System Requirements

Q: What hardware is required to run SciChart WPF?

SciChart WPF is designed to run on any Windows PC which is capable of running WPF with the .NET Framework or above.

Minimum .NET Framework version for SciChart SDK v6 is now .NET Framework v4.5.2 or later (including .NET4.6, .NET4.7, .NET4.8)

Windows versions supported are the same that WPF and .NET4.5.2 supports, e.g. Windows Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10.

.NETCore3.0 and .NETCore3.1 Is supported with the Windows Desktop Applications pack.

Q: What Visual Studio Version(s) are recommended?

At SciChart we recommend Visual Studio 2019 or later, as it is faster, leaner and has better features than previous editions. However, SciChart can be compiled and developed on Visual Studio 2012 as well as 2013 - 2017.

Always ensure you have the latest service packs for Visual Studio as this can affect stability in the XAML designer and prevent many common IDE issues that users of SciChart sometimes run in to.

Q: Minimum Video Hardware Requirements

The SciChart software renderers (the default renderers) will work on any video adapter, including virtual / emulated adapter, integrated graphics, virtual machines etc...

The SciChart DirectX Visual Xccelerator Engine requires a DirectX 9c capable (DirectX 11 preferred) Video Card (GPU) with at least 256MB of Video Ram. Less Video RAM than this can cause problems and automatic downgrade to software rendering which is slower. See Troubleshooting Visual Xccelerator Issues on low-end Graphics Adapters for more information.

The VisualXccelerator Engine published as part of SciChart WPF SDK v6 will perform better with a more modern or fast GPU. We would recommend nVidia 1060 GTX or later GPU or Radeon GPU with at least 1GB of VRAM for optimum operation.

Q: But what hardware is recommended for Fastest Operation?

Recommended hardware for best performance would be an Intel i7 processor with 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a medium-to-high-spec nVidia graphics card such as 1070 GTX or 1080 GTX. Such a PC system can be bought nowadays for about £1,000.

As parts of SciChart become more dependent on video hardware, a good GPU is becoming more important, however you can still get very decent performance numbers on average enterprise laptops/desktops – you don’t need a super computer to get great results out of SciChart!

Q: How much RAM do I need to run SciChart?

SciChart is actually very memory efficient. SciChart 2D WPF uses not much more memory than required to hold the raw data, for instance, if you wish to display 100,000,000 points of XY data where X and Y types are double, you can expect to use just over 100M * 8 * 2 bytes = 1.6GBytes. SciChart can be run on machines with very low RAM and only 200MB is required for the scichart engine itself, plus the approximate amount of memory to hold your data.

Minimum VRAM requirement for optimal performance is 256MB. Preferred is 1G or more.

Q: Will SciChart run over Remote Desktop?

Yes! Of course. SciChart is simply a WPF UserControl, it does not require any special hardware to run and it can be viewed (and it is still fast!) over Remote Desktop connections. Even our DirectX renderer plugin and DirectX powered 3D Charts will run over remote desktop.

If you want to limit framerate you can use a property, SciChartSurface.MaxFrameRate, to limit the amount of data sent over remote desktop.

Q: Can I run SciChart in a WinForms Application?

Yes, you can. By using the Microsoft ElementHost WinForms Control, which can host any WPF UserControl inside a Winforms application.

Q: What Touch-Screens does SciChart Support?

Any multi-touch screen, which is compatible with the WPF MultiTouch APIs.

Q: I have an 11" Intel Atom Netbook. Can SciChart display 1,000,000,000 points on that?

Well, it is going to be a lot slower than that gaming-desktop you have, but SciChart is still capable of displaying large data-point counts on slower PCs. We suggest you follow our Performance Tips & Tricks to get the best out of SciChart.