When you plan on upgrading to, requires of your computer workstation is a simple Google search away. I’ll make it a little easier, though. Below are the system requirement pages for Autodesk’s major 2012 products and a resource link for future reference in finding support topics on Autodesk software: Computer Workstation : The Hardware Requirements and Recommendations for AutoCAD 2012 and 3ds Max Design 2012

Looking through these requirements and recommendations you should start to see quite a trend: High CPU speed, lots of RAM. Most of Autodesk’s latest offerings are very RAM-hungry with users of complex Revit models even being suggested to work with 16 GB+ of memory on their machines . At the time of this writing, there are numerous desktop motherboards which can accept more than this quantity of RAM, only 3 notebooks that I’m aware of, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit won’t even recognize more that 16 GB of memory (better than the 3 GB limit of 32-bit operating systems!).and a certified workstation graphics card. 64-bit programs require more resources, but the extra cost is well worth it given the additional computing performance shown in review-after-review. Not that there’s much of a choice any more. Pretty much any new workstation (and most bought within the last 2-3 years) already have a 64-bit capable processor and Windows Professional 64-bit is becoming more the norm rather than the exception.

AutoCAD 2012 and 3ds Max Design 2012 : Computer Workstation-Graphics/Video Card requirement.

Graphics cards have always been the talk of the town when it comes to CAD workstations. Autodesk (and many other CAD developers) recommend certified workstation cards which cost 2-3 times more than their gaming equivalent. Although these graphics cards may be built on the same platform, workstation cards may have more shader pipelines opened up and higher clocked processor cores, as well as proper drivers for Direct3D, OpenGL, OpenCL, and CUDA drivers.

These differences are what make workstation cards work better for CAD geometry and database calculations compared to gaming graphics cards; they are also what make them much more expensive. Are they worth the extra money? I’ll leave that up to the people with dozens of machines to test repeatedly with billions of calculations. My opinion? Decide whether you intend to purchase a business-level workstation or a consumer grade computer and get the best video card you can within your budget (best != most expensive).

AutoCAD 2012 and 3ds Max Design 2012 : Computer Workstation-Hard Drive/Storage requirement.

Although Autodesk doesn’t mention much along the lines of storage drives aside from free space, faster is better. There are 5400, 7200, and 10k RPM Hard Disk Drives and Solid State Drives with read/write speeds which vary drastically. Solid State Drives (SSD) are newer technology which is finally starting to drop in price a little, but is well beyond what most consider affordable for their computer purchasing needs. They are much faster, but they are also very misunderstood and earlier/entry level models aren’t much of a performance jump compared to a 7200 or 10k RPM Hard Disk Drive (HDD).

What matters the most when dealing with Autodesk software requirements and recommendations is that you have plenty of free space (8 GB+ at the absolute minimum) available on the storage drive you are using and it is running error free. Storage drives are one of the most common components to fail on computers and carry the most value after use. Get a 7200 RPM HDD for affordable storage at a decent speed and a small (80-128 GB) SSD to install your OS and CAD software on for quick starts and fast load times without breaking the bank, so long as you have 2 storage drive bays to take advantage of.

Below are the requirements and recommendations are for this release of the software  AutoCAD 2012 and 3ds Max Design 2012.

For 32-Bit AutoCAD 2012 Computer Workstation

Microsoft® Windows® 7 Enterprise, Ultimate, Professional, or Home Premium (compare Windows 7 versions); Microsoft® Windows Vista® Enterprise, Business, Ultimate, or Home Premium (SP2 or later) (compare Windows Vista versions); or Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional or Home edition (SP3 or later)
For Windows Vista or Windows 7: Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® dual-core processor, 3.0 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology; for Windows XP: Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon dual-core processor, 1.6 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology
2 GB RAM
2 GB free disk space for installation
1,024 x 768 display resolution with true color
Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 7.0 or later
Install from download or DVD

For 64-Bit AutoCAD 2012 Computer Workstation

Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise, Ultimate, Professional, or Home Premium (compare Windows 7 versions); Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise, Business, Ultimate, or Home Premium (SP2 or later) (compare Windows Vista versions); or Microsoft Windows XP Professional (SP2 or later)
AMD Athlon 64 with SSE2 technology, AMD Opteron® processor with SSE2 technology, Intel® Xeon® processor with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology, or Intel Pentium 4 with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology
2 GB RAM
2 GB free space for installation
1,024 x 768 display resolution with true color
Internet Explorer 7.0 or later
Install from download or DVD

Additional Requirements for  3D Modeling Computer Workstation (All Configurations)

Intel Pentium 4 processor or AMD Athlon, 3 GHz or greater; or Intel or AMD dual-core processor, 2 GHz or greater
2 GB RAM or more
2 GB hard disk space available in addition to free space required for installation
1,280 x 1,024 true color video display adapter 128 MB or greater, Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater, Microsoft® Direct3D®-capable workstation-class graphics card

Computer Workstation System Requirements 3ds Max 2012 computer workstation.

Computer Workstation 32-Bit 3ds Max 2012 or 3ds Max Design 2012 for Windows

Operating system: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Professional operating system, Microsoft® Windows Vista® Business operating system (SP2 or higher), or Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional operating system (SP3 or higher)

For general animation and rendering (typically fewer than 1,000 objects or 100,000 polygons):

Intel® Pentium® 4 1.4 GHz or equivalent AMD® processor with SSE2 technology*
2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended)
2 GB swap space (4 GB recommended)**
3 GB free hard drive space
Direct3D® 10 technology, Direct3D 9, or OpenGL-capable graphics card† (256 MB or higher video card memory, 1 GB or higher recommended)
Three-button mouse with mouse driver software
DVD-ROM drive
Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 8.0 internet browser or higher or Mozilla® Firefox® 3.0 internet browser or higher
Internet connection for web downloads and Autodesk® Subscription-aware access

Computer Workstation 64-Bit 3ds Max 2012 or 3ds Max Design 2012 for Windows

Operating system: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional x64, Microsoft Windows Vista Business x64 (SP2 or higher), or Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 (SP3 or higher)

For general animation and rendering (typically fewer than 1,000 objects or 100,000 polygons):

Intel® 64 or AMD64 processor with SSE2 technology*
4 GB RAM (8 GB recommended)
4 GB swap space (8 GB recommended)**
3 GB free hard drive space
Direct3D 10, Direct3D 9, or OpenGL-capable graphics card)***(256 MB or higher video card memory, 1 GB recommended)
Three-button mouse with mouse driver software
DVD-ROM drive
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 or higher or Mozilla Firefox 3.0 or higher browser
Internet connection for web downloads and Autodesk Subscription-aware access
For large scenes and complex data sets (typically more than 1,000 objects or 100,000 polygons):

Intel® 64 or AMD64 processor with SSE2 technology*
8 GB RAM
8 GB swap space**
3 GB free hard drive space
Direct3D 10, Direct3D 9, or OpenGL-capable graphics card ***
(1 GB or higher video card memory)
Three-button mouse with mouse driver software
DVD-ROM drive
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 or higher or Mozilla Firefox 3.0 or higher browser
Internet connection for web downloads and Autodesk Subscription-aware access

Computer Workstation 3ds Max 2012 or 3ds Max Design 2012 for Macintosh

Boot Camp
You can install Autodesk 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design 2012 software on a Mac® computer on a Windows® partition. The system must use Boot Camp® application program to help manage a dual OS configuration and meet the minimum system requirements.

Intel®-based Mac Pro or MacBook® Pro computer¹
Mac® OS X 10.5.x or higher operating system
Boot Camp V 2.0 or higher
Minimum 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended for 32-bit Windows, 8 GB or more for 64-bit Windows)
Minimum 20 GB disk space for Apple OS partition, minimum 20 GB for Windows OS partition
Mac Virtualization on Parallels Desktop
Autodesk 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design 2012 can be used on the Mac via Parallels Desktop® for Mac software without having to boot directly into the Windows OS so it is easy to switch between platforms. The system must meet the following requirements:

Intel-based Mac Pro or MacBook Pro¹
Mac OS X 10.5.x or higher
Parallels Desktop 4.0 (4.0.3844 or higher)²
Minimum 4 GB RAM (6 GB system memory for 32-bit Windows, 8 GB or more for 64-bit Windows recommended)
Minimum 40 GB available disk space (100 GB recommended)
For more details, read the 3ds Max for Mac FAQ.

¹64-bit Windows Vista requires an Intel Core® 2 Duo or Intel® Xeon® processor.
²Parallels Desktop is the only supported virtual machine software at this time.

* Autodesk 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design 2012 have been optimized to take advantage of the SSE2 extended instruction sets supported on Intel® Pentium® 4 or higher, AMD Athlon™ 64, AMD Opteron™, and AMD Phenom™ processors. Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 will not operate on computers that do not support SSE2. Several utilities are available on the Internet that report CPUID, including supported instructions sets.

** Autodesk recommends settings that allow Microsoft Windows to manage virtual memory, as needed. There should always be at least twice as much free hard disk space as system memory (RAM).

***Some features of 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design 2012 are enabled only when used with graphics hardware that supports Shader Model 3.0 (Pixel Shader and Vertex Shader 3.0). In addition, Quicksilver hardware rendering requires additional GPU resources to work effectively. A minimum of 512 MB of graphics memory should be used. A minimum of 1 GB is recommended for the most complex scenes, shaders, and lighting modes.

In addition, when buying new hardware, consider certified hardware from Autodesk hardware partners. Buying a CAD workstation to fit the needs of your software is always a bit of a mystery. You know what the requirements and recommendations are for this release of the software, but to build a system with greater longevity and better performance, use the recommended system requirements over the minimum

Computer Workstation Hardware requirements and recommendations for AutoCAD 2012 and 3ds Max Design 2012.