I got a pretty old computers. Can someone say if newer versions need more system requirements (are slower) on same hw/sw or there is some speed otimalization (not "just" new features) in newer versions? Special new features are not so much important to me, the speed is most significant. having xp sp2. Thank you.

Well, I haven't been able to find minimum system requirements for Inkscape anywhere. And I have seriously looked. To my understanding, the primary consideration is RAM. And just based on experience, I would say less than 2 gb RAM will experience more slowdowns and crashes, in general. Here's kind of an overview of the kinds of things that cause performance issues for Inkscape: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12160. If you plan to work with files like that, you probably will want to have more RAM (more RAM than I'm guessing an XP sp2 system might have). If it's a desktop computer, you might be able to buy and add more RAM.

(Just for comparison -- The most RAM anyone's ever reported here, that I can remember, is 16 gb RAM (omg!). Usually the only way we ever find out how much RAM people have, is when we're trying to solve performance issues. I have an XP sp3 machine with....gosh, I don't use it much anymore, and can't remember....I think it's 1.25 gb. Compared to my Win7 laptop with 4 gb RAM, the difference is night/day. Ideally, I wish I had gotten 8 gb. It might be interesting to set up a poll about this, but I would guess 4 to 8 gb to be an average range (although more is always better, when you're talking about graphics).)

I would say that newer versions need more system requirements, in general. Imo, it more depends on how you use Inkscape. Someone who only does logos or icons, would probably get by with 2 gb. But the more features are built into Inkscape, the more ambitious projects are attempted, by more and more users.

Having said all that, I can't speak to the technical side of Inkscape with very much expertise. But I do know that we're expecting (and developers are actively working on) a new renderer for version 0.49, which is expected to solve many of the performance issues that we have now. It's planned for sometime next year. I suppose it would seem reasonable to think that 0.49 might work well on a machine with only 2 gb RAM. As I say it though, something seems not quite logical about such a theory

If speed is your bottom line, RAM is your answer

Thanks a lot for such a detailed replay. I got 1GB RAM (with no change to increase - schools comps) with Inscape 0.4.6 and as reading your info I am not gonna change anything. Allhough inkscape sometimes crashed, although it starts 30s, it somehow works... Its really strange to me too why develepers do dot publish those min. syst. req. and thats inkscape is so much ram consuming.