are are affinity applications supported on windows 10 1903?

[kerwin.robinson@zgf.com]

also are there ways to improve the performance of the applications from a hardware standpoint? 

do the applications utilize GPUs meaning higher end ones will allow the applications to perform better?

Do they make use of x64 operating systems? 

Does more RAM help?

Does a larger HD help performance?

Do affinity apps support multiple threads?

 

Thanks!

[walt.farrell]

Yes, they should work on Windows 10 version  1903.

At this point, the GPU is not used as much on Windows as on Mac. For best performance more memory and a faster disk are probably more important, but they're working on making more use of the GPU.

[GarryP]

To add to what Walt said…

If you have multiple GPUs then you can tell the Affinity applications which one you want to use. (I’ve not seen any appreciable performance differences between the two I have but I don’t do anything that is particularly complex.)

If you have a 64-bit system then the Affinity applications you install will be 64-bit applications. I don’t know if 32-bit versions are available but if your system is 64-bit then you simply don’t need to worry about it. (Note that 64-bit applications don’t always run better or faster than their equivalent 32-bit versions. Sometimes all you notice is that the 64-bit version uses more memory.)

If you have less than 4GB of RAM then you should seriously think about upgrading to at least 4GB; your system will run faster overall.
If you have less than 8GB of RAM then, if your budget allows, you should probably think about upgrading to 8GB, especially if you regularly have more than a couple of applications open at the same time or are going to be doing a lot of graphical work.
If you have less than 16GB of RAM then upgrading to that really depends on what you’re going to be doing. If you’re going to be using lots of large images/documents – or also want to do video editing or other memory-hungry things – then 16GB is a good amount to have if you can afford it but not normally absolutely necessary. If your normal memory usage at 8GB isn’t high (Task Manager / Performance / Memory) then don’t worry too much about it.
More than 16GB? That would be entirely up to you depending on what your current and future needs are.

The size of your hard drive doesn’t make much difference unless you have a small amount of RAM or a small amount of free space on the hard drive, or both. You can have a 1TB hard drive but if you’re only using 300GB of it then most of it is going to waste and is just sitting there unused and useless.
If you need more disk space and your budget – and machine spec’ – allows, consider adding an additional second drive – probably doesn’t need to be a particularly large one – instead of upgrading to a larger main drive. If you put all of your documents on the secondary hard drive you should get a bit of a speed boost as the two drives can work in parallel rather than the system trying to get/put everything from/to the same drive. A bit like painting a wall with two brushes at the same time instead of just one.

I have no idea whether the Affinity applications use multiple threads. I guess they probably do in some areas but there’s nothing thread-wise that the user can control (in Designer or Publisher at least, I don’t have Photo).

[emmrecs01]

@GarryP

1 hour ago, GarryP said:

I don’t know if 32-bit versions are available

They aren't.  All the Affinity apps have always been exclusively 64 bit.

Jeff

[GarryP]

Thanks for adding that information Jeff.
The official Tech Specs for Designer and Photo don’t say they’re 64-bit-only while they do say both applications can also run on Windows 7, which has 32-bit versions, so I wasn’t sure. The Mac specs say 64-bit is required but the Windows specs don’t. Maybe the section for Windows should be tweaked a little to inform people of this.

[walt.farrell]

That's interesting, @GarryP. I'm sure the Windows section used to say that. Maybe in the store redesign for 1.7 that was lost.

[GarryP]

I was fairly sure that I had read somewhere – possibly on the website – that the Affinity range was 64-bit-only but since the OP specifically asked about 64-bit I didn’t bother looking further at the time. I think the website needs to be clear that the software is not available on any 32-bit OSes so as to avoid potential disappointment in prospective users. It would be a shame if someone got themselves in a position to be ready to buy the software after watching lots of videos etc. only to find out that their machine wasn’t capable of running it.