Hardware Guidelines for Rhino 5

Robert McNeel & Associates does not do extensive or scientific hardware testing. We rely on reports from users (either through technical support or on the Forum) and our own hardware purchases for opinions on what equipment works best with Rhino.

So, we do not provide any kind of hardware recommendations for running Rhino, only baseline requirements or guidelines. We do recommend that you buy the most state-of-the-art computer possible when building a new system.

• The fastest processor (CPU).
• The fastest hard drive.
• A card that supports Rhino's display features. Generally this means good OpenGL support. Also the more video memory you have the more efficient Rhino will be with its display features. But, the more video memory on the card, the more expensive the price of the card. See more details on video cards here.
• Lots of RAM memory. The more you have, the better things will be. Rhino 5 64-bit can use all of this. It is common to find Rhino users with 16GB~32GB on their computers.
• Solid State Hard Drives (SSD). This greatly improves drive access.

Ask your hardware provider what is currently the fastest available. This is a moving target. Also ask the Rhino Community through the Forum what works and what they like. Again this is always changing.

We also recommend that you buy a computer that offers a 30 day return policy. Test it with Rhino and other applications heavily during this period and return it if it does not meet your expectations.

Also see Video Card Recommendations for Rhino 5.

• In general, look for cards that support all of Rhino’s display features. But, performance and speed is highly subjective and results are mostly determined by an individual’s level of expectations.
• We have never seen a measurable advantage of choosing the Quadro over the GeForce model card, as both appear to perform and run Rhino in much the same way.
• So it comes down to cost and budgeting, and GeForce cards are usually significantly less money, but are not less in power or performance.
• This is very subjective, and very dependent on the actual meshes, their size and even their topology. There is no way anyone can know for certain how well Rhino is going to meet some user’s expectations based on which video card they buy.
• In summary, money spent on a video card does not translate into speed.

March 21, 2013

• User reports GeForce GTX 680 w/4GB is very good with Rhino. The GeForce is far cheaper than the Quadro as well.

Here is a great list showing customer results and various system configuration benchmarks.

Hope this helps you make a really good hardware purchase!