Open GL 3.0 or higher required Error Message

@support Thank you for the trial run of roon. Unfortunately we’re having difficulty installing and have searched the community forum and have been unable to troubleshoot & solve the problem.

We’re trying to run Roon on a HP PC with following specs:
Windows 7 Professional Operating System -
64 bit w/ACER Xonar Essence ST audio card
MSI Radeon HD6450 graphics card
Netgear Nighthawk AC2300 Smart Wifi Router Arris Modem Model 75
Download Speed consistently higher than 100 & upload speed 11+

We’re getting a Fatal error message “Open GL 3.0 or higher required” - - based on our computer specs above would our computer be compatibile with the Roon technology or do we need to upgrade one of the components so we can successfully operate Roon?

What do you recommend?

Have you installed the latest drivers for your graphics card, Radeon HD6450? That may include the required Open GL version.

https://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop/legacy?product=legacy3&os=Windows%207%20-%2064

Regarding the PC specs. please share the processor type and memory, e.g. Intel i3 6100 with 4GB RAM. Ideally, Roon should be installed on an SSD.

Thx Martin - here’s the info you requested & yes we have downloaded the latest drivers - your thoughts?

Processer is Intel dual core e8400 @3.00GHz
4GB Ram
64 bit operating
Windows 7 Professional Service Pack 1

I don’t think this processor has enough grunt for Roon. :slight_smile: It’s old, around ten years old, which may be why the graphics card doesn’t support newer Open GL releases.

The following link may help and I’m sure others can provide a definitive answer
,
https://kb.roonlabs.com/Roon_Optimized_Core_Kit

I know from experience of trying to run Roon remote on older computers that many Vista/Win7 vintage PCs are not Open Gl 3 compliant. You can run RoonBridge on these computers but not the remote.

All is not lost though. Once you get a core up and running elsewhere you can run a Roon Extension that provides a web interface on any browser with no open gl requirements. See the Tinkering section for details.

Edit: forgot to mention, Roon core does need an SSD to run from. A computer of that vintage would provide a very poor experience indeed with slow graphics and a slow disc.

You can try installing Roon Server on the machine rather than full Roon. This means you cannot control from that PC but you shouldn’t need the graphics engine either. That should allow you to get through the trial and experience Roon but you need i3/4gig/SSD to get the proper responsive experience and the ability to use the more intensive functions.

The specs I referenced indicated the card does support up to OpenGL 4.1. I would suggest that you remove all the video drivers first and then re-install with the latest version; and I would go with the drivers supplied by the card manufacturer, MSI.

I know that it is highly recommended that the database live on an SSD for the optimal experience, but it is possible to keep the database on an old-school, platter disk and do just fine. My library is about 53,000 tracks (a mix of Tidal, CD rips, and high-res downloads, both FLAC and ALAC), the database is not on an SSD (work machine, no option for me to upgrade internals) and Roon runs just fine. My music files live on an external USB drive. I rarely, if ever experience noticeable lag in searching the library, playing tracks, or other consequences that might be related to the lower bandwidth and longer read times of a spinning hard disk. Of course, YMMV, and that’s what the trial period is for.

Agreed, these things are possible, but not recommended. YMMV, but below spec hardware is not a good foundation on which to start off. Music collections only grow in size and searching won’t get any quicker. Old graphics cards are slow and none of these things show off Roon in its best light and are sub-optimal for sound quality. NUCs are cheap…