In SolidWorks 2011, a new tool called SolidWorks Performance Test was introduced. This is a wonderful thing! For years, people have asked me advice on buying new computers and upgrading existing computer systems for SolidWorks. There was (and still is) a lot of confusion over what affects SolidWorks performance. Now, we all have one standard benchmark with which to compare systems.
Understand that the Performance Test is a mainstream test. It's not going to show how systems may perform in extreme cases (huge assemblies or extrordinarily complex part models). But it is a good basis for comparison on how systems will perform for the typical SolidWorks user.
The most useful part of the Performance Test is the ability to easily share your results with the rest of the world. The Share Your Score webpage that SolidWorks Corporation hosts is excellent because it's searchable. Want to know how well a certain graphics card works, or the difference between a few choices? Just hit the Share You Score webpage and find out for yourself. Since the test is available on different versions of SolidWorks (2011 or 2012 at this point) it can also show differences on how older hardware will work on newer versions of SolidWorks.
Check out the pages I've linked to earlier in this article, and when you get a chance, please run the SolidWorks Performance Test on your system and share your results. The more people who do, the better the resource will be for all of us. By the way, here's the score for my Dell M6500: