HARDWARE / LAPTOP / COMPUTER for use in Unity development? Ask here! (and only here)

Funny, I've just come back from the PC store, placed the order, while you wrote this
Either way, it will be an upgrade on my Ryzen 2700X, and I can sell my old PC along with an old 1080 GTX I have lying around as a full gaming build.

 

That's definitely a great upgrade, hope you can work better with it!

 

I am planning to invest in a new PC later this year. I would like to buy one that can be used later even for VR game development as well. Can someone suggest me what kind of CPU and GPU I should have in that PC for that purposes?

 

We're way past the point that virtual reality has special requirements. Half Life: Alyx is one of the most demanding and it's able to be run with a Ryzen 3600/5600 with a GTX 1660/RTX 2060 and 16GB RAM.

https://www.amazon.com/Skytech-Chronos-Mini-Gaming-Desktop/dp/B0946451DV/
https://www.amazon.com/SkyTech-Shadow-Gaming-Computer-Desktop/dp/B0932FPGMQ/

Both of these are more expensive than they should be thanks to current hardware prices but they're about what you can expect to pay. Once prices have somewhat normalized the actual cost of this hardware should either drop or be replaced with newer equivalent tier models (ie 5600 instead of 3600, 3060 instead of 2060, etc).

 

It kinda still has special requirements.

The requirements are "GPU with more than 3 gigabytes of RAM" and likely "USB 3.0 connector".
For example, 1650 is not supported, unless it is Super.

GPU shortage is still in effect, and afaik VR does not work with integrated GPUs.

 

If you don't have USB 3.0 you likely have more problems than not being able to run VR. A quick search on eBay shows that you can pick up a USB 3.0 capable desktop for around $150. If you can't afford that you likely can't afford VR either.

Since NVIDIA occasionally adds a stupid tier to one or more of their graphics cards I went checking to see if it happened to the 1650 and I wasn't able to find any that had less than 4GB. You can buy a GTX 1060 with 3GB VRAM but the cost is way higher than the 1650s and even the 1660s.

 

You shouldn't buy 1060 with 3GB of VRam for VR as it will be unusable and won't work through cable. At the very least it won't work through oculus link. The recommended minimum would be 6GB of VRam. Like I said requirements for available VRam are a special requirements, because GPU shortage says hi.

 

Can I use unity in my pc???

I have 2 4gb ddr4 ram each 2666mhz, 1 tb hhd, intel core i3 10100, nvidia geforce gt 710 gpu, and windows 10 pro 64 bit

 

You'll be fine for 2D.

 

Currently I have Intel i3-4170, 16Gb RAM, Nvidia GF GT 1030 with Ubuntu 18.04. I created a very simple 3D game with it, but I would never even consider baking the lights with it, because it is 100% CPU usage for, I guess, quite a long time. The automatic light calculation is constantly turned off. I tried to do some AI stuff too for completing a course, but this machine is definitely way too slow to train an ML Agent.

 

Unity's progressive lightmapper can run on a GPU but you won't be able to do it on a GT 1030. It's not that the card is lacking in performance which it definitely is but that you need VRAM to store the scene while it's being baked and the amount scales up very quickly with the absolute minimum being 4 GB. A GT 1030 only has 2 GB.

https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/GPUProgressiveLightmapper.html

A GPU lightmapper exists on the Asset Store that can work around this limitation as well as just being overall an superior lightmapper but it comes with the caveats that it requires Windows 7+ and an NVIDIA card (which you already have).

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/level-design/bakery-gpu-lightmapper-122218

 

Hi! I plan to develop games using HDRP with a high quality level. To do this what kind o CPU/GPU would be best?

 

"Best"?

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X or AMD Threadripper 3990X
GPU: Nvidia RTX 3090

But I've got a feeling that "best" isn't what you really want.

 

Well, you're right on that. I was thinking of picking an I5 10400F or a Ryzen 5 3600 together with a GTX 1650. Do you think they can handle HDRP well?

 

Either of those CPU's are just fine, and that is about the performance level often recommended for a basic but still very usable budget oriented game dev machine.

The 1650 GPU though is basically bare minimum. If you plan on using GPU light baking, the 1650 is exactly at the minimum VRAM requirement. So it should be fine for making an HDRP game, so long as your expectations are in line with what you're buying.

 

Here are some quick comparison stats for Unity related work with my old Ryzen 2700X and my new Ryzen 5950X...

I also upgraded my SSD from an older model Samsung SDD to the latest 980 PRO which would probably have an impact too, as well as an upgrade from 16 to 32GB.

Interestingly, when compiling for WebGL, my memory usage was sitting around 20GB of RAM used (~59%)
So 16 GB of RAM may well have been throttling my compile/build times.

Time for the Unity Editor to compile my code after making a change

Ryzen 2700X : 12-15 seconds

Ryzen 5950X : 1-3 seconds

Time to build and deploy an Android build of my game to my phone for testing

Ryzen 2700X : ~8 minutes

Ryzen 5950X : ~2.5 minutes

Time to build and deploy a WebGL version of my game to a local web browser

Ryzen 2700X : ~11 minutes

Ryzen 5950X : ~6 minutes

 

I'm thinking of getting a surface laptop 4 for using unity and recording footage of unity with obs.
Would a surface laptop 4 with i7, 16gb ram and 512gb storage be able to do this without choppy/ bad footage?

 

Your question is difficult to answer because the performance of Unity varies heavily depending of the game being developed. OBS itself varies too depending on factors that you haven't listed like your graphics hardware.

 

I think the graphics hardware is ‎Intel Iris Pro Graphics 580.
I'm also planning on making 3d games if that helps explain?

 

No. Just saying 3D doesn't mean a whole lot. You can make 3D games that are less demanding than 2D, or you can make them too demanding for anything but the fastest GPUs out there. Unity is unfortunately one of those apps that is very difficult to pin down the requirements if you can pin them at all.

 

It sounds like you're talking about this:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/d/surface-laptop-4/946627FB12T1

The i7-1185G7 is one of Intel's low power usage quad cores. The graphics are just CPU integrated. The specs are fine to run Unity, so long as you keep your project size within reason. But this is not ideal for a video recording or streaming machine while you're also doing some other heavy work.

Take a look at what streamers usually use. They typically want dedicated graphics, and extra CPU cores compared to what the plebs use. That's the direction you should be going if you're looking for a more ideal setup.

 

Which CPUs Are Better in 2021 AMD vs Intel? I think it's really useful and interesting information. I'm trying to figure out how effective these two processors: Intel Core i9 11900K VS AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
So I compare these processes on benchmarks:
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i9-11900K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-9-5950X/4110vs4086
https://rankquality.com/en/processors/
https://www.tomshardware.com/features/amd-vs-intel-cpus
What's the best solution in these cases?

 

Be careful with User Benchmark. It's known to be heavily biased.

https://ownsnap.com/userbenchmark-i...ite-has-a-zero-credibility-in-tech-community/

The 11900K competes with the 5800X not the 5950X. In fact the 11900K is considered to be a disappointment amongst hardware reviewers as just ties the 10900K. This is largely in part because they decreased the cores compared to the previous generation (11900K has 8 while the 10900K had 10).

https://www.anandtech.com/show/16495/intel-rocket-lake-14nm-review-11900k-11700k-11600k/9

The 5950X is an absolute monster. Sixteen cores makes a tremendous difference with any task that is heavily threaded. Some tasks that were previously taking me minutes have become seconds and tasks that took hours now take less than an hour. I wouldn't consider anything else at this point.

 

I agree with everything you said, but I'd bet $100 you're responding to a link spammer just trying to get that rankquality link in under the radar.

 

Yeah all their other posts are one-liners that could have easily been generated or pulled out of a list of responses.

 

How does a newbie find that their system is usable? I just began, it appears all is on, but I don’t see how it works on my laptop. It does have a mousepad with no buttons. It seems if I tap on anything, the whole pic moves or nothing happens at all. Not sure if my system works. Also need where to get mentor for use.

 

Touchpad is not ideal. I'd recommend getting a 3 button mouse with scroll wheel.

Spoiler

In the Scene View, holding right mouse button and moving the mouse rotates the scene camera. Holding center button and moving the mouse moves up/down/left/right. Scroll wheel zooms the camera in and out.

As far as system requirements, the official requirements are here:
https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/system-requirements.html
Any additional requirements depend on your specific projects.

But minimum requirements are one thing, a good experience is another. For a good experience you'll generally want at minimum a somewhat modern CPU with 4+ cores. You'll want 8GB RAM minimum if you stick to only tiny projects, but otherwise go 16GB minimum. You'll also want your projects on an SSD, not an HDD.

APU integrated graphics is fine for simple projects, but otherwise you'll want dedicated graphics.

 

Watching todays Apple announcement of the M1Pro and M1Max chipset I have decided that I will purchase the M1Max MacBook Pro. Well this is not just for Unity but given that Unity actually was present in the announcement, at least I think I saw them, I am curious what that can mean and what these chipset will bring to the table for Unity?

 

Hello,

I am debating myself getting either i9 11900k desktop vs Macbook Pro M1 Max 16inch macbook.

I am currently using a desktop with Ryzen 9 3900x with RTX 2080 Super.

If I go with M1 Max processor, would I get 20% faster compile time for any code changes as it says below?
https://nanoreview.net/en/cpu-compare/apple-m1-max-vs-amd-ryzen-9-3900x

If I go with i9 11900k, would I get a similar compile speed compared to M1 Pro for any code changes as it says below?
https://nanoreview.net/en/cpu-compare/intel-core-i9-11900f-vs-apple-m1-max

I've found an article that M1 Max GPU performs similar to 1080ti(desktop).
1080ti seems similar performance with RTX 2080 Super that I am using currently.
https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1080-Ti-vs-Nvidia-RTX-2080S-Super/3918vs4050

Would there be any issue running Unity 2020 LTS on it?

I've used macbook pro with Unity for a long time before so this is extremely a good news for me personally but I wanted to verify these with hardware gurus in case.
I always wanted to go back to macbook environment if its performance is at least same as my current computer (Ryzen 9 3900x with RTX 2080 Super).

Thanks for reading and looking forward to any insightful answer!

 

@marchall_box about M1 editor versions,
https://forum.unity.com/threads/now-available-native-apple-silicon-editor-preview-builds.1122712/

 

I am only interested in LTS version of Unity for development. (not specifically looking into "building a build for Apple silicon architecture")
Wouldn't non-M1 scilicon Unity editor work on M1 Max laptop?

 

There's no LTS version released for native Apple Silicon. Expect that to be 2021 LTS. Here's the main thread on the status of running Intel Mac Editor versions on M1:
https://forum.unity.com/threads/uni...ur-known-issues-and-workarounds.929220/page-7

 

If I install windows on M1 Max and install Unity 2020 Lts, do you think it would perform as expected compare to i9 11900f like below estimation?
https://nanoreview.net/en/cpu-compare/intel-core-i9-11900f-vs-apple-m1-max

Also window performance for M1 : Parallels’ official numbers are impressive. They say M1 Macs use 250% less energy than a 2020 Intel MacBook Air, and get up to 60% better DirectX 11 performance than an Intel MacBook Pro. And running Windows on an M1 Mac? Thirty-percent faster than running it on a Core i9 Intel MacBook Pro. https://www.lifewire.com/your-m1-mac-can-run-windows-faster-than-a-pc-5179652

I really would like to take this advantage of powerful "mobile" hardware!

 

Given that we do get the "expected" performance enhancements that is far better as of today with the Apple Silicon as well as the power efficiency would it be fair to say that a well configured M1 Pro or M1 Xax should have a longer expected life length delivering appreciated performance?

 

M1 Macs are ARM architecture. There is no Unity Editor version for Windows ARM platform natively. As far as virtualization, while it may work, Unity doesn't officially support running the Editor in a VM environment. This would be a use at your own risk situation.

As far as "60% better DirectX 11 performance", yeah... Basically every integrated or dedicated GPU from any other manufacturer is faster than Intel's dog slow 10th gen integrated GPU's. Intel's 11th gen integrated GPU's had a big performance boost, getting closer to AMD's, but Apple jumped ship before Intel 11th gen CPU's shipped. M1 Macs though have poor GPU performance compared to any modern dedicated GPU on PC.

 

Thank you for the info. I need it. I plan to eventually develop VR games (3D). I am now with a laptop, Unity is on it, but can’t do anything with it. I want to invest in all the equipment needed. So I will be buying a computer and monitor. Just want to have the best that will allow a newbie to use it. Kinda hard to learn how to use Unity when I can’t do anything in it.

 

If you're building something new, I think an Intel 10400F or Ryzen 3600, with 1TB SSD, 16 GB of RAM, and whatever GPU you can find a deal on (good luck with the GPU unfortunately), is a good starting point for a budget build which will perform well for most indie game dev projects.

 

Benchmarks are hard to come by for Apple's M1 but they suggest performance somewhere between mobile GTX 1050 and 1650 MaxQ. If the M1 Pro and Max are as fast as they suggest then that's very much modern dedicated GPU territory. We'll find out once reviews have been released.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-M1-GPU-GPU-Benchmarks-and-Specs.503610.0.html

Like I mentioned earlier in this thread the 11900K is considered to be a joke processor by reviewers. Performance-wise it's inferior to a 5900X so if you have a motherboard that is compatible with Zen 3 you would be far better off just upgrading your CPU. If you can consider an M1 Max there is no reason not to buy a 5950X.

 

I got an OMEN with 1TB SSD and now I need a monitor. I don’t know what to get. People say any work for 3D development. I want good image, color clarity, large screen, and the ability to test as I develop. So I want it to look good as I go. Any suggestions for monitors?

 

My suggestion would be to go through monitor reviews on the Hardware Unboxed youtube channel, and find one with the features and price point which fits your needs.

 

Anandtech released their review. CPU benchmarks place the M1 Max ahead of the 11900K and the 5800X. GPU benchmarks show it to be around RTX 3060 performance but be aware that's testing through Rosetta emulation thanks to no native games available.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/17024/apple-m1-max-performance-review

 

I bought an LG 34" widescreen and have been very happy with it. 3440x1440 resolution @ 144hz.
Works better than 2 monitors, as you can essentially tile 2 x HD screens next to each other, and when gaming, have the full widescreen experience.

 

I teach Game Development in HS to Juniors and Seniors. My district just purchased 35 Macbook Pros for my lab, but they only have 8G of RAM. We were under the impression that 8G would be enough since with the M1 chip certain processes use way less RAM and 8 would be enough.

I have been running Unity version 2020.3.15 and 2020.3.18 and there is a significant lag at many times. We are working through the Create with Code course so we are making 3d games, but nothing super complex or resource intensive, at least I don't think any of the prototypes are.

Is there a better version of Unity to use when on M1 Macs?

When students update a script, then switch back to the Unity editor window, and press play to play test their changes, we always get the spinning beach ball, and it lags for a good 5-10 seconds before actually starting the game. These are brand new Macbook Pros, just came in a few weeks ago. It is almost slower than on the 5 year iMac desktops we were using. The desktops have 16G RAM but they do not have SSD's so they are slow too.

I'm really disappointed with the performance of Unity on the M1 Macbook Pros. I wonder if there are optimizations I should make to make it run better.

 

You may have done this but maybe trying to leveraging Assembly definition may ease your problem as it sounds like it is the compile that cause problems. I may misunderstand but try that, which also mean you need to structure your code.

https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/ScriptCompilationAssemblyDefinitionFiles.html

Quite a few YouTube videos is available as well.

I had similar problems om my MBP 2018 16 GB and the assembly definition improved the situation.

Again, I am not an expert so maybe I am wrong and you already tested this.

 

Yes. Unity 2021.2 is the first native release for M1. Any version prior to that is running through Rosetta.

 

Found this, benchmark Unity on M1 Pro 14" base:

 

Just for fun, maybe install an old 5.6.x version and see if that has less lag when compiling scripts. I think it's possible that this is one of the performance regressions that people complain about for newer Unity versions. Also 8GB RAM is very little, afaik RAM and vRAM is shared on these computers, so it's not even as much as 8GB on an older computer.

 

Hi there. I'm a beginner to game development and have a very small team that's looking to collaborate in Unity development. We're looking to create a smallish 3D game with a graphical fidelity similar to "Portal 2," "Danganronpa V3," or "Bendy and the Ink Machine." My machine is currently at a level that I believe most would consider just under the baseline for what would be expected for a workstation, so I'll list my current specs below, and then highlight specific components I'm debating heavily on.

Operating System
Windows 10 Education 64-bit
CPU
AMD Ryzen 5 26000
RAM
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory
Motherboard
MSI B450M BAZOOKA (MS-7A38) (AM4)
Graphics
8192MB AMD RX 580 (MSI)
Storage
1863GB Seagate ST2000DM006-2DM164 (SATA )
953GB addlink M.2 PCIE G3x4 NVMe

Regarding CPU
I'm aware that Unity workstations range between a Ryzen 7 5800X and a Ryzen 9 5900X. I don't expect our game to appear particularly graphically intensive (if anything, we'd probably be aiming for below-average fidelity), but I do know that the 5900X tends to be touted as the preferred option here, especially when it comes to rendering lighting. I'm not sure if this would be useful information to include, but our game will be using a large combination of both 2D and 3D assets (along the lines of "Bug Fables" or "Octopath Traveler,") so I'm uncertain if having a large texture cache would be useful.

Regarding RAM
A much simpler question, 16GB versus 32GB. One of my other devs suggested that 32GB might be overkill for this project, but the general consensus here appears to be different.

Regarding Storage
While I'm quite satisfied with what I have currently in terms of performance, my machine doubles as a gaming machine, and I keep most of my installations on my platter drive, and both drives are already beginning to reach capacity. My usual mode of operation has my OS and work applications installed on the NVMe, with games and documents stored on the platter drive. Would investing in a cheaper 2.5" SSD for storing the project resource files be worth the investment, or would I be able to get away with using another platter drive?

I'm also open to hearing suggestions on my motherboard and graphics card, though ideally, I wouldn't want to have to replace absolutely everything on my machine.

 

Truthfully I wouldn't replace anything until I started development and saw how your workstation held up. I upgraded from a Ryzen 5 to a Ryzen 9 because the tasks the CPU handles were taking entirely too much time. Your GPU is good enough for 1080p low to medium settings in modern games.

You seem to be confusing your CPU with your GPU. The CPU only touches a few graphical tasks and all of those are for calculating the task ahead of time to reduce the load on the computer that runs the game. Your graphics card will be doing the actual rendering.

RAM is one of those things you can always use more of as everything your system is running will be making use of it. I'm currently running Unity with a basic scene (UI heavy but otherwise light) and two tabs in Chrome. Between that and my computer's normal background tasks I'm using 14.5GB. Opening a code editor pushed that to 17.5GB.

 

I purchased the new M1, had it made with 2TB hd and 16GB Ram, the problem is, Unity on the new M1 the edit and play scene area's keep blanking out for video, will Unity eventually fully support the latest Mac desktops? As of right now, I have to build my game on my PC and then take the project, port to the Mac just to build and not do any actual design on the latest Mac, just an aggravation, isn't stopping me from building games, just can't do it on the new M1 computers from Apple. I can do a video recording of the screen if anyone really wants to see the issue, but I am pretty sure Unity is fully aware of this issue.