Windows Vista Hardware Requirements

Windows Vista is a big step up the ladder in terms of hardware required to get the full "Windows Vista Experience," as Microsoft calls it. This site will serve to provide information to The University of Iowa community on what hardware is recommended by Microsoft as well as by ITS.

If you are considering upgrading a Windows XP computer to Vista, you should download and run Microsoft's Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor tool to see whether or not your computer's hardware will be able to handle Windows Vista, as well as what software and drivers on your machine are compatible with Vista.

The following table outlines Microsoft's Vista Premium recommendations and the ITS hardware recommendations for running Vista. For more information on system requirements, see Microsoft's Windows Vista System Requirements web site.

Hardware
Microsoft's Vista Premium Ready
ITS Recommendations
Processor
1GHz 32bit or 64bit
2GHz 32bit or 64bit
System Memory
1GB
2GB
Graphics Processing Unit
DirectX 9 support with WDDM driver support
DirectX 9 support with WDDM driver support
Graphics Memory
128MB, pixel shader 2.0 support, 32 bits per pixel
128MB, pixel shader 2.0 support, 32 bits per pixel
Hard Drive
40GB
80GB
Hard Drive Free Space
15GB
25GB
Optical Drive
DVD-ROM drive
DVD-ROM drive

Return to the Windows Vista Compatibility Center