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ArcGIS Pro on a Dell XPS 13 - will I regret it?!

TimWroblewski1

Hi, I'm currently using a Dell Precision M4800 mobile workstation - one of the old-school Dell brick style powerhouses! It's powerful but far from mobile!

I've got the opportunity to get a new laptop through work and am considering the Dell XPS 13.

GIS work probably consumes 25% of my time and its not significant number crunching or 3D work - its mainly light feature class editing and working between Pro and Online. What seems to make my current laptop suffer is the number of layers I will sometimes have in a map, many of which are served over the internet - so the bottleneck might be internet speeds etc. rather than performance of my current laptop.

The Dell XPS 13 appeals because it is small - I do a lot of travelling by train and spend time in client offices etc. If I'm sat at my desk, I use a dock and larger monitors.

I'm aware that the Dell XPS 13 doesn't have dedicated graphics - but I'd go the maximum RAM and the best CPU I can:

8th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-8565U Processor (8MB Cache, up to 4.6 GHz, 4 cores)
Intel® UHD Graphics 620 with shared graphics memory
13.3" 4K Ultra HD (3840x2160) InfinityEdge Touch Display
16GB LPDDR3 2133MHz

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/work/shop/laptops/new-xps-13/spd/xps-13-9380-laptop/bnx38005

Any thoughts on whether this would run Pro for my needs okay?

Thanks,

Tim

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DanPatterson_Retired

ArcGIS Pro 2.3 system requirements—ArcGIS Pro | ArcGIS Desktop has the note

** If you're using a notebook computer with an integrated GPU, consider increasing the system RAM to compensate for the usage of shared memory.

Of course, if you can pop into a store and give it a whirl by going to the link on the above page, you might get some pertinent feedback. Skip the minimum requirements, see what it says about exceeding those

Check your computer's ability to run ArcGIS Pro 2.3.

TimWroblewski1

Good idea - thanks - I will try and nip into a store today!

It looks as though dedicated GPU and RAM isn't required, but I don't want to end up with a ridiculously slow experience wishing I'd gone for a proper sized laptop!

ThomasColson

You will regret it. We have found, through extensive, extensive testing in a production environment that budget laptops/workstations and Pro are a bad marriage, and result in a miserable experience for casual users such as your self. 3D Unicorns were not part of our testing. The pain point you experience will be the integrated video card, the lack of ability to go past 16 GB of RAM, and only 8 cores. The other brick wall you will hit is that hardware requirements for Pro ignore Moore's Law, and increase even more than processor speed. We have heard from ESRI that the Minimum requirements only mean that the software will start and run....not actually do anything meaningful.

For a laptop, even for casual GIS use, at a minimum you need a dedicated video card (NVIDIA), doesn't need a lot of GPU RAM (4GB), and try for 32 GB of memory. The NVME SSD is a nice one, stick with that. That will get you at least 2-3 years of Pro use before TS is telling you "Not Supported: Doesn't meet hardware requirements".

DanPatterson_Retired

Which is why I use a Surface Book II, but the price point is certainly well above the Dell. Tim did say it wouldn't be a production solution

JakubSisak

Should be fine for occasional work. 4K monitor will consume a lot of GPU power and connecting it to external monitors especially if they are 2 or 4K is not going to cut it without a better GPU.

As for ArgGIS PRO performance, you will be disappointed no matter what because PRO is slow. period. (especially when you have a lot of layers, complex symbology, annotations, lots of graphic elements in the layout, etc.)

I have higher specs in my 17" 4K laptop and although Pro runs fine it's still underwhelming.

TimWroblewski1

Thanks, all - I've had a re-think and am now also considering a Dell XPS 15 with:

8th Generation Intel® Core™ i9-8950HK Processor (12MB Cache, up to 4.8 GHz, 6 cores)
15.6" 4K Ultra HD 3840 x 2160 InfinityEdge Anti-Reflective Touch IPS100% AdobeRGB display
16GB 2x8GB DDR4-2666MHz,
M.2 512GB 2280 PCIe Solid State Drive
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050Ti with 4GB GDDR5

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/work/buy/email/index/1259446?ac=01b7d5fc-2a52-47af-a61e-36298ccc16c5&ref=emcartitems&stp=1&cs=ukbsdt1

ThomasColson

You will be very happy with that 6 physical core i9, and you can drop 2 16's in that laptop in a year or 2 to meet what undoubtedly will be the pro min requirement of 32 GB. Only thing I don't like is the slow memory speed, but few Pro users are going to notice that. I think the i9 will support up to 4400 mhz memory? The issue is Dells are notorious for rejecting after market memory. But the good news is....you can upgrade. That video card is a solid performer with Pro.

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