Building a ArcGIS Pro Machine (Windows 10)

[NicoSpliethof]

Hello everyone, Working with ArcGIS Pro ever since it released. Lately I’m having increased problems running it on my laptop. Long loading times (within layouts and after doing basic things) and processing time slows me down in my work. Sometimes I'm sitting idle for a minute or 3 waiting for ArcGIS Pro to finish its job. Very frustrating.

As ArcGIS Pro keeps growing and my work tends to bigger project files and more complex tasks I'm looking into building a new machine for ArcGIS Pro. Looking into the minimum/optimal requirements given by ESRI and looking around the forums (where opinions differ on optimal specifications) I figured out the following:

So the basic components are:

• 16 GB of DDR4 (will this be enough for an optimal experience?)
• 500GB SSD / 1TB Storage
• Radeon RX 580 8gb

Then I'm thinking of one of the following processors:

• AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920x (12 cores - 3,5 / 4 GHz) this one has 12 cores and should be great at processing
• AMD Ryzen 7 2700x Wraith (8 cores - 3,7 / 4,3 GHz) this one is cheaper and has a slightly higher speed per core

Now I'm curious if it would be better to invest more money for more cores (according to the recommendations more cores should be better). 

I'm using ArcGIS Pro for making web maps (AOL), making PDF maps, automated reports with python and/or Map Series. On top of that I'm using the Spatial Analyst tools and Image Analyst and the Classification Wizard.

Could anyone give me any recommendations on an optimal machine, or tips on the processor? Thanks!

[ThomasColson]

You will not notice the clock speed difference in Pro, but you will notice more cores. 32 GB  RAM IMHO is the 'minimum' Pro needs. Video card is "adequate", sport for the NVIDIA. The bigger question you should be asking, is, assuming you're on a standard computer replacement cycle (5 years), will the workstation you buy today run the version of Pro that comes out in 4 years? 

[NicoSpliethof]

Thanks for your reply. I wasn't quite sure about the amount of RAM before, since I'm not too sure how ArcGIS Pro utilizes it. Being a 64bit program one would assume it could make use of more RAM.

About the graphics card, what kind of Nvidia are you talking about and why would you prefer it over the Radeon? In the price range of the RX580 Nvidia has the 1060 which is less powerful. In my experience Radeon cards have always been more "aging-proof" than Nvidia due to the great driver updates.

[Margaret_M_Maher]

HI, Nico, the requirements for gaming are quite a bit different in a video card than they are for doing GIS work.  NVIDIA has for years created video cards and drivers that are specifically designed to work smoothly with Esri software. Just a suggestion, but we use NVIDIA exclusively on computers in Esri Tech Support.