Laptop system requirements

We want to make sure you can make the most of your time at Leeds, so before you begin studying with us you’ll need to ensure your laptop meets the below specifications.

Depending on your circumstances you can benefit from a laptop loan or further support from our University Financial Assistance Fund.

Undergraduate courses

BA Fashion Marketing
BA Art and Design
BA Sustainable Fashion
BSc Textile Innovation and Sustainability
MA Global Fashion Management
MA Fashion Enterprise and Society
MA Art and Design
MSc Textile Sustainability and Innovation
MSc Colour

System requirements calculated based on Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator.

Minimum and recommended system requirements for Windows

	Minimum	Recommended
Processor	Multicore Intel® or AMD processor (2 GHz or faster processor with SSE 4.2 or later) with 64-bit support	See minimum
Operating system	Windows 10 64-bit (version 21H2) or later; LTSC versions are not supported	See minimum
RAM	8GB	16GB or more
Graphics card	GPU with DirectX 12 (feature level 12_0 or later) 1.5 GB of GPU memory GPUs less than 7 years old (update display drivers from the GPU manufacturer's website). Currently, we don't support testing on GPUs older than 7 years	GPU with DirectX 12 support (feature level 12_0 or later) 4 GB of GPU memory for 4k displays and greater
Hard disk space	20 GB of available hard-disk space	100 GB of available hard disk space Fast internal SSD for app installation Separate internal drive for scratch disks
Monitor resolution	1280 x 800 display at 100% UI scaling	1920 x 1080 display or greater at 100% UI scaling
Internet	Internet connection and registration are necessary for required software activation, validation of subscriptions, and access to online services.*	See minimum

	Minimum	Recommended
Processor	ARM processor	See minimum
Operating System	Windows 10 ARM device running Windows 10 64-bit (version 20H2) or later	See minimum
RAM	8GB	16GB or more
Graphics card	4 GB of GPU memory	See minimum
All the other aspects for ARM are the same as Intel

Minimum and recommended system requirements for macOS

	Minimum	Recommended
Processor	Multicore Intel® or Apple Silicon processor (2 GHz or faster processor with SSE 4.2 or later) with 64-bit support	ARM-based Apple Silicon processor
Operating system	macOS Big Sur (version 11.0) or later	macOS Ventura (version 13.5.1) Installation is blocked on v10.15.x
RAM	8GB	16GB or more
Graphics card	GPU with Metal support 1.5 GB of GPU memory To find out if your computer supports Metal, see Mac computers that support Metal See the Photoshop graphics processor (GPU) card FAQ	GPU with Metal support 4 GB of GPU memory for 4k displays and greater
Hard disk space	20 GB of available hard-disk space Photoshop will not install on a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system	100 GB of available hard disk space Fast internal SSD for app installation Additional high-speed drive(s) or SSD to set up scratch disks
Monitor resolution	1280 x 800 display at 100% UI scaling	1920 x 1080 display or greater at 100% UI scaling
Internet	Internet connection and registration are necessary for required software activation, validation of subscriptions, and access to online services.*	See minimum

	Minimum	Recommended
Processor	ARM-based Apple Silicon processor	See minimum
Operating System	macOS Big Sur (version 11.2.2) or later	macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 or later
RAM	8GB	16GB or more
All the other aspects for Apple Silicon are the same as Intel

Undergraduate courses

BA Fashion Design Innovation
BA Fashion Design
BA Graphics and Communication Design
MA Advertising and Design
MA Design
MA Digital Design Futures (Windows or Mac running Bootcamp and Windows)

System requirements calculated based on After Effects / Premiere Pro.

Minimum and recommended system requirements for Windows

	Minimum	Recommended
Processor	Intel® 8th Gen or newer CPU – or AMD Ryzen™ 1000 Series or newer CPU Advanced Vector Extensions 2 (AVX2) Support required Note: It is not possible to install the 24.0 versions on Intel® 3rd Generation of processors or older (as well as older AMD processors).	Intel® 11th Gen or newer CPU with Quick Sync – or AMD Ryzen™ 3000 Series / Threadripper 2000 series or newer CPU
Operating system	Windows 10 (64-bit) version 22H2 or later	Windows 10 (64-bit) version 22H2 (or later) or Windows 11.
Memory	16 GB of RAM	16 GB of RAM for HD media 32 GB or more for 4K and higher
GPU	Windows with NVIDIA GPU: GPU must be of the Maxwell generation or newer and have at least 4GB of VRAM Windows with Intel or AMD GPU: Discrete GPU with at least 4GB VRAM and support for OpenCL	4 GB of GPU memory for HD and some 4K media 6 GB or more for 4K and higher
Storage	8 GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (will not install on removable flash storage) Additional high-speed drive for media	Fast internal SSD for app installation and cache Additional high-speed drive(s) for media
Display	1920 x 1080	1920 x 1080 or greater DisplayHDR 1000 for HDR workflows
Sound card	ASIO compatible or Microsoft Windows Driver Model	See minimum
Network storage connection	1 Gigabit Ethernet (HD only)	10 Gigabit ethernet for 4K shared network workflow

Minimum and recommended system requirements for MacOS

	Minimum	Recommended
Processor	Intel® 6thGen or newer CPU	Apple silicon M1 or newer
Operating system	macOS Monterey (version 12) or later Note: Support for macOS 11.0 (Big Sur) has been discontinued. Installing the 24.0 versions of After Effects on macOS 11.0 or older isn't possible. The 24.0 versions of After Effects are not supported on Rosetta. Mac users can continue to use the 24.0 version on Apple silicon and Intel-based Mac.	macOS Monterey (version 12) or later
Memory	16 GB of RAM	Apple silicon: 16 GB of unified memory
GPU	Apple Silicon: 16GB of RAM Intel Macs with a discrete AMD GPU: 4GB of VRAM	Apple silicon: 16 GB of unified memory
Storage	8 GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (will not install on removable flash storage) Additional high-speed drive for media	Fast internal SSD for app installation and cache Additional high-speed drive(s) for media
Display	1920 x 1080	1920 x 1080 or greater DisplayHDR 1000 for HDR workflows
Network storage connection	1 Gigabit Ethernet (HD only)	10 Gigabit ethernet for 4K shared network workflow