System Requirements for Revit 2014 Products

Instead of copy/pasting a giant list of requirements that Autodesk has listed, below is a link to the System Requirements page on Autodesk’s website:

System requirements for Autodesk Revit Products

Please, please note that Windows XP is NOT listed!!  If you are still using XP (or even Vista, which I rarely run into), you’re going to need to upgrade your OS!  Not to say that Revit 2014 won’t install or run, but any issues relating back to the OS will not be supported.  Also note that Windows 8 32bit is not supported.  Autodesk has a page dedicated to OS compatibility for Revit, all versions - Operating system compatibility for Autodesk Revit Products

Out of the 3 configurations they list for system requirements, I would go for the Value: Balanced performance configuration at a minimum.  However, if you really look at the difference between that and the Performance: Large, complex models configuration, it’s mainly more RAM….so might as well stuff as much RAM in the machine as you can afford.

How Much RAM Should I Get

I get this question quite often from many people, whether they are looking to get a new computer or looking to make some updates to their current computer.  Here’s a little excerpt from the Revit  Model Performance Technical Note…

“Please keep in mind the amount of local machine RAM required is approximately 20 times the size of your compacted central project file.  Each linked file would apply to this total as well.”

What this really talks about is how much RAM is required to OPEN a Revit file.  So if you have a 100MB Revit file (I like easy math!), you’ll need 2GB of available RAM to open that file.  Got a 100MB Revit Structure file linked into the Arch file, better have 4GB of available RAM when you open the Arch file.  Notice, I’m not saying that you need “X” amount of installed RAM, it’s “X” amount of available RAM  to open a Revit file.

Because of this requirement, I’ve been recommending that people utilize a 64bit OS so you can get at least 6GB of RAM installed, but preferably 8GB of RAM.  Unless you are working on small projects and you’re Revit files are going to hover around 50MB or less, then you could get away with 4GB of RAM and potentially a 32bit OS.

System Requirements for Revit 2012 Products

That time of year for new Autodesk products.  Below are the updated system requirements for the Revit family of products for 2012…

32-bit Systems

• Microsoft® Windows® 7 32-bit Enterprise, Ultimate, Professional, or Home Premium edition, Microsoft® Windows Vista® 32-bit (SP2 or later) Enterprise, Ultimate, Business, or Home Premium edition, or Microsoft® Windows® XP (SP2 or later) Professional or Home edition*
• For Microsoft Windows 7 32-bit or Microsoft Windows Vista 32-bit: Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon™ dual core processor, 3.0 GHz (or higher) with SSE2 technology 
• For Microsoft Windows XP: Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon dual core, 1.6 GHz (or higher) with SSE2 technology
• 4 GB RAM
• 5 GB free disk space
• 1,280 x 1,024 monitor with true color
• Display adapter capable of 24-bit color for basic graphics, 256 MB DirectX® 10-capable graphics card with Shader Model 3 for advanced graphics (find out more about recommended graphics hardware)
• Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 7.0 (or later)
• Microsoft Mouse-compliant pointing device
• Download or installation from DVD9
• Internet connectivity for license registration

64-bit Systems

• Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Enterprise, Ultimate, Professional, or Home Premium edition, Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit (SP2 or later) Enterprise, Ultimate, Business, or Home Premium edition, or Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional x64 edition (SP2 or later)*
• For Windows 7 64-bit or Windows Vista 64-bit: Intel® Core™ i5-2300 quad-core processor (2.8 GHz, 6 MB cache) or equivalent AMD® processor.
• For Windows XP Professional x64: Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon dual core, 1.6 GHz (or higher) with SSE2 technology
• 8 GB RAM
• 5 GB free disk space
• 1,680 x 1,050 monitor with true color
• Display adapter capable of 24-bit color for basic graphics; 256 MB DirectX 10-capable graphics card with Shader Model 3 for advanced graphics (find out more about recommended graphics hardware)
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 (or later)
• Microsoft Mouse-compliant pointing device
• Download or installation from DVD9
• Internet connectivity for license registration

Looking for the (Performance) RECOMMENDATIONS and not the Requirements, take a look at these specs…

• Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Enterprise, Ultimate, Professional, or Home Premium edition
• Intel® Core™ i7-2600 quad-core processor (3.8 GHz, 8 MB cache ) or equivalent AMD processor
• 16 GB RAM (or more)
• 1,980 x 1,200 monitor with true color
• 2 GB (or more) DirectX 10-capable graphics card with Shader Model 3 (find out more about recommended graphics hardware)

Revit Architecture 2011 System Recommendations

Ah, a new release and a new set of system requirements (recommendations) for your pc’s to run Revit 2011.  Actually, looking at the list the only thing that really stands out is they are actually support Windows 7…which really isn’t a surprise since many have been using 2010 without an issue for a while.  Here’s the information from the Autodesk website…filtered slightly.  If you want to see the full list, check out this PAGE.

Operating Systems
32-Bit
Microsoft® Windows® 7 32-bit Enterprise, Ultimate, Business, or Home Premium edition; Microsoft® Windows Vista ® 32-bit (SP2 or later) Enterprise, Ultimate, Business, or Home Premium; or Microsoft® Windows® XP (SP2 or later) Professional or Home edition

64-Bit
Microsoft® Windows® 7 64-bit Enterprise, Ultimate, Business, or Home Premium edition; Microsoft® Windows Vista ® 64-bit (SP2 or later)(recommended), including Enterprise, Ultimate, Business, or Home Premium edition; or Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional x64 SP2

CPU Type
32-Bit
Windows 7 or Vista processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® dual-core processor, 3.0 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology

64-Bit
Windows 7 or Vista processor: Pentium 4, AMD Athlon dual-core, 3.0 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology, or Quad Core Intel® Xeon® W3570 3.20GHz, 8M L3, 6.4GT/s Turbo or equivalent AMD processor (recommended)

Memory
32-Bit
3 GB RAM

64-Bit
3 GB RAM (8 GB or more recommended) NOTE: If you are running a 64bit OS, get a minimum of 4GB, but definitely recommend a minimum of 8GB…especially if you work on larger/complex projects.

Display Card
Display adapter capable of 24-bit color for basic graphics or 256 MB DirectX® 9-capable graphics card with Shader Model 3 (recommended) NOTE: Try to get a dedicated graphics card…saw too many issues with shared cards in 2010.

Revit Architecture 2010 System Recommendations

**EDIT** Please see this post as the public download is now available! **EDIT**

Now that Autodesk has updated their website for 2010, below are the System Recommendations for Revit Architecture 2010 based on Autodesk’s website.  Even though the recommendations don’t specify Vista, it doesn’t mean it won’t work on Vista.  Notice in the recommendations for the video card…they are calling out DirectX and no longer calling out OpenGL support!  With the new DirectX support, make sure your video card driver is up to date!

System Recommendations for 32-bit Autodesk Revit Architecture

• Windows XP Professional (SP2 or later)
• Intel® Core™2 Duo 2.4 GHz or equivalent AMD processor
• 4 GB RAM
• 5 GB free disk space
• Dedicated video card with hardware support for Microsoft® DirectX® 9 (or later)
• Internet Explorer 6.0 (SP1 or later)
• Two-button mouse with scroll wheel

System Recommendations for 64-bit Autodesk Revit Architecture

• Windows XP Professional x64 edition (SP1 or later)
• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.40GHz or equivalent AMD processor
• 8 GB RAM
• 5 GB free disk space
• Dedicated video card with hardware support for DirectX 9 (or later)
• Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 (or later)
• Two-button mouse with scroll wheel

If you are looking for (minimum) system requirements, you find those on the Autodesk Revit Arch website.

Revit Architecture 2009 System Requirements

As described on Autodesk's web site, here are the Systems Requirements and Recommendations for 2009...

System Requirements

• Windows® XP Home, Professional and TabletPC (SP1 or SP2), Windows XP Professional x64 Edition,Windows Vista® 32 bit (Business, Premium and Ultimate), Windows Vista 64 bit (Business, Premium and Ultimate)
• Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 6.0 SP1 or later
• Intel® Pentium® 4 1.4 GHz or equivalent AMD Athlon® processor
• 1 GB RAM
• 1280 x 1024 monitor and display adapter capable of 24-bit color
• 3 GB free disk space
• MS-Mouse compliant
• Download and Installation from DVD

System Recommended:

• Windows XP Professional SP2 or later, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
• Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 6.0 SP1 or later
• Intel™ Core® 2 Duo 2.40GHz or equivalent AMD Athlon® processor
• 4 GB RAM
• 1280 x 1024 monitor and display adapter capable of 24-bit color.
• Dedicated video card with hardware support for OpenGL spec 1.3 or later
• 5 GB free disk space
• MS-Mouse compliant

Notice the Recommended specs do not include Vista and it's interesting that it has XP x64 since Revit isn't YET (I wouldn't be surprised if it happens this year) a 64bit application. Although, the 64bit OS does give you the ability to get that extra GB of RAM, which is always nice. The biggest one I see in the requirements is the Dedicated video card with OpenGL. When my company was looking at getting new laptops for us, they ran some tests on the graphics card and found having a dedicated graphics card worked much better than a shared card. (If I can get a hold of those results, I will post them.)

Oh, as far as what we ended up getting for laptops, here's the specs...

• HP Compaq 8710w (Mobile Workstation)
• Windows Vista® Business 64-bit OS, Dual Boot Windows XP 64-bit OS
• Intel™ Core® 2 Duo 2.00GHz
• 4 GB RAM
• NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600M