CADDManager on March 28th, 2011

While the requirements have not changed much for this release…

If you are not on Windows 7 yet – it may be time to move. If you are not on a 64bit system yet – it may be time to move.  If you have not loaded up your system with RAM – time to slam some more in there.  Older OS’s and 32bit will still work, but the demands of the software keep increasing.  RAM is always a welcome addition and is an inexpensive upgrade for most.

Here are the AutoCAD 2012 32bit requirements for AutoCAD:

  • 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

And the 64bit requirements:

  • 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

If you are going to delve heavily into the 3D side of things:

  • 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

My personal recommendations for any new machine:

64bit – Windows 7 – 8 gigs of RAM (or more) – Kick up the GPU strength also

26 Responses to “AutoCAD 2012 System Requirements”

  1. we just purchased a number of statios for ADT 2011:

    Lenovo E20 – 4222
    6GB ram
    Quadro 2000

    working great!

    Happy Cadding

  2. Remember system requirements are not a one size fits all as there are a number of factors that affect how much resources you require. The factors can be from the complexity of your drawings, 2D or 3D, visual styles such as a 3D part as wireframe takes less than one with a smooth shaded view, and certainly the size of your drawings.

  3. I have a Windows 7, AMD Athlon dual-core processor, 2.9 GHz. Is my system compatible with this? How does 2.9 Ghz differ from 3.0Ghz?

  4. We are looking to buy new hardware with the future in mind. Any thoughts on performance enhancement between a quad and a 6 core CPU?

  5. I have not tested or compared two systems like you are mentioning. What I have heard is that it does not make much difference to “gamers”.

    Does anyone out there have a comment?

  6. Hmm, we are currently undergoing a review of CAD stations as our 6 year old P4(3.2Ghz), XP, 3.5Gb are struggling with 2011. That being said they have done a good 6 years! Most of the issues relate to the 128Mb ATI V3100’s. We will replace & redistribute the stations to general staff.

    Looking at:
    Windows7 (64bit)
    2x500Gb 10k Sata mirrored drives (dealt with too many HD problems over the years)
    16Gb RAM
    ATI V5800
    i7-2600 (3.4) although Dell recommend sluggish, low ranked Xeons (probably all that fits their motherboards)
    Budget £1k/unit

    Any thoughts???

  7. Dave
    This looks like a very good machine. I agree on the move to SATA drives.
    Mark

  8. Dave, We are in the same boat as you

    Any thoughts on the 17 being a consumer CPU?

    It is faster but with a xeon CPU you can run 2 CPUs and get more throughput from multiple threads. I don;t think you can run multiple CPUs with an i7. Seems to me that the xeon lets you build more for the future. One CPU now and add a 2nd when needed.

    Both Dell and HP reccomended the Xeon over the i7

    And why the 2 HD’s We have everything working off of a file server and only 1 260GB HD on each workstation. No production files are stored on the HDs.

  9. Hi hello,

    Kindly please advice me if a CORE-2 DUO with 2G RAM, 2.1Ghz-processor, 128 dedicated graphics is enough to run an AUTO CAD PROGRAM in windows?

    Thank you very much..

  10. Jeff: fine if you have a file server, otherwise a mirror RAID is essential – I have just had a HD fail but could carry on with the remaining disk without losing anything.
    I though AutoCAD was only multithreaded for regens (?) and then only across two processors, not cores, so the only advantage in a multicore processor was that Windows separated other programs to the other cores, so that AutoCAD did not have to share the processing time on a single core. This would seem to indicate that raw processor speed was more important.
    But (there’s always a but) throughput of data to and from the processor must be significant when dealing with large files or multiple xrefs/underlays so then we get into cache sizes, memory speed and number of memory channels. Looking at the specs of the array of Xeons and trying to work out which is best (all else being equal) is a nightmare.
    Or would any differences in processors be overridden by RAM and graphics card?

  11. Hello there, I am an architectural engineering student,
    I have HP Pavilion dv6 with processor Intel core i7-2670qm CPU 2.2 GHz, 6 gb of RAM, x64 bit.
    mobile Intel HD Graphics, total memory 780 mb
    and my cad 2012 lags very badly, even though i do not draft in 3d…
    I can’t even draw a line properly…
    could any1 suggest what do I do?
    could I improve my graphics? or what cad version should I run?
    I DESPERATION NEED HELP… my final is in few days…

  12. Everything you have listed should be enough to get the job done. Clean up your machine and remove all malware and viruses using standard free tools. Reboot and try again. Stop all other programs and just use CAD.

  13. sir i have intel d865 3 ghz procesor 2 gb ram and window 7 ultimate .can i used autocad 2012

  14. i am vathsan from srilanka
    i have a hp laptop
    with …..i3, 64bit, 500gb, 4gb….
    i just install autocad-2012
    but it is very so slow…why?
    whst is the problem..

  15. These issues can be caused by many things, like what else is running and such. I would suggest you think about adding more RAM. 4GB, while being a large amount, is sometimes not enough.

  16. I’m thinking on buying a Samsung Series 9 (SAMSUNG NP900X4C) and I would like to know if AutoCAD 12 can run good on it. As an architecture student, this is my main concern on buying a new laptop. With my current one I get ‘out of system memory’ with some frequency – especially when trimming or hatching – and it is a 32bits Vista Home Premium, Dual Core 2GHz 4GBRAM.

  17. dnosaur,

    It depends on the CPU and RAM. What are the full specs on the machine you are looking at?

    Mark

  18. It’s a i7 Dual Core (Ivy Bridge) 1,9 GHz 3GHz with Turbo Boost, 8 GB RAM, Intel® HD Graphics 4000, Win7 64-bit. It is already SSD, wich I think can be faster mainly with the autosaves. I am currently using AutoCAD 13 (not 12, I’m sorry) and intend to keep on using it.
    Thanks.

  19. I think you should be fine. Not sure what the OS is – assuming Win 7 or maybe 8? (just noticed – Win 7 64 bit – nice)

    Mark

  20. Hi,I need some help,I have a Dell Inspiron 14R N4010 with the following specs
    Processor:i3-380M
    RAM:4GB
    ClockRate:2.53GHz
    Graphics Gard:Integrated Dell HD graphics card

    Will my computer be able to run all the features of AutoCAD 2012 smoothly ,or am I bound to encounter some problems and errors???
    Thanks!:)

  21. I think you will be fine for now, but you might find that 2013 or 2014 may have troubles… Mark

  22. I have 2.2 Ghz Core 2 Duo with 4 mb cache with 4GB RAM, 120 GB HHD.
    With ATI Mobility Radeon X2500 (with up to 256 MB of dedicated GDDR2 VRAM)

    i’m planning to install autocad 2012 or less I think 2010.
    Will it work with Windows 7?

    Im a little confuse with system requirements “3.0 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology”? is this intended for single core? or my processor can handle it because it has 2.2 GHz x 2 = 4.4 Ghz?

    Please enlighten me.
    Thanks in advance

  23. Your system should be able to handle 2010 or 2012.

    Mark

  24. Please I want to know if a system with a processor of 1.99Ghz, 4Gb Ram of which 1.90Gb is only usable can run AutoCAD 2010. Thanks!

  25. Sir,

    Will the following 2 PC performance have drastically different in on running CAD 2012.

    1. Intel Core i7-3840QM CPU @ 2.80GHz, 32.0 GB RAM. I have an Intel HD Graphics 4000 card, with 1,696 MB graphics memory. I have 78 GB of available Storage

    2. Intel XEON CPU X5570 @ 2.93GHz, 48 GB RAY. It has an NVIDIA NVS 315 graphics card with 4,095 MB graphics memory. They have 389 GB of available storage.

    We wblock same drawing out twice into local folder, PC1 took 1 minute and PC2 took 6 minutes.

    Thanks,

    Joe

  26. is dual core 2.9 GH able to run in windows 8
    Ram 4 gb

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