SolidWorks 2013 and Windows 10 are not friends; they are uneasy roommates who tolerate each other under strict conditions. For a student learning CAD or a hobbyist with an old license, this setup is viable. For a professional engineering firm billing $200/hour, the risk of a random crash corrupting an assembly file is too high.
| Component | Recommended Specification | | :--- | :--- | | | Windows 10 LTSC 2019 (Long Term Servicing) or Win10 Pro v1809 | | SolidWorks Version | SW2013 SP5.0 (Service Pack 5 is mandatory; SP0-4 are unstable on Win10) | | GPU | NVIDIA Quadro P2000 / P2200 (Driver version 472.84 or older) | | CPU | Intel 8th Gen or older (12th/13th Gen P-core/E-core scheduling confuses SW2013) | | RAM | 16GB DDR4 (SW2013 cannot utilize more than 32GB effectively) | Solidworks 2013 Windows 10 Compatibility
Even though it is older software, modern operating systems require resources. SolidWorks 2013 and Windows 10 are not friends;