(Minimum) hardware requirements for Mate and Cinnamon.

[Bill Lariviere]

Rather a newbie and non-techie, so i post my question here. I'm still using Gnome 2 for now, but soon it will be outdated. Been looking around for hardware requirements for MATE and Cinnamon, but found nothing. Any info on it for the Ubuntu-based version?

[mank_in]

Just my opinion ( from my experience install LM 12 Main edition in multiple PC ) :
I don't know about minimum processor needed ( maybe 1 Ghz + ), Pentium 4 or better is recommended ( i never try it with Pentium III )
For RAM/memory : 512 MB minimum but 1 GB is recommended

The most important is VGA/graphic Card
MATE : didn't need 3D acceleration
Cinnamon /Gnome 3 : ( you need 3d capable with working driver for current cinnamon , maybe not in the future )

Minimum Graphic card I am tested / reads working with current Cinnamon :
Intel : i945G or newer ( i use it )
ATI : Radeon X1xxx or newer ( i use Radeon x1600 )
NVIDIA : Geforce 6xxx or newer , Geforce 7xxx or better is recommended ( i use Geforce 8400GS and 9400 GT )

I am tested Intel i845G and Geforce FX5500 not working with cinnamon.
If you are not gamer , usually onboard Intel Graphic is best option ( you don't need worry about driver ) , and if you use add-on 3D graphic card, NVIDIA proprietary driver is better work in Cinnamon.

[bitoolean]

According to the release announcement article on the linux mint blog here (http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2031), the minimum system requirements are 512 MB RAM (1 GB is recommended), 5 GB available storage space, and any combination of an x86 microprocessor and basic graphics chip.

You found nothing because you didn't look more than a couple of minutes. I'm not even using linux (I can't at this time), but I'm interested and I looked a little harder for the information, and you can find it with the help of Google or by following the link to the release notes from the mint website, although I agree this type of information should not only belong to the distribution's blog.

[nunol]

Both Mint 13 MATE and Mint 13 Cinnamon should work with 384MB of RAM on any i686 CPU but it's better with more RAM, 1024MB should be enough.

Mint 13 XFCE should be faster than both.

If you run "inxi -Fxx" on the terminal you will see your hardware specs.

[jamvaru]

so the min drive space requirement is 5GB... then you could use symlinks to another drive if you need to expand your install, or a larger install, so...
... a good question might be what is the recommended size for a full install?
... another question, how many different installs can you have on the same disk, like a 2tb disk, you could partition how many times and not have some sort of corruption? at 5gb you could possibly install 400 times on one 2tb disk?
(my thoughts are that more than 4 partitions per disk is not necessary, so i'm going with an SSD @ 122 GB with 4 partitions around 30GB each; 2 are windows, one xp, other rc 8; 2 are linux, one is mint, the other testing)

if the regular install requires 5GB (presumably some being 'free space') then you would want more only if you plan on installing more stuff on the same drive, rather than using symlinks, right? or for storage, on the same drive, though only active programs need SSD speed, or first HDD partition speed; with the size of games these days, you might want 10GB to 50GB on your primary partition, imo

agree/disagree?

[A Future Pilot]

Just FYI you can create logical partitions and have MANY more (not sure exactly how many) partitions than the standard 4 per disk.

[Lukfi]

Sorry for reviving an old thread. I think it's still relevant though. I'd like to know what the situation is now, with Mint 15, and I guess there will be a new version based on Ubuntu 13.10 soon.
I have an old computer that I originally wanted to use just as a server, it has a very old ATI Rage graphics card. I hear these ancient GPUs are no longer supported in current Linux kernel, so Mint 13 MATE is about the best it can run. I have an option to swap it either for a Radeon X1550 AGP (maybe not exactly but it's something from the X1300 family - RV515, RV505 or some such), or a Radeon HD 3450 for a slightly higher price. So, will a X1000 family Radeon suffice, or is it better to go for HD 2000 and newer? I know AMD no longer supports the X1000 family in most recent drivers, but is it a problem? Can I use open source drivers for the X1550 if I don't need much 3D performance, just fluid desktop, web, flash and some lower-res video on youtube? (240p runs even now)

[nc6400_mint]

I would say that you should "ABORT ABORT" Linuxmint if you have this kind of GPU.
I will probably get flamed now, but it sems that just about the ONLY one in Linux world that can handle these "ancient" GPUs are Mr. Knopper (http://http://knoppix.net/)

I have just given up (again) on trying to make my otherwise wellbehaved but old NC6400 laptp run *any* kind of 3D on Linuxmint 14 Cinnamon.
If I dualboot it to the KNoppix 7.1, everything flies with bells and whistles, Compiz, 3D and wobbly windows. Only thing that bugs me there, is that I have to force it to work with the concept of more than one user.

If i nurse Mint 15, read the entire internet for if,then,else,then on the topic of X1300/RV515 gfx card ( ) and add boot parameters x|y|z , I can get it to boot to X, but damned if it can do ther than 2D gfx....

This is frustrating for a semi-noob like me :p



If *anyone* out there would care to set me/us straight and explain how to make X1300 work under Mint15 Cinnamon, please feel free

[Lukfi]

I don't expect it to be running Cinnamon and you shouldn't either. I just want to have a fluid experience in MATE, web browsing and such stuff, but most of all I want a GPU that is still supported by the kernel / X server / whatever. The Rage is not supported anymore, so the latest version I can run (while having any display capability other than a CLI terminal) is Mint 13.
I could buy a more modern used graphics card, but I need to know what works and what doesn't. Is Radeon 9200 okay? 9600? GeForce FX? I have no way to tell.