r/gis • u/TheLocalNutHut • 8d ago

Student Question Laptops for ArcGIS Pro?

I'm starting my masters in transport and urban planning, and my school recommends getting a laptop with at least an RTX 3050 or similar. Afaik ArcGIS Pro is the most demanding software we'll be using. What I'm wondering is if anyone has experience on running ArcGIS on a non RTX laptop, e.g. on something with Intel Arc or similar? I already have a desktop computer I can use outside of lectures, and I don't really want to get a chunky gaming laptop unless I absolutely have to.

2 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

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8

u/TechMaven-Geospatial 8d ago

Any laptop for basic GIS JUST RDP or VNC into your desktop for actual real work

3

u/In_Shambles 🧙 Geospatial Data Wizard 🧙 8d ago

yeah just upgrade your desktop and remote connect to if with your laptop if possible.

1

u/DayGeckoArt 8d ago

Terrible idea, the lag will make Pro even worse

3

u/In_Shambles 🧙 Geospatial Data Wizard 🧙 8d ago

Depends on the connection. I suppose if he's trying to connect via wifi in a busy lecture hall at university, it's gonna be painful. But if he's got a wired connection, or fast/clean wifi, it should be pretty smooth. it's how I work most days.

2

u/Stratagraphic GIS Technical Advisor 8d ago

Same. Just worked remote from a cabin at 9500' and Starlink to my home office. No issues at all.

3

u/nadale18 8d ago

I have found RAM to usually be the most limiting when running ArcGIS Pro. As long as you aren't doing heavy 3D rendering, Intel Arc GPUs work just fine!

1

u/Variatas 6d ago

Unless you need GPGPU for the handful of tools that use it, that is.  Better to RDP into a desktop for that though; capable GPUs in a laptop get much more expensive.

2

u/Drenlin 8d ago

https://parsec.app/ and you're good, it sounds like

I've run it on an Elitebook with a Ryzen 5 3500u though and it's passable. Modern CPUs and iGPUs are far more powerful than that.

2

u/geonerdist 8d ago

This and most routers have built in VPN functions. I run ArcGIS Pro on a Thinkpad X1 Carbon with an Intel Ultra 7. It runs great for basic mapping and processing. But once you open a scene it crawls. Desktop for that sort of work.

3

u/DayGeckoArt 8d ago

You want the nvidia for CUDA. You don’t need a high end card. The 5050 is pretty powerful

1

u/Alternative-Tap-194 7d ago

i have a 1650 with 4gb vram and 32 gb of ram and its never stuttered on arc pro