Futuremark is working on a new version of the tool, which will drop the yearly naming scheme and go by "3DMark Next." As what might be considered a teaser for the new app, the company has released minimum system specifications for 3DMark Next in the Game-O-Meter section of its YouGamers website. Those minimum specs are as follows:

Processor: x86/x64 single core CPU with SSE2 support. Performance similar to Intel Pentium D 3.2GHz or better.
Display Card: Fully D3D10/SM4.0 compliant graphics card, 256MB
Memory: 1024MB
Free Disk Space: 2GB
Operating System: Windows Vista (Server editions not supported)

And Futuremark lists the following as recommended:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 or equivalent AMD CPU.
Display Card: Fully D3D10/SM4.0 compliant graphics card, 512MB
Memory: 2048MB
Free Disk Space: 2GB
Operating System: Windows Vista (Server editions not supported)

As Futuremark announced back in April, 3DMark Next will say goodbye to DirectX 9-class graphics processors and Windows XP, supporting only the latest GeForce 8- and Radeon HD-series GPUs running on Vista. Processor and memory requirements seem to be quite steep, as well, with a Core 2 Duo E6600 or equivalent and 2GB of RAM recommended. Following Futuremark's custom, the upcoming benchmark will probably reflect the graphical capabilities of upcoming games more than those of already-released titles.