System Requirements: COMSOL Multiphysics® Version 5.4
These requirements are common to all platforms:
- A working network card and internet connection are recommended during installation
- At least 4 GB of RAM is recommended
- 2–10 GB of disk space, depending on your licensed products and installation options
- Adobe Acrobat® Reader to view and print the COMSOL documentation in PDF format
- An Intel® or AMD® 64-bit processor based on the Intel® 64 or AMD64 architecture
For further recommendations concerning hardware, please see our Knowledge Base entry.
Operating System Requirements
In addition to the operating system requirements listed below, see the Interfacing Product Suite Requirements for specific requirements for the CAD Import Module, Design Module, and the LiveLink™ products. The system requirements for COMSOL Compiler™, and compiled applications, are identical to those for COMSOL Multiphysics®.
| Windows® | macOS | Linux® | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 64-Bit Operating Systems |
|
macOS 10.10, 10.11, 10.12, 10.13, and 10.14 |
|
1COMSOL Multiphysics® version 5.4 is the last COMSOL® version to support the Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 6.
OS-Specific System Requirements
| Linux® |
|
|---|
2See FlexNet® License Manager on Linux® below.
Help System on Linux®
In order for the help system to work on Linux® operating system, the following packages need to be installed:
- Debian® and Ubuntu®:
libwebkitgtk-1.0-0 - RHEL 6 and CentOS 6:
webkitgtk - RHEL 7 and CentOS 7:
webkitgtk4 - openSUSE Leap 15:
libwebkit2gtk-4_0-37 - openSUSE Leap 42.3:
libwebkitgtk-1_0-0
If libwebkitgtk is not installed, the help system still functions but will open in a separate window. For RHEL 7 and CentOS 7, COMSOL Multiphysics® will always open separate windows for the help system and Application Library Update.
FlexNet® License Manager
The system requirements for the license manager are the same as for COMSOL Multiphysics®. FlexNet® version 11.15.1 is used on all platforms. The version of lmgrd must be the same or higher than the FlexNet® version used by the COMSOL® software.
FlexNet® License Manager on Linux®
Linux Standard Base (LSB™) is required for Linux® on the license server computer.
If the LSB™ core package is missing from the distribution repository, manually create a symbolic link as root:
ln -s /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 /lib64/ld-lsb-x86-64.so.3
| Distribution | Required Packages |
|---|---|
| Debian® | lsb-core |
| Ubuntu® | lsb-core |
| Red Hat® | redhat-lsb |
| SUSE® | lsb |
Application Builder
The Application Builder is supported in the Windows® operating system.
Parallel System Requirements
| Windows® | macOS | Linux® | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared-Memory Parallelism | All supported versions of Windows® | All supported versions of macOS | All supported Linux® distributions |
| Distributed-Memory Parallelism |
|
Not Supported |
All computers in the cluster must use the same Linux® version and should have similar hardware. It is recommended that OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution (OFED) 1.5.4.1 or higher is installed. If you are using RDMA-capable network fabrics, a DAPL 1.2 or later version-compliant driver or library is required. The software is usually provided with your hardware. |
COMSOL Multiphysics® version 5.4 has been validated on systems compatible with the Intel HPC Platform Specification and thus will be compatible with Intel® Select Solutions for Simulation and Modeling.
For information on how you can run COMSOL Multiphysics® and COMSOL Server™ in the cloud, please view this page.
Officially Supported Compilers
COMSOL Multiphysics® provides external C interfaces for external functions, external materials, and external C libraries in the Application Builder.
| Windows® | macOS | Linux® | |
|---|---|---|---|
| External C Interfaces | Microsoft Visual Studio® 2017 | Intel® Composer XE 2015.7 (also known as Intel® Compiler version 15.0.7) with Apple LLVM version 6.0 (clang-600.0.57) is officially supported | Intel® Composer XE 2015.7 (also known as Intel® Compiler version 15.0.7) with GCC 4.9.2 is officially supported |
| Java API | JDK 1.6, 1.7, or 1.8 | JDK 1.6, 1.7, or 1.8 | JDK 1.6, 1.7, or 1.8 |
COMSOL Multiphysics® is built and tested with the above C/C++ compilers. Please note that later versions of those C/C++ compilers may also be compatible with the external C interfaces. When using the COMSOL API for use with Java API in client/server mode with the jar files listed in <installation dir>/bin/comsolclientpath.txt, JRE 1.6, JRE 1.7, and JRE 1.8 are supported. When using the COMSOL API for use with Java API in standalone mode with the jar files listed in <installation dir>/bin/comsolpath.txt, JRE 1.8 is supported.
Graphics System Requirements
COMSOL recommends hardware rendering for performance reasons. Hardware rendering requires drivers that support OpenGL® version 2.0. Windows® operating system users may also use DirectX® version 9 on the local console. Hardware rendering requires at least 24-bit color graphics.
The Optimize for Quality setting in the Graphics preferences requires OpenGL® 2.0. Software rendering also supports 16-bit color graphics. For performance reasons, we recommend that the graphics card has at least 512 MB memory.
AMD®
| Card Model | Operating System | Driver Version |
|---|---|---|
| AMD Radeon™ Pro WX 9100 | Windows® 10 | 18.Q3 |
| AMD Radeon™ Pro WX 8200 | Windows® 10 | 18.Q3 |
| AMD Radeon™ Pro WX 7100 | Windows® 10 | 18.Q3 |
| AMD Radeon™ Pro WX 5100 | Windows® 10 | 18.Q3 |
| AMD Radeon™ Pro WX 4100 | Windows® 7 and 10 | 18.Q3 |
| AMD Radeon™ Pro WX 3100 | Windows® 10 | 18.Q3 |
| AMD Radeon™ Pro WX 2100 | Windows® 10 | 18.Q3 |
| AMD Radeon™ Pro WX 2100 | Fedora 28 | AMDGPU (Linux 4.18) |
| AMD FirePro™ W7100 | Windows® 10 | 18.Q3 |
| AMD FirePro™ W5100 | Windows® 8.1 | 17.Q3.1 |
| AMD FirePro™ W4100 | Windows® 10 | 18.Q3 |
NVIDIA®
| Card Model | Operating System | Driver Version |
|---|---|---|
| Quadro® P4000 | Windows® 10 | 392.00 |
| Quadro® P3200 | Windows® 10 | 392.00 |
| Quadro® P2000 | Windows® 10 | 392.00 |
| Quadro® P1000 | Windows® 10 | 392.00 |
| Quadro® P600 | Windows® 7 and 10 | 392.00 |
| Quadro® M2000 | Windows® 10 | 392.00 |
| Quadro® K2200 | Windows® 7 | 392.00 |
| Quadro® K1200 | Windows® 10 | 392.00 |
| Quadro® K620 | Windows® 8.1 | 392.00 |
| Quadro® K5000 | Windows® 7 | 377.83 |
| Quadro® K4000 | Windows® 7 | 377.83 |
| Quadro® K2000 | Windows® 7 | 377.83 |
| Quadro® K600 | Ubuntu® 16.04 | 390.67 |
The graphics cards listed above have been rigorously tested for compatibility with the COMSOL Multiphysics® software. Please note, however, that other AMD® or NVIDIA® graphics cards may also be compatible with COMSOL Multiphysics®. Graphics cards that belong to the same model series as one of the cards listed above are more likely to be compatible with COMSOL Multiphysics®.
For hardware acceleration on Linux®, use proprietary drivers from your graphics card vendor, such as NVIDIA®; otherwise, use COMSOL® software rendering. The Nouveau video driver is only supported for software rendering.
Note: This information is provided for your benefit but should not be used as a substitute for your own investigation of the system requirements that may be appropriate for your use of COMSOL® software or other software, given your particular circumstances. Systems and hardware change regularly, which may impact any determination of what system requirements are appropriate for you.
Adobe and Acrobat are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. AMD, AMD Athlon, FirePro, and Radeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Debian is a registered trademark of Software in the Public Interest, Inc. in the United States. FlexNet is a registered trademark of Flexera Software LLC. NVIDIA and NVIDIA Quadro is a registered trademark of NVIDIA Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Intel and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and/or other countries. Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Red Hat and Red Hat Enterprise Linux are registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. Ubuntu is a registered trademark of Canonical Ltd. OpenGL is a trademark or registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries worldwide. OpenSUSE and SUSE are registered trademarks of SUSE LLC. Linux, Linux Standard Base, and LSB are trademarks or registered trademarks of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. macOS is a trademark of Apple Inc., in the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft, DirectX, Visual Studio, Windows, and Windows Server are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. COMSOL AB and its subsidiaries and products are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or supported by these trademark owners.