Recommended Computing for Ansys Products

The Ansys suite of engineering software is available to be utilized on a local basis on your own hardware, in the cloud so it could be used as an ‘on-demand’ basis, or a mixture of the two.  In addition, regardless of whether your license is hosted locally or in the cloud, you can leverage any computing platform.   This allows each company to choose the best computing environment for their needs.

For local computing, the Ansys engineering software suite is fully supported on Windows 11, Windows 10, and Windows Server 2019 (check out this link for Ansys hardware and OS roadmap). This platform gives the analysis community great computing capacity while delivered at commodity pricing. A multicore 64 bit processor system can address large amounts of RAM and allow large file sizes. A suggested analysis system may be something like:

Woman using a Dell computer with Ansys software on the screen

  • A processor with at least 4 cores (each product of the current Ansys product line uses 4 cores with no additional charge. Additional cores can be utilized with HPC licenses).

  • Windows 11 Pro Operating System

  • 4 GB (or higher) graphics card (DRD has had good experience with the latest generation NVIDIA cards. Please check the ANSYS website for an updated list of supported hardware).

  • 16 – 256+ GB of RAM based on problem size

  • 2 – 4 TB PCIe hard drive space.  The latest generation PCIe drives are sufficiently fast to handle multiple compute cores writing data to them. Older hard drives may hurt performance without the presence of a RAID 0 configuration and multiple drives.

  • 19″ or larger flat panel display. Dual monitors are often desirable.

  • Some applications benefit greatly with the use of a NVIDIA GPU. Please discuss appropriate options with DRD. 

For the ultimate workstation performance on your local network, DRD recommends working with Exxact Corporation.  Exxact offers the latest generation CPUs (from Intel and AMD) and the latest GPUs from Nvidia to maximize your local computing. Access to over 100 physical compute cores, on a single workstation, running on a Windows 11 Pro operating system and/or multiple GPUs provides the highest compute power in an easy to use environment. 

If you wish, contact DRD technical support (support@drd.com) for further hardware configuration assistance when ordering a new computer.

Whether the simulation is structural, fluid, or electronic, the Ansys HPC product is needed for parallel processing with greater than 4 cores. A computer with a single processor of six cores is considered as six cores. Similarly, a dual ten core machine would be considered a 20 core computer. Please consult with your DRD sales representative for the appropriate Ansys HPC licensing for the best price/performance ratio on these multicore platforms..

Ansys software is obtained by downloading via a web browser.