Laptop Specs for ArcGIS Pro

[EmersonRichards]

I am a near-exclusive Apple user, and am naive to the world of Windows, but need to use ArcGIS Pro (and/or ArcGIS desktop) to complete my Geography degree. I've had a terrible time trying to run Pro through Citrix on my Mac and so I'm going to invest in a machine that works. 

I'm trying to buy a new laptop to run preferably Pro, but also the desktop version of GIS, and was hoping someone could please confirm that this laptop (MSI GF63 Thin 15.6" Gaming Laptop - Intel® Core™ i5, RTX 3050, 512 GB SSD) will work. The specs are below. 

Thank you so much for any advice. 

[DanPatterson]

Here are the specs

ArcGIS Pro 3.0 system requirements—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

If you actually had a PC, then you could check it using a link on that page

[AyanPalit]

Supplementary info:

1. If you want to fine tune the laptop specs, start with the type of GIS work you will be performing. For e.g.
   • Basic data collection, editing, analysis
   • Medium to heavy geoprocessing, data processing
   • Data types that will be used vector vs raster/imagery, 2D vs 3D
   • will all data be local on machine or will it be distributed
   • Total volume of data you will use
2. Based on the above criteria, you may want to up the RAM to 16 GB if you will be performing more analytics.
3. If using more 3D, rasters, recommend high end graphics card, more GPU
4. Data volume will guide the storage  - always add 20% buffer

  Good luck!

[GBacon]

If you will be doing much with 3D, imagery, even basic visualization or exporting animations, go with more dedicated memory on your GPU than 4GB. I'm running an NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 with 8GB and feel like I'm getting by pretty well. I've found the higher GPU memory also helped in the creation of layouts, especially if they include 3D scenes. Whichever card you get, make sure to set ArcGIS Pro to high performance to take full advantage, but be mindful of power consumed.