# 3D Slicer Hardware requirements

**URL:** <https://discourse.slicer.org/t/3d-slicer-hardware-requirements/9937>\
**Category:** Development\
**Created:** [January 24, 2020, 5:25pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/3d-slicer-hardware-requirements/9937 "2020-01-24T17:25:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![manjula](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/manjula/32/80981_2.png) [@manjula](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/manjula)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2020, 5:25pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/3d-slicer-hardware-requirements/9937/1 "2020-01-24T17:25:44Z")

</div>

As i understand 3D Slicer is mainly built on VTK and ITK. I understand answers to the following will depend on the type of data and size of data and what you are going to do with it but in general is it possible to tell,

How do you decide on the optimal physical RAM ?

How do you decide on the optimal GPU and VRAM ?

Is the volume rendering mainly calculated in the CPU and only the final stages is done on the GPU ?

What calculations are done by the CPU and what calculations are mainly done by the GPU ?

What basic functions mainly depend on CPU resources and what functions mainly depend on GPU resources ?

---

_[View the full topic](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/3d-slicer-hardware-requirements/9937)._