I was given an Acer 5 Nitro with these specs:
CPU: 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-8300H (quad-core, 8MB cache, up to 4.0GHz)
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 ( 4GB VRAM); Intel UHD Graphics 630.
RAM: 8GB SDRAM (DDR4)
Screen: 15.6-inch FHD (1,920 x 1,080) Acer ComfyView (IPS LED) LCD.
Storage: 1TB HDD.

will Houdini run on this? I do mostly modeling, no particle sims.

IIRC you need/want a GTX 1060, although that might have been redshift

I believe you are correct. I appreciate your reply

I toy around with Houdini with a GT630 ( 2GB ) and system RAM 8 GB. What I mostly miss is system RAM

you should be able to run houdini ok with your laptop. Maybe you want to upgrade the RAM to 16 or 32 GB if you can.

I've got a 1060 and an i7 over here, and houdini runs just fine… so with your specs, it should only be a tad worse, especially if you are only modeling.

Remember you can always freeze nodes that take a long time to calculate (if you don't need to make changes upstream).

Yeah that laptop will run Houdini fine, but system RAM will be the biggest factor restricting you. GPU doesn't matter that much, I use a gtx960m and Houdini works great.

As Houdini is right now, I agree with pbowmar. I have a gtx980 and Houdini works fine.

And just as he says, my biggest issue is that I simply don't have enough Ram (16GB) to do anything on a scale that I would be satisfied with in terms of image ‘quality’ results.

More than enough for learning though.

However I had to revist the Solaris clip - https://www.sidefx.com/community/sidefx-solaris/ [www.sidefx.com]

I was thinking maybe because of that, the gpu might become more important.

Of course, I had have bad memory and was reminded that switching over to Karma in viewport when in LOP network will be utilizing CPU at first(meaning when it initially comes out in H18).

I have no clue but suspect, even for just modeling - IF those models become quit complex, it may turn out that CPU and RAM becomes more ‘important’ or rather one would appreciate a better CPU/RAM combination with Solaris/Karma in viewport.

I'm thinking in terms of bang for your buck…those with Threadrippers like 16 core 32 thread versions may see very good performance. (I for one will be looking for peoples comments/experiences with high end Threadrippers with Solaris).