System Requirement FAQs

For a documentation article please see SciChart 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 .NET4.5 or above.

Windows versions supported are the same that .NET4.5+ supports, e.g. Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10.

.NET Framework versions supported are .NET4.5 and later (including .NET4.5, .NET4.5.1, .NET4.5.2, .NET4.6, .NET4.7)

Since v5.0, SciChart no longer supports .NET4.0 or Windows XP.

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

At SciChart we recommend Visual Studio 2017 or later, as it is faster, leaner and has better features than previous editions. However, SciChart can be developed on Visual Studio 2012 as well as 2013, 2015 and 2017. 

Compilation of SciChart from source code (if you are a source-code customer) requires Visual Studio 2017, as we depend on the VC++ Runtime that ships with VS2017. 

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: Do I need a Fast Graphics Card? 

Not necessarily! You only need a graphics card capable of running WPF, which is any DirectX 9c or later card. So long as you have Windows XP* or later, you should be able to run SciChart.

If you are using the 2D Chart DirectX renderer (packaged with the SciChart WPF Enterprise edition only) then you will need a DirectX10/11 (or later) capable video card. SciChart 2D is able to fall back to software rendering when the appropriate hardware is not available.

SciChart 3D does require a DirectX9c (or later) capable video card, and is not available for computers without a DirectX9c / DirectX10 / DirectX11 GPU.  

NOTE: Microsoft officially ended support for Windows XP and since v5.0 of SciChart WPF, we no longer support this operating system

Q: But what hardware is recommended for Fastest Operation?

SciChart 2D favours high-speed CPU over high-speed GPU, as many of our algorithms are performed on the CPU side. If you have a Quad-Core i7 running at 3.4GHz and Intel Integrated Graphics, it’s going to beat a 1.6 GHz CPU and fast ATI or nVidia graphics.

SciChart 3D favours both CPU and GPU, with faster GPUs and larger GPU memory offering considerable performance improvements, especially in real-time 3D WPF charts.

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 10,000,000 points of XY data where X and Y types are double, you can expect to use just over 10M * 8 * 2 bytes = 160Mbytes. So for standard 2D charts without hardware acceleration, SciChart can be run on machines with very low RAM.

SciChart 2D DirectX and SciChart 3D will both use a larger amount of memory, including unmanaged memory as Textures are created in video driver memory. So for DirectX Hardware-accelerated charts, 128-256Mbytes of Video memory is recommended, and the more the better.

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 10,000,000 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.