What you need to run SolidWorks on Vista

by Josh on May 11, 2007 · View Comments

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Vista With an addiction to trying new stuff when it comes out, its been difficult finding what I actually need to get SolidWorks to work the best on Vista. So, when the Windows Vista native version of SolidWorks was made available as a pre-release download from the SolidWorks web site May 4th and thought I’d try to that question to rest.

Via Ian Baxter from SolidWorks:

“Please note that hardware-accelerated OpenGL drivers for Windows Vista are not yet available from graphics card vendors such as NVIDIA and ATI. Therefore, SolidWorks on Vista uses software OpenGL drivers that are installed with the Microsoft Vista operating system, so cannot take advantage of any hardware acceleration provided by the graphics card. Consequently, graphics performance with SolidWorks running on the Windows Vista operating system is slower than with SolidWorks running on Windows XP. If it is known in advance that you are working with large assemblies or complex parts, it is recommended that the Windows XP version of SolidWorks 2007 is used in these situations

SolidWorks will qualify certified hardware OpenGL drivers as they are released from the graphics vendors.”
Bulletin: Support for Microsoft Windows Vista

If this is OpenGL emulation, it’s going to run like crap as a layer on top of Direct3d. But supposedly the creator of OpenGL said a while back that it will be Natively Supported in Windows Vista. I haven’t heard about this yet and I’m sure if OpenGL was running better or alongside Direct3d SolidWorks would let us know.

What you need to get SolidWorks running optimally on Vista is a graphics card that is going to support WDDM…

“The Windows Vista Display Driver Model (WDDM) allows for the visual effects seen on a user’s desktop to scale relative to the available graphics hardware.” – Windows Vista Enterprise Hardware Planning Guidance

So you need to keep a look out for what SolidWorks has certiefied and what GPU manufacturers are planning. Here’s one link that may come in handy.

Technet article for CPU and GPU manufacturers supporting WDDM

I ran the test on my Nvidia Quadro FX 1300. It meets minimum criteria (of course), but failed the recommended for GPU, and the optimal for GPU and CPU. Optimal reccomendation was 3.4GHz CPU and 256MB GPU, i.e. nVidia GeForce 7800 (review) that I’ve found for $476.

nVidia for vista

{ 10 comments }

yaseen February 13, 2008 at 8:09 am: I have an hp pavilion dv6000 laptop with vista ultimate. I need solid works to work on my laptop. how do I go aboit doing that when solid works only works on windows xp
yaseen February 13, 2008 at 8:09 am: I have an hp pavilion dv6000 laptop with vista ultimate. I need solid works to work on my laptop. how do I go aboit doing that when solid works only works on windows xp
Josh February 15, 2008 at 11:56 am: Hi Yaseen, MikesCADBlog has some info on this. SolidWorks does work on Vista. You’ll just need to make sure some things on your laptop are compatible.
harish July 4, 2008 at 1:46 am: yaseen the graphical driver ur currently using will not support solidworks u can contact hp to give a driver that supports ur system. bcosa thats the way i resolved in my laptop which ran on vista
harish July 4, 2008 at 12:46 am: yaseen the graphical driver ur currently using will not support solidworks u can contact hp to give a driver that supports ur system. bcosa thats the way i resolved in my laptop which ran on vista
Gerald Borg January 14, 2009 at 12:35 pm: Will solidworks 2006 run on Windows Vista Premium Bonus? This is supposed to contain XP.
Gerald Borg January 14, 2009 at 1:35 pm: Will solidworks 2006 run on Windows Vista Premium Bonus? This is supposed to contain XP.
Gerald Borg January 14, 2009 at 6:35 pm: Will solidworks 2006 run on Windows Vista Premium Bonus? This is supposed to contain XP.
Justin Hall June 9, 2010 at 4:47 pm: Glad to see people talking about this. I took a Solidworks class about a year and a half ago and was surpried my cheap lap top ran Solidworks faster than the schools computers. I knew the school had just gotten new computers in the computer lab and they have Windows Vista. My 450 dollar laptop has Windows xp and ran Solidworks student edition at least twice as fast. I am now in the market for a new computer. Running Solidworks effectivly is my main concern shopping for a computer. I hope to see more postings on here about the true requrements for running Solidwoks on a desktop.
Josh M June 9, 2010 at 5:20 pm: Thanks Justin, it's been a while since I've touched specifically on that subject. There are some great options out there now and a Win7 64 bit rig can smoke an XP 32 bit. I'm going through the process of upgrading hardware and hope to document it and post.