As a photogrammetric software, Terrain Creator is a memory, CPU, and graphics intensive program. You will need a higher performance computer in order to process photogrammetry in a timely manner. However, that doesn't mean you need to spend a fortune on a "Survey Beast" workstation. Terrain Creator is optimized for processing photogrammetry, and you can get by with a decently priced off-the-shelf computer (cost between $1,300 to $1,500). We'll share our standard configuration with you and some real-world examples to give a benchmark of performance you can expect.


Note: Virtual Surveyor, our smart drone surveying software, has much lower configuration requirements than Terrain Creator.


Overview


Standard Configuration

Dell XPS 8950

  1. Operating System: Windows 10 or 11 is required
  2. Operating System Architecture: 64 bit
  3. CPU: 12 core Intel i7-12700, 2.1 GHz
  4. RAM: 16 GB
  5. GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti


This configuration will give you very reasonable processing time for most projects. You can see real-world examples of this computer's capability in the Example Project Site tables below. This computer configuration cost $1,273 USD without tax (purchased in 2023).


How do I choose?

There are many variables to consider what you need, and it really depends on your project. If you regularly have large projects that include thousands of photos at high resolution, you need a really powerful machine to cut down a project's processing time. If you regularly work on projects that have between a few hundred photos and 1,500 photos per project, you can make do with a lower spec computer, but projects may take a little longer to process. You can always start with the computer you have, and if it takes too long, then you will need to purchase a computer with faster CPU and GPU, and more RAM.


Warning: Do not process your project over a network connection. This will significantly reduce the speed of your processing and may lead to errors and/or crashes. Only process projects on your local machine.


Real World Examples

Just to show that you don't need a special computer to effectively use Terrain Creator, here at Virtual Surveyor we've flown some different drones with different cameras over a couple of project sites. Then, we tested the processing time with the drone photos for each flight in Terrain Creator using two different off-the-shelf Dell computers (one computer is 4-5 years older than the other).


Example Project Site #1


Dell XPS 8930
CPU: Intel Core i7-8700 (6 Cores), 3.20 GHz
RAM: 16 GB
GPU1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
Drone:M3EZenmuse P1
Area of Project Site:20 acres / 8 hectares
Flying Height:85 ft / 25 m200 ft / 60 m
Camera Resolution:20 MP45 MP
Number of Photos:442272
Processing Time:50 min2 hrs 33 min


Dell XPS 8950
CPU: 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700 (12 cores), 2.1 GHz
RAM: 16 GB
GPU1: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
Drone:M3EZenmuse P1
Area of Project Site:20 acres / 8 hectares
Flying Height:85 ft / 25 m200 ft / 60 m
Camera Resolution:20 MP45 MP
Number of Photos:442272
Processing Time:25 min42 min


Example Project Site #2 


Dell XPS 8930
CPU: Intel Core i7-8700 (6 Cores), 3.20 GHz
RAM: 16 GB
GPU1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
Drone:Quantum Systems
Area of Project Site:325 acres / 132 hectares
Camera Resolution:42 MP
Number of Photos:1201
Processing Time:9 hrs 59 min


Dell XPS 8950
CPU: 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700 (12 cores), 2.1 GHz
RAM: 16 GB
GPU1: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
Drone:Quantum Systems
Area of Project Site:325 acres / 132 hectares
Camera Resolution:42 MP
Number of Photos:1201
Processing Time:2 hrs 29 min



Hardware Issues with I9-13900K/14900K Series CPUs

There are known hardware issues with Intel I9-13900K and I9-14900K series CPUs. They have an overclocking/overheating problem with the processors that causes high performance programs to crash. This is a hardware problem, not a software problem. We recommend you avoid using these CPUs to process your photogrammetry.