- v50 information can now be added to pages in the main namespace. v0.47 information can still be found in the DF2014 namespace. See here for more details on the new versioning policy.
- Use this page to report any issues related to the migration.
System requirements
v50.14 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF.Note that some content may still need to be updated. |
If you're looking for information on improving the performance of Dwarf Fortress on your computer, see Maximizing Framerate. For installation instructions, see Installation.
OS
- Windows requires XP SP3 or newer and Intel/AMD CPU.
- Linux runs natively or using Wine.
- Mac OS X needs Intel CPU (and 10.5 or later, for SDL)
RAM
DF is not particularly RAM-hungry. Expect the process to allocate between 300 and 700 MB with medium regions. With 512MB you may be a bit on the short side, but 1 GB is absolutely sufficient. World Generation can eat up far more than that - it's possible to encounter crashes due to being out of memory. In particular major areas for this to occur are during history, final touches in finalizing sites, and while saving. This is especially problematic with unusual generator configurations, such as worlds with large numbers of megabeasts, caves, civilizations, high or non-existent site and population limits, and very lengthy histories. User-made modifications can also increase the requirements, depending on their nature.
The most important thing to the performance of the game, however, is undoubtedly RAM latency—the amount of lag the RAM has when working. Dwarf Fortress works the RAM every single frame for every single creature, every single item, every single piece of liquid, the temperature of every tile—you get the picture. The gigantic amount of operations working at the same time—which any current processor could handle much faster than what you see—is primarily bottlenecked by RAM latency and RAM speed.
CPU and FPS are mildly correlated, but this correlation has been attributed as a non-causative one. Rather, newer CPUs seem to come with faster RAM, but for the purpose of a Dwarf Fortress computer, RAM is more important.
Before 0.43.05, Dwarf Fortress was 32-bit only, so adding more memory usually couldn't fix out-of-memory problems due to very large worlds and very large embark sites, since the memory available to Dwarf Fortress was limited to 2GB or 3GB (depending on the OS). It is unknown if 64-bit support provides any boost to FPS on 64-bit systems.
Cache size
As Dwarf Fortress's bottlenecks are mostly due to cache misses, it has been speculated on the DF forums that "a CPU with a positively giant L3/L4 cache (and I mean > 256 mb or GTFO)" would improve DF performance, as would using faster RAM with smaller transfer times.
SDL vs. Legacy
SDL is a cross-platform application framework. The SDL version of DF runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It includes Baughn's new OpenGL code, which is faster and has more features (including support for PNG tilesets and using scroll wheels).
"Legacy" refers to the (Windows-only) framework Toady used before migrating to SDL. The legacy version is only necessary if the SDL version doesn't work for some reason.
Experiential reports
Report format
Please read the report template page before contributing any reports.
Reports
Configuration type: Self-built PC from 2008
- Game info
- Game version: v0.34.07
- World size: Small
- Embark size: 4x4
- Age of fort: 1 year
- Number of dwarves: 15
- Average fps: 100
- Default/nondefault raws: default
- Tileset in use: Mayday
- Amount of stone dug: ~3000
- Amount of water and state: About 15 murky pools, no river or stream
- Approximate amount of z-levels: 10
- RAM usage of game: 622 Mb
- Draw mode in init.txt: 2D
- PC info
- CPU: Intel Core2Quad Q6600 @ 2,4Ghz
- MBO: Gigabyte P35-DS3L
- RAM: 4Gb DDR2 @ 800Mhz
- GPU: Gigabyte Radeon HD5850
- OS: Windows 7 Professional x64
Configuration type: Self-built PC from 2012
- Game info
- Game version: v0.34.11
- World size: Small
- Embark size: 4x4
- Age of fort: 8 years
- Number of dwarves: 232
- Average fps: 78
- Default/nondefault raws: default
- Tileset in use: Mayday
- Amount of stone dug: ~1100
- Amount of water and state: Frozen river, frozen murky pools, two artifical-made underground rivers
- Approximate amount of z-levels: 8
- RAM usage of game: 765 Mb
- Draw mode in init.txt: 2D
- PC info
- CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K @ 3,4 Ghz
- MBO: ASUS P8Z77-M PRO
- RAM: 8Gb DDR3 @ 1600Mhz
- GPU: Gigabyte Radeon HD5850
- OS: Windows 7 Professional x64
Configuration type: Self-built PC from 2012
- Game info
- Game version: v0.34.11
- World size: Small
- Embark size: 4x4
- Age of fort: 2 years
- Number of dwarves: 98
- Average fps: ~250
- Default/nondefault raws: default
- Tileset in use: Mayday
- Amount of stone dug: ~1900
- Amount of water and state: Frozen river, Frozen Pools
- Approximate amount of z-levels: 9
- RAM usage of game: 834 Mb
- Draw mode in init.txt: 2D
- PC info
- CPU: Amd Fx-8350 @ 4,8 Ghz
- MBO: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
- RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 1866 Mhz
- GPU: Sapphire Hd 7970 Ghz Vapor X
- OS: Windows 7 Professional x64
"System requirements" in other Languages 
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