Forum Discussion
Dealing with Large Datasets
TheOckieMofo,
Firstly, Power BI Premium supports uploads of Power BI Desktop (.pbix) files that are up to 10 GB in size. For more details, please review this article.
Secondly, if you choose import mode, you can follow the guide in this article to optimize your data model.
Thirdly, if you don't have Power BI premium license, it is better for you to use DirectQuery or Connect Live mode to connect to the data source as 1GB limitation doesn't apply to directquery datasets. Also in this case, your report performance depends largely on the performance of the underlying data source.
Regards,
Lydia
DirectQuery is limited to Data sets < 1 million rows. So I would argue it is not good for large data. However, I don't see any limitation placed on columns. See: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-use-directquery
The next suggestion is: Live Connection, I have found less infomation about this online. It currently, appear to have no limits. As everything is powered by SSAS.
https://powerbi.tips/2018/02/power-bi-connections-live-connection/