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I need a new laptop within the next couple weeks to use at grad school for GIS. I am a geology & geography major and use numerous aerial and satellite photos at once and often use ArcScene. I know that I should probably get an HP zbook with a workstation quadro series video card, but that is a tad out of my budget. Would a gaming laptop (such as alienware or ASUS Rogue) with an NVIDIA geforce card work almost as well?

PolyGeo
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Sherry
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  • I think your starting point should be the system requirements of ArcGIS 10.3.x for Desktop which talks about Video/Graphics adaptors under Hardware Requirements: https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/desktop/latest/get-started/system-requirements/arcgis-desktop-system-requirements.htm#ESRI_SECTION1_4D839759F08146819E273A6DDD01DCBB – PolyGeo Aug 10 '15 at 23:38
  • Thank you. Yes I have seen that. My last laptop had far more than that and didn't come close to being able to handle the amount of data I was using on one map. My biggest concern is I use a lot very large raster files at one time on a map, lots of layers. I also use 3D a lot (arcscene). The minimum requirements for ArcMap are very low to what it really needs to actually function when you have lots of data. For instance I had 63 topographic raster files I had to meld together for the base layer of a map of Louisiana. I work with elevation maps on every map I make. – Sherry Aug 10 '15 at 23:47
  • Please use the edit button beneath your question to revise it with any additional details, such as these, that pertain to your question. – PolyGeo Aug 11 '15 at 00:09

1 Answers1

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GIS wont be a big drain on your graphics card. You might not want to hear this, but even an Intel integrated graphics chip will do fine.

I definitely wouldn't go for a workstation graphics card, they are used for precision, not performance, and are way too expensive.

If I were you, I'd get something nice and light so that you can carry it around for school work. If you can find one with a discrete graphics card, then go for it, but a 240+ GB SSD is probably going to change your experience more. And when you need to do lots of work, you'll plug into an external monitor, so don't get a giant laptop!

Alex Leith
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    +1 to what @alexgleith said. your hdd and processor speeds are more likely to affect your performance. and go for faster cpu speed rather than lots of cores, as ArcGIS still isn't properly multi-threaded. – Adam Aug 10 '15 at 23:20
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    oh, and RAM. LOTS OF RAM! – Adam Aug 10 '15 at 23:21
  • Thank you both, the problem is my current desktop and laptop don't come close to handling the amount of elevation data I use. I have way over the minimum currently. I think I really need a high end graphics card. I am just not sure what the differences are between the GeForce cards and the Quadro k series cards and if it really makes that much of a difference. Some of my maps have a couple GB of data uploaded. My system will crash when trying to redraw. – Sherry Aug 10 '15 at 23:49
  • I've been working in ArcScene today with a 10GB DEM and 9+ GB orthophotol, and my Quadro card handles that without a problem. ArcScene's drawing performance in general is pretty crappy though compared to ArcGIS Pro from what I have experienced so far. – Adam Aug 11 '15 at 04:42
  • @Adam a quadro is a workstation graphics card... – Alex Leith Aug 11 '15 at 04:46
  • yes, which is out of the budget, sorry. – Adam Aug 11 '15 at 04:51
  • Agreed. Nothing special needed to run ArcGIS and ArcScene. If you also use newer version of AutoCAD then those utilize the graphics cards. Also ArcGIS Pro utilizes the videocard - feels a bit like autocad when drawing and editing. BUT, you don't have to worry about that either because it will be a decade before PRO is feature-rich enough to rival the current ArcGIS desktop. – Jakub Sisak GeoGraphics Aug 20 '15 at 19:27