Installing software programs into a laptop can occasionally lead to some doubts. When it comes to heavy applications like Matlab, the doubts become more opaque as it’s one of the heaviest ones out there.
With millions of Engineers and Scientists using it for machine learning, sophistication has a legit ground here. While installing MATLAB on your laptop, you’ll need a certain configuration to run it. So, what are the Minimum Requirements of a Laptop For Running MATLAB Smoothly?
The standard requirements for installing MATLAB seamlessly on your system are 8 GB RAM, updated OS (Windows, Mac, or Linux), minimum 31 GB HDD space available, etc. However, this is just the minimum you need, and Matlab needs much more to run smoothly.
If you want a smoothly working Matlab on your computer, get through the article and get the recommended system configuration.
What is MATLAB?
MATLAB—also known as ‘Matrix Laboratory’—is a sophisticated, high-performance, interactive programming software used for technical computing. MATLAB is built upon the MATLAB programming language—a matrix-based programming language that enables the most natural representation of computational mathematics.
Mathworks designed MATLAB for scientists, engineers, and programmers to analyze and build products to evolve the world. Also, they can create applications and models and facilitate machine and deep learning. MATLAB is a complex and sophisticated application, great for researchers in special usage. As such, it also requires some powerful hardware to execute tasks efficiently.
MATLAB can be applied in the following fields:
- Wireless Communication
- System Design and Simulation
- Power Electronic Control
- Internet of Things
- Robotics
- Deep learning
- Interactive program visualization
- Data Science
- Control Systems
- Signal Processing, etc.
MATLAB can be used to:
- Develop algorithms
- Analyze data
- Build applications and models
- Train applications and models.
The software helps you transform your ideas from scientific research to development by providing embedded hardware devices and enterprise applications. It also facilitates these by integrating with Model-Based Design and Simulink.
Do You Need A Laptop Or Desktop For Running MATLAB?
MATLAB is a software program used for data analysis and artificial intelligence implementation. You can run MATLAB on a laptop, desktop computer, or even a mainframe, depending on your purpose of utilizing the software. But you can still find some specific laptops for using MATLAB.
It is a complex and high-performance software and won’t require a simple machine to implement functionalities. Using a computer with specifications below is the requirements of MATLAB will be slow and discouraging.
What To Look Out For Before Getting a Computer for MATLAB (Recommended specs)
Before looking out for what specifications are the best fit for your laptop, first understand what purpose you have for utilizing the MATLAB software. MATLAB is flexible and can be used for numerous scripting and applications. Therefore, based on how you’d use the software, you might need to focus on the specifications. Below are the following hardware requirements that you need:
1. Processing Power
We all know that a laptop that has more CPU cores will surpass a laptop that has lesser CPU cores. There, MATLAB uses multiple processing simultaneously for multithreading, so a laptop with a multi-core processor is ideal, such as core i5 to core i9 (from intel) and gen 3 processors of AMD. Also, you might eventually be required to execute heavy processor-intensive computations or use enormous data.
2. Hard disk Storage
Though not compulsory, laptops that have SSDs offer extra advantages and are recommended to use for high performance. This is because the SSDs (Solid-State Drives) make the laptops faster and more responsive. They also allow you to boot software programs way quicker with faster read and write capability.
3. RAM
The RAM is a very integral component to consider when deliberating upon installing MATLAB on your system. If you’re a beginner or someone who requires regular RAM, then 8 GB is recommended. But if you’re an advanced programmer in MATLAB, then using 16 GB RAM is recommended for you. And that of DDR 4 technology. Of course, you can also choose a laptop that has an extra RAM slot, so you can extend the RAM if you desire.
4. Graphics Card
Graphics cards are not a major requirement when installing MATLAB. However, if you are using MATLAB for complex works that need extra graphic processing power, you need a graphics card with GL technology. One of our recommendations is the NVIDIA graphics card. The higher the capacity, the higher the performance you’ll get. So, consider getting one like GTX 1080 ti, RTX 2060, 2080, etc.
5. GPU for Display
MATLAB graphics are facilitated using OpenGL technology, meaning that the higher the GPU capacity, the better the performance. Also, recently updated drivers are advised for the most visual display and robustness.
6. GPU for Computation
The Parallel Computing Toolbox takes advantage of NVIDIA GPUs with a computational capacity of 3.0 or more to ensure quicker computation.
What Are The Minimum Requirements Of A Laptop For Running MATLAB Smoothly?
If you’re still keen for more answers to what are the Minimum Requirements of a Laptop For Running MATLAB Smoothly, consider these specific hardware requirements.
1. Operating Systems
Windows
- Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1
- Windows Server 2012
- Windows Server 2016
- Windows Server 2019.
- Windows 7 Service Pack 1
- Windows 8
- Windows 8.1
- Windows 10
Mac
- macOS Yosemite 10.10
- macOS El Capitan 10.11
- macOS Sierra 10.12
Linux
- Debian 7.x, 8.x
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and 7
- Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and 16.04 LTS
2. Processors
- Any AMD or Intelx86-64 processor.
- Using PolySpace, 4 cores is ideal.
- AVX2 instruction set compatibility is needed.
3. Hard Disk Memory
- MATLAB only: 2GB memory needed.
- For an overall installation: 4-6GB.
4. RAM
- Using Simulink: 4GB minimum.
- Using Polyspace: 4GB per core is a standard.
- In general, 8GB is recommended.
5. Graphics Card
- A Graphics card isn’t a must.
- For Graphics-intensive simulations, a hardware-accelerated Graphics Card compatible with OpenGL 3.3 having 1GB GPU memory is standard.
Conclusion
MATLAB is a sophisticated programming tool used to facilitate technical computing and complex artificial intelligence implementations. The software provides scientists and engineers the ability to implement data science and create and train models.
Being a complex software, MATLAB has some standard requirements that you adhere to if you must install the software on your laptop. We hope, now you have a complete idea of what are the Minimum Requirements of a Laptop For Running MATLAB Smoothly.
Run your Matlab smoothly and get things done. Best of luck.
