The following recommendations are based on systems available in 2000 when Release 5 was released.
To use NaturallySpeaking Release 5, 96MB is minimum for Windows95 and Windows98 users. 128MB is minimum for Windows NT and Windows-2000 users. With 96 MB (128MB for NT and 2000), one can dictate into the NaturallySpeaking window if other applications are closed but performance is sluggish. That is, the text will lag your speech quite a bit even presuming that you have a good sound system and microphone and a reasonably fast system. For Release 5, consider 192MB as a practical minimum.
If you are serious about using NaturallySpeaking and time is important to you, or if you wish to dictate into applications other than the NaturallySpeaking window, we recommend more memory. If your primary use of the machine is dictation and you have no other programs besides Microsoft Word97 or WordPerfect 8 and NaturallySpeaking, 256MB is suggested. If you normally use Outlook or other memory-intensive programs and wish better performance, 384MB is suggested.
Later releases of Dragon NaturallySpeaking require more memory. If you prefer to anticipate the need for more memory, and are buying a Pentium III or Pentium-4 system, 512MB is reasonable and justifiable, particularly if you dictate 30 minutes per day or more.
133MHz memory (on a 133MHz bus) is preferable to the slower 100MHz or 66MHz memory. RAMBus memory does not help enough with NaturallySpeaking to justify its much higher cost. NaturallySpeaking uses memory MUCH more than most other applications, so that memory speed plays a more important role in its performance. Don't be fooled by benchmarks with other applications.
Watch out for cheap memory or for overclocking memory modules. Many a NaturallySpeaking problem has been solved by replacing memory. These problems are random and can be difficult to diagnose. But the problems are real, and even many of the conventional memory testing programs don't test memory as much as NaturallySpeaking. Just because "all my other programs work," do not assume that the memory on your system is in perfect working order.
Revised March 2001
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