System Requirements

Windows

  • Recommended system: Windows 8.1 – 10, 64-bit.
  • 64 bit versions: Windows 7-10.
  • 32-bit versions Windows: Windows 7 – 10
  • Windows Vista and XP are supported in a separate “Legacy” version of FastRawViewer
  • Processor with SSE3 support or later (meaning released 2005+):
    • Intel: Pentium 4 Prescott or later; Celeron D or later, any Core processor, Intel Atom.
    • AMD: Athlon 64 or later.

The complete list of supported processors is available on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSE3

  • Video card with DirectX 9.0 support or later, or with OpenGL 2.1 or later.

FastRawViewer will work with practically any video card with 3D acceleration support, released 2006+ (users of older cards may experience some problems).

Mac

  • Intel-based Mac.
  • Processor with 64-bit support (that’s every Intel Mac, excluding models from 2005-2006, that use Intel Core Solo and Intel Core Duo processors).
  • Mac OS X 10.6 or later.
  • We recommend a video card with OpenGL 2.1 support (that’s every native Mac video card, that works with OS X 10.6).

An OpenGL emulator will be used if such a video card is not present in the system; some of the advanced features of FastRawViewer will take significant time to render.

“Recommended minimum” computer configuration

Unlike applications that display a relatively light-weighted (in megabytes) JPEG preview embedded in a RAW file, FastRawViewer reads RAW files in their entirety and processes all of the data in them; as a result, the hardware requirements are higher than for applications that deal with just JPEG previews.

For RAW files of different pixel counts, to achieve a comfortable browsing speed of 5-7 RAW files per second, we recommend the following configurations:

  • Regardless of pixel count: a 64-bit operating system, and the 64-bit version of FastRawViewer
  • For RAW files 6-16 Mpix (typical file size is 5-20MB):
    • A mechanical/magnetic HDD will work acceptably (including an external one, with a USB3 interface).
    • 2-4 core processor
    • Minimum 4GB RAM
  • Integrated graphics processor (IGPU).
  • RAW files 20-35Mpix (typical file size is 20-45MB):
    • SATA SSD, including an external one with a USB3 interface
    • 4-core Intel Haswell (i5-4xxx and newer) or better
    • 8GB RAM
  • Generation nine (Skylake) IGPU or better (i5-7xxx and newer), or a discrete video card with a price tag of around $100.
  • RAW files 40-60Mpix (files are 50-120MB):
    • Recommended SSD/NVME (M.2) disk or SATA SSD RAID0
    • 4-8 core processor, no less than Intel Haswell
    • 16 GB RAM.
  • Discrete video card with a price tag around $100.
  • RAW files 60-150 Mpix (RAW files are larger than 120MB):
    • SSD/NVME (M.2) storage
    • 8+ core processor
    • 32 GB RAM.
    • Discrete video card with a price tag around $200.
  • DNG panoramas, PixelShift stitchings, HDR-DNG files (files are larger than 300MB):
    • These images tend be very large, and in those cases we recommend using the maximal available configurations:
    • SSD NVME RAID
    • 12+ core processors
    • 64GB memory and more
  • Top-class video card (the same class as Nvidia GTX 1080 or newer in the same category)

Network storage

The typical network storage, connected via 1Gbit Ethernet, guarantees a productivity on a par with a local mechanical drive (HDD).

A fast network storage, connected via 5-10Gbit Ethernet, containing several (5-6+) magnetic/mechanical drives in an array and SSD caches, works with a speed comparable to a SATA SSD, best case – like a RAID0 made of SATA SSD (don’t use RAID0 arrangements as primary storage).

In general, is not possible to guarantee an acceptable RAW browsing speed using a wireless (WiFi) connection.