Analogies mean little for something like this...
Typically, in the past, there was a distinct difference between a "workstation" and a "gaming machine". That difference has been very blurred for several years now.
Once upon a time, a "workstation" had ECC/Registered RAM. But RAM has gotten much better, and there is virtually no difference in performance between "normal" RAM and ECC/Registered RAM, especially if you are using RAM designed to handle overclocking and you are running it at stock speeds (which is typically the case for most business users these days). So there is no longer the difference in RAM to differentiate the two.
A "workstation" used to mean "uses a Xeon" (at least for Intel CPUs). Now, the only functional difference between "consumer" chips like the i3/i5/i7 and the Xeon is that Xeons support multiple CPU systems whereas the i3/i5/i7 do not, and Xeons support more RAM than the i3/i5/i7. So if you need multiple processors or more than 32GB of RAM, then you want Xeon systems. Otherwise, Xeons are a waste of money. The only thing in Autocad that can take advantage of multiple CPUs is rendering, so by implication, Xeons only help for people who are heavily into rendering, because a multi-CPU system with high-end Xeons in it will outperform things like the i7-2600 and i7-990X. But CPU speed also comes into play, so you still have to get Xeons with relatively high clock speeds, or your dual-CPU Xeon system still might not render as well as the cheaper i7-2600 system. And the gains from RAM seem to start dropping dramatically after 8GB, except maybe for Revit. However, the 32GB limit of the i7-2600 provides more than enough RAM for even Revit users. So there's currently no real need for more than 32GB of RAM, and therefore no need to get a Xeon in order to support larger amounts of RAM.
A workstation used to mean "has a Quadro". But that was at a time when Autocad required OpenGL graphics cards, and "gaming cards" only supported DirectX. Now Autocad uses DirectX, and there's no advantage there to the OpenGL-capable cards. There are some advanced rendering features that may only be supported by Quadro/FireGL cards and not by GeForce/RadeonHD cards, and your graphics card will likely have a significant impact if you are using a GPU rendering engine. But for typical CAD work and with current hardware, there is no advantage to the Quadro/FireGL over the GeForce/RadeonHD cards. You get better performance from higher-end cards, and the high-end Quadro cards outperform the high-end "gaming" cards, but they also cost an awful lot more for gains that are arguably beneficial. Most users notice CPU speed far more than the graphics card.
So what exactly is a "workstation" these days?
Sinc
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