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LijunChen2's avatar
LijunChen2
Frequent Visitor
1 year ago
Solved

Laptop Hardware Requirements for Power BI Desktop Developers

Dear Friends,

 

I use Power BI desktop a lot to generate PBI dashhboards. Recently I have been using Power BI to read/process annual / bi-annual child welfare reports data for multiple years and then combine them into a longitudinal data files. Each data file by itself may not be large, but they have many columns (about 100) and the combined files of a dozen reports are large. The processing / manipulation process is complex, like grouping, sorting, merging, recoding, etc. I found my current PC and laptop are taking a very long time to accomplishing the task. Each time I tried to revise/update a query, Power Bi will reload the data and do the steps all over for a long time. 

Although my PC has 16GB of RAM and my laptop has 32GB of RAM, it stills take a long time to finish each step and taks an hour to re-run the whole query. I checked the Task Manager and often found the CPU and memory at a very high level whenn Power BI is running.

I would like to buy a new laptop that is more powerful to handle the Power BI queries. I would like to have your suggestions/advice as for the hardware and other requirements. What brand/model laptop do you recommend? and what is your experience?

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Lijun

 

 

Need Help

2 Replies

  • pankajnamekar25's avatar
    pankajnamekar25
    Icon for Super User rankSuper User
    1 year ago

    Hello LijunChen2 

    here you can go

    Component

    Minimum Spec

    Recommended Spec

    Processor (CPU)

    Intel Core i7 (12th Gen or higher)AMD Ryzen 7

    🔹 Intel Core i7/i9 (13th or 14th Gen)🔹 AMD Ryzen 9 (7000 series or higher)

    RAM (Memory)

    16 GB

    🔹 32 GB DDR5 (More if you use other heavy tools alongside Power BI)

    Storage (SSD)

    512 GB SSD

    🔹 1 TB NVMe SSD (Fast read/write – crucial for large Power BI files)

    Graphics (GPU)

    Integrated GPU (OK for Power BI)

    🔹 Dedicated GPU (e.g., NVIDIA RTX 3050 / 4060) – improves multitasking

    Display

    15.6" FHD (1920x1080)

    🔹 15.6" or 17" QHD/4K display – better for working with dashboards

    Battery Life

    6–8 hours

    🔹 8+ hours with fast charging support

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Thanks

     Pankaj Namekar | LinkedIn

    If this solution helps, please accept it and give a kudos (Like), it would be greatly appreciated.

  • v-ssriganesh's avatar
    v-ssriganesh
    Icon for Community Support rankCommunity Support
    1 year ago

    Hello LijunChen2,
    Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Fabric Forum Community.

    You can find the official system requirements and installation details here:

    These resources will help you review the recommended specifications to choose a machine best suited for your workload.


    Thank you, pankajnamekar25 for sharing valuable insights.

    If this information is helpful, please “Accept as solution” and give a "kudos" to assist other community members in resolving similar issues more efficiently.
    Thank you.