System Hardware Requirements
Microsoft has finally revealed the system hardware requirements for Windows 7. They are as follows :
- 1 GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
- 1 GB RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
- 16 GB available disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
- DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
Additionally, some features provided by certain Windows 7 editions require additional hardware, as outlined here :
- Internet access
- Depending on resolution, video playback may require additional memory and advanced graphics hardware (e.g. HD videos)
- For some Windows Media Center functionality, a TV tuner and additional hardware may be required.
- Windows Touch and Windows Tablet require specific hardware
- HomeGroup requires a network and PCs with Windows 7
- DVD/CD authoring requires a compatible optical drive
- BitLocker requires TPM 1.2, while BitLocker To Go requires a USB flash drive
- Music and sound require audio output
- Windows XP Mode requires an additional 1 GB of RAM, an additional 15 GB of available disk space and a processor capable of hardware virtualization, with Intel VT or AMD-V turned on.
The hardware requirements above apply to all versions of Windows 7. Microsoft has released a separate set of maximum hardware specifications for the Small Notebook PC segment. This limits the following SKUs to certain hardware specifications :
- Windows 7 Starter
- Windows 7 Starter for Small Notebook PC
- Windows 7 Home Basic For Small Notebook PCs (China only)
Please see the next page for the new specification limitations on these small notebook PCs.
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