3-Button Mouse with Scroll Wheel |
| Desktop PCs | |
| Out-of-Box Solutions | |
| Operating System | Windows 11 Professional 64-Bit |
| Graphics Card | NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell/A1000/1000 Ada |
| Processor |
Intel CoreTM Ultra 7 AMD Ryzen 7 PRO |
| RAM | 32GB |
| Storage | 512GB SSD |
| Other (Required) | Microsoft Office 2024, 3-Button Mouse with Scroll Wheel |
Upgrades For Advanced Users
Certain cases require upgraded hardware. These include:
- Working with large assemblies and/or complex models
- Extensive multitasking (Multiple programs or files running simultaneously)
- Heavy Visualize usage
- Heavy Simulation or Flow Simulation usage
These upgrades are listed with their associated benefits. Special attention should be paid to the use case to eliminate bottlenecks.
| Component | Benefits | Notebook | Desktop |
| RAM | General Performance, Multitasking, Capacity (Model, Rendering and Simulation Size/Complexity), Rendering and Simulation Speed | 64-128GB | 64-128GB |
| Processor | Rebuilding Features, General Performance, Simulation Solving and Meshing Speed, Multitasking, Open/Save Speed, Rendering Speed |
Intel Core™ Ultra 9 AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO |
Intel Core™ Ultra 9 AMD Ryzen 9 PRO |
| Storage | Open/Save Speed, Rebuild Time, General Performance | 1TB+ M.2 PCIe SSD | 1TB+ M.2 PCIe SSD |
| Graphics Card | Display Capacity (Number of Faces and Amount of Data Shown), Rotate/Pan/Zoom performance, Ray Tracing (requires RTX cards) | NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada-Pro 5000 Blackwell | NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada-Pro 6000 Blackwell |
Other Product Hardware Guidelines
- SOLIDWORKS and SW Data Management System Requirements
- Comprehensive Hardware Guide
- SOLIDWORKS Visualize System Requirements
For additional support, existing customers can submit a ticket or new customers can contact Hawk Ridge Systems.
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