System Requirements - 5.2a COMSOL Multiphysics®
These requirements are common to all platforms:
- A working network card and Internet connection is recommended during installation.
- At least 1 GB memory, but 4 GB or more per processor core is recommended.
- 1-5 GB of disk space, depending on your licensed products and installation options.
- Adobe Acrobat® Reader 10.1.9, 11.0.06, or later to view and print the COMSOL® documentation in PDF format.
For further recommendations concerning hardware, please see our knowledgebase 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, the Design Module, and the LiveLink™ product suite.
| Windows® | macOS | Linux® | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 64-Bit Operating Systems |
|
Mac OS X 10.7 and OS X 10.8, 10.9, 10.10, 10.11, and macOS 10.12 |
|
1Only supported for server, batch, and cluster operation.
OS Specific System Requirements
| Linux® |
|
|---|
1If you have an older version of libstdc++ than 6.0.9, you may need to start COMSOL with the option -forcegcc.
Help System
The following browsers are not supported when the Help mode is set to Browser:
- Google Chrome™ browser
- Microsoft Edge™ browser
Help System on Linux®
In order for the help system to work on Linux®, the following packages need to be installed:
- Debian® and Ubuntu®:
libwebkitgtk-1.0-0 - RHEL:
webkitgtk(not included in RHEL7 but available through EPEL). openSuSE:
libwebkitgtk-1.0-0orlibwebkit-1_0-2depending on the version.
If these requirements are not met, COMSOL crashes when accessing the help system.
FlexNet® License Manager
The system requirements for the license manager are the same as for COMSOL Multiphysics®. FlexNet® version 11.13.1.4 is used on Windows® and version 11.13.1.3 on Linux® and Mac OS X. The version of lmgrd must be the same or higher than the FlexNet® version used by COMSOL.
FlexNet® License Manager on Linux®
Linux Standard Base (LSB™) is now 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:
/lib64/ld-lsb-x86-64.so.3 -> ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
| 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® | Mac OS X | Linux® | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared-Memory Parallelism | All supported versions of Windows® | All supported versions of Mac OS X | 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. |
1 For distributed parallelism using shared memory on Ubuntu® 14.04 LTS and 16.04 LTS, set the environment variable I_MPI_SHM_LMT to shm.
* COMSOL is a proud member of the Intel® Cluster Ready program and certifies COMSOL Multiphysics® with every new version. View Certificate. The certification process ensures that COMSOL Multiphysics® will seamlessly work for parallel processing and cluster modeling on any hardware that has also been certified as being Intel® Cluster Ready.
Intel, Intel Cluster Ready, and the Intel Cluster Ready text treatment are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.
For information on how you can run COMSOL Multiphysics and COMSOL Server in the cloud, please click here
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 | Visual Studio® 2010 | Intel® Composer XE 2013.3 (also known as Intel® Compiler version 13.0.2) with GCC 4.2.1 is officially supported | Intel® Composer XE 2013.4 (also known as Intel® Compiler version 13.1.2) with GCC 4.2.1 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 |
Graphics System Requirements
COMSOL recommends hardware rendering for performance reasons. Hardware rendering requires drivers that support OpenGL® version 2.0. Windows® 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 FirePro™ V4800 | Ubuntu® 14.04 LTS | 15.201.2401 |
| AMD FirePro™ V5900 | Ubuntu® 12.04 LTS | 15.201.2401 |
| AMD FirePro™ V7750 | Windows Server® 2008 | 8.911.3.4000 |
| AMD FirePro™ W2100 | Red Hat Enterprise Linux® 7 | 15.302.2001 |
| AMD FirePro™ W4100 | Windows® 10 Enterprise | 15.302.2001 |
| AMD FirePro™ W4170M | Windows® 7 | 14.301.1019 |
| AMD FirePro™ W5000 | Windows® 10 | 15.302.2001 |
| AMD FirePro™ W5100 | Windows® 8.1 | 15.302.2001 |
| AMD FirePro™ W7000 | Windows Server® 2012 R2 | 15.302.2001 |
| AMD FirePro™ W7100 | Windows® 7 | 15.201.2401 |
| AMD FirePro™ W8000 | Ubuntu® 16.04 LTS | AMDGPU |
| AMD Radeon™ Pro WX4100 | Windows® 10 | 16.50.2001 |
NVIDIA®
| Card Model | Operating System | Driver Version |
|---|---|---|
| Quadro® K5000 | Windows® 7 | 362.56 |
| Quadro® K4000 | Windows® 7 | 362.56 |
| Quadro® K2200 | Windows® 7 | 362.56 |
| Quadro® K2000 | Windows® 7 | 362.56 |
| Quadro® M2000 | Windows® 10 | 369.09 |
| Quadro® K1200 | Windows® 7 | 362.56 |
| Quadro® K620 | Windows® 10 | 362.56 |
| Quadro® K620 | Debian® 8 | 361.42 |
| Quadro® 600 | Debian® 8 | 361.45.11 |
| Quadro® 600 | Windows Vista® | 348.40 |
| Quadro® 410 | Windows® 7 | 362.13 |
| Quadro® FX 1800 | Debian® 7 | 340.93 |
| NVS 510 | Ubuntu® 14.04 LTS | 361.45.11 |
| NVS 310 | Ubuntu® 14.04 LTS | 352.79 |
| GeForce® GTX 950M | Windows® 10 | 368.22 |
The graphics cards listed above have been rigorously tested for compatibility with COMSOL Multiphysics®. 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® or AMD®; 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.