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32-bit vs. 64-bit

This refers to the version of your operating system. For Windows, check your system properties to verify which version you may need.

Locate additional information in the help section at the bottom of this page or go to http://support.microsoft.com/.


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*Free product trials are subject to the terms and conditions of the end-user license and services agreement that accompanies the software.

Download Instructions

  1. Close all open applications.
  2. Click Download Now. In Microsoft® Internet Explorer®, click Run, click Run again, and then Install. In Firefox®, click Save File; once file is saved, click the .exe icon in the dialog box.
  3. Select Install.
  4. Follow the Installation Wizard instructions to complete the installation.

System Requirements

For 32-Bit 3ds Max 2013 or 3ds Max Design 2013 for Windows

Operating System1: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Professional operating system or Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional operating system (SP3 or higher)2

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 technology3
  • 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended)
  • 2 GB swap space (4 GB recommended)4
  • 3 GB free hard drive space
  • Direct3D® 10 technology, Direct3D 9, or OpenGL-capable graphics card5
  • 512 MB or higher video card memory (1 GB or higher recommended)
  • Three-button mouse with mouse driver software
  • DVD-ROM drive6
  • Internet connection for web downloads and Autodesk® Subscription-aware access

For 64-Bit 3ds Max 2013 or 3ds Max Design 2013 for Windows

Operating System1: Windows 7 Professional x64 or Windows XP Professional x64 edition (SP3 or higher)2

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

  • Intel® 64 or AMD64 processor with SSE2 technology3
  • 4 GB RAM (8 GB recommended)
  • 4 GB swap space (8 GB recommended)4
  • 3 GB free hard drive space
  • Direct3D 10 technology, Direct3D 9, or OpenGL-capable graphics card5
  • 512 MB or higher video card memory (1 GB or higher recommended)
  • Three-button mouse with mouse driver software
  • DVD-ROM drive6
  • 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 technology3
  • 8 GB RAM
  • 8 GB swap space4
  • 3 GB free hard drive space
  • Direct3D 10, Direct3D 9, or OpenGL-capable graphics card5
  • 1 GB or higher video card memory
  • Three-button mouse with mouse driver software
  • DVD-ROM drive6
  • Internet connection for web downloads and Autodesk Subscription-aware access

For 3ds Max 2013 or 3ds Max Design 2013 for Macintosh

Boot Camp
You can install Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2013 and Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design 2013 software on a Mac® computer on a Microsoft® 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 computer
  • 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 2013 and 3ds Max Design 2013 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:

  • A Mac computer with an Intel® Core™ 2 Duo, Intel Core i3, Intel Core i5, Intel Core i7, or Intel® Xeon® processor
  • Mac OS X 10.5.x operating system or higher
  • Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8 or higher Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac
  • 4 GB RAM minimum (6 GB system memory for 32-bit Windows OS, 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.

Autodesk is not responsible for errors or failures of Autodesk software arising from the installation of updates, extensions or new releases issued by third party hardware or software vendors for the qualified software or hardware identified in this document (or for any other third party software or hardware that you may use in connection with Autodesk products).

1 The 3ds Max Composite feature requires one of the following 32-bit or 64-bit operating systems:

  • Windows XP Professional operating system (SP3 or higher)
  • Windows XP Professional x64 operating system (SP3 or higher)
  • Windows 7 Professional x64 operating system

2 Autodesk 3ds Max 2013 and Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2013 English only. Additional language support requires a Windows 7 operating system.

3 Autodesk 3ds Max 2013 and Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2013 have been optimized to take advantage of the SSE2 extended instruction sets supported on Intel Pentium 4 processor or higher, AMD Athlon 64, AMD Opteron, and AMD Phenom™ processors. 3ds Max 2013 will not operate on computers that do not support SSE2. Several utilities are available on the Internet that report CPUID, including supported instruction sets.

4 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). 

5 Some features of 3ds Max 2013 and 3ds Max Design 2013 are only enabled 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. The integrated NVIDIA® iray® rendering technology operates well solely with CPU processing but processing can be accelerated by NVIDIA GPU CUDA technology. Check to see if the graphics card is CUDA ready here.

Learn more about graphics hardware compatibility.

6 Autodesk 3ds Max 2013 and Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2013 are available only on dual layer DVD media (or electronic download where available). CD media is no longer available. DVD-ROM drive is not required if installing using electronic download. However, to accommodate the installation files, you will need 9 GB of hard disk space and an additional 16 GB of space for temporary files created during the installation