System Requirements: COMSOL Multiphysics^® Version 6.4

Hardware Requirements

The hardware requirements for COMSOL Multiphysics^® include:

• A working network card and internet connection for installation
• At least 4 GB of RAM
• 2–25 GB of disk space, depending on your licensed products and installation options
• The following processors:
  • An Intel^® or AMD^® 64-bit processor based on the Intel^® 64 or AMD64 architecture with the SSE4 instruction set:
    • Intel^® processors released in 2009 or later and AMD^® processors released in 2012 or later satisfy this requirement.
  • Apple silicon processors (M1 and later), supported with macOS
  • ARM64 processors, supported with Linux^®

In addition, Adobe Acrobat^® Reader is required to view and print the COMSOL documentation in PDF format.

For further recommendations concerning hardware, please see our Knowledge Base entry.

Operating System Requirements

In addition to the operating system requirements listed below, there are specific requirements for the CAD Import Module, Design Module, and LiveLink™ products listed on the Interfacing Product Suite requirements page. The system requirements for COMSOL Compiler™ are identical to those for COMSOL Multiphysics^®.

64-Bit Operating Systems

OS-Specific System Requirements

Help System on Linux^®

In order for the help system to work on Linux^® operating systems, the WebKitGTK package needs to be installed. The WebKitGTK package is available under different names in different Linux^® distributions:

FlexNet^® License Manager

The system requirements for the license manager are the same as for COMSOL Multiphysics^®. FlexNet^® version 11.19.8 is used on all platforms. COMSOL^® 6.4 is not generally compatible with FlexNet^® license manager versions from earlier COMSOL^® releases. Thus, when upgrading to COMSOL^® 6.4, you need to upgrade the license manager as well. The version of lmgrd must be the same as or higher than the FlexNet^® version used by the COMSOL^® software.

Application Builder

The Application Builder is supported in the Windows^® operating system.

Chatbot Window

The Chatbot window functionality supports the Windows^® operating system. The chatbot functionality requires access to the OpenAI API, either through an OpenAI account or an account with an API-compatible provider. Please note that acquiring an API key from these providers may involve choosing a paid subscription plan.

Model Manager

The capability to use a local Model Manager database is included with all licenses except the class kit license. When using a local Model Manager database, it needs to be located on your computer and cannot be placed on a network or cloud drive. Installation and connection to a central Model Manager server is available with a floating network license. Connecting to a Model Manager server is available for all license types except the class kit license.

Add-In for Microsoft^® Word and PowerPoint^® 

The COMSOL add-in for Microsoft^® Word and PowerPoint^® is compatible with PowerPoint^® and Word 2021 and 2024 on the Windows^® operating system. If you are using Microsoft 365^®, PowerPoint^® and Word must be installed on the computer — the add-in requires a version of PowerPoint^® that supports Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) add-ins.

Parallel System Requirements

¹ Microsoft^® HPC Pack for the respective Windows Server^® version is required.

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.

COMSOL Multiphysics^® is built and tested with the abovementioned 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 in client/server mode with the jar files listed in <installation dir>/bin/comsolclientpath.txt, JRE 8 and 11 are supported. When using the COMSOL API for use with Java in standalone mode with the jar files listed in <installation dir>/bin/comsolpath.txt, JRE 11 is supported.

Java Environment

The COMSOL^® software is shipped with OpenJDK™ 21.0.7+6. You can choose an alternative Java 21 version 21.0.7+6 or later during installation.

GPU Computing System Requirements

Supported Hardware

• At least one NVIDIA^® GPU with a compute capability of 6.0 or higher is required.
  • All NVIDIA^® GPUs listed under Graphics System Requirements meet this requirement.

Minimum Driver Versions

• Windows^® OS: NVIDIA^® driver version 551.61 or later
• Linux^® OS: NVIDIA^® driver version 550.54.14 or later

Note that, by default, the COMSOL installer installs the CUDA libraries required for GPU-accelerated solvers. However, the NVIDIA^® drivers must be installed or updated separately.

License Requirements

• Discontinuous Galerkin solver for a single GPU: supported for all license types
• Discontinuous Galerkin solver for multiple GPUs: requires a floating network license
• NVIDIA CUDA^® direct sparse solver (cuDSS): supported for all license types, including configurations with multiple GPUs on the same computer
• Cluster GPU computations: require a floating network license

Graphics System Requirements

COMSOL recommends hardware rendering for performance reasons. Hardware rendering requires drivers that support OpenGL^® version 2.1 or later.

To use all rendering features available when Optimize for Quality is set in the Graphics preferences, graphics memory of 2 GB or more is recommended.

AMD^®

Windows^® 11

Windows^® 10

Ubuntu^® 24.04

NVIDIA^®

Windows^® 11

Windows^® 10

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 the COMSOL^® software or other software, given your particular circumstances. Systems and hardware change regularly, which may impact any determination of which 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 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, NVIDIA Quadro, and CUDA are trademarks or registered trademarks 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, OpenJDK, and Java are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Red Hat and Red Hat Enterprise Linux are registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. 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 is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. Apple and macOS are trademarks of Apple Inc., in the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft, Microsoft 365, PowerPoint, Visual Studio, Windows, and Windows Server are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Rocky Linux is a trademark of Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation. Ubuntu is a registered trademark of Canonical Ltd. COMSOL AB and its subsidiaries and products are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or supported by these trademark owners.