Need help--wife needs a laptop for neurofeedback program

I have never been in to gaming on a laptop, so I'm confused about the dedicated cards that exist today. My wife is starting to train in neurofeedback...a psychology-related therapy that involves analyzing brain waves. The program that she will be using needs the following specs...I'm hoping that someone here can lead me in the right direction. Thanks in advance!!!

Quad-core or above; i7 preferred

Windows 10

4GB RAM or greater

Direct x 10 graphics card, 1GB dedicated

DVD-ROM

Webcam

@agrippi: Its missing the most important spec, how many USB's are required at any one-time?

Sorry. I think just 2 USB ports (one for the machine and one for a USB mouse). Would be best if it had a connection for a second monitor as well.

Just look for something that has all the specs you listed with one of the following GPUs:

• GTX 950m
• GTX 960m
• GTX 970m
• GTX 1050m
• GTX 1060m
• GTX 1070m

(the 10XX series, they may not have the "m" in the description when looking at laptops)

If the laptop isn't going to be used for gaming, as long as the you get one with a 950m and has at least 1GB dedicated memory (this amount can vary from model to model), you should be just fine. The lower model GPU, the less the laptop should cost.

If you intend to use it all for gaming, expect to spend a lot for higher end models with high end GPUs. If this is the case, you can easily drop $1200-2000. A lower model with a sub-par gaming GPU (like 950m) would probably run you closer to $700-800 (depending on model, where you buy it, sales, if new or refurbished and so on).

I would suggest to go on newegg.com and you can customize your search on laptops: select the CPU, how much RAM (I wouldn't go for anything less than 8GB), GPU, Windows version and so on.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/500-series/510-15-inch/?sb=:000001C9:0001A80B:

That has everything, 2x USB 3.0 and 1x USB 2.0, but make sure that's all she requires, I know for a certainty that some medical equipment require 3x USB's, then you need a 4th for the mouse.

Also has a HDMI output for a monitor.

@GTR12: If his wife runs out of USB ports they can always buy a hub for a few bucks.

@sayyy-gaa: Wont work, medical equipment needs all the bandwidth, as its a "real-time device", kind of like how you cant use a USB hub with the VR headsets.

Do you have a link to the particular software she'll be using?

Often times, specialized software like this will be optimized for a workstation class video card, rather than a gaming card.

I'd need to see the actual software requirements to know what to recommend. You may end up better off with something like a Dell precision with a quadro card, rather than a radeon or GTX card.

Do they care about Direct X version on workstation cards?

@horgen:

When you think "workstation app", autocad is probably the first one that comes to mind, just for example.

When looking at the minimum system requirements here: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/System-requirements-for-AutoCAD-2018.html

You can see it only indicates any directx 9.0c video card.

However Autocad runs much better with a quadro or fire GL card than a radeon or geforce. In fact, some features are actually disabled or greyed out when using a non workstation card.

How much are you looking to spend? I know my wife's Alienware can push out some insane stuff. She uses it for video rendering, photo editing, and Autocad. It wasn't cheap at all, but she has yet to hit its limits.