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

With only 4GB of ram you'll struggle to even open the Unity editor.

 

Please don't. I'm guessing you don't have much to spend on a laptop but there is a limit to how old of a laptop you should consider and that laptop is far beyond that point. Forget Unity. That machine will struggle to run a browser and it will struggle to run Windows.

Crazy part is the memory is the least worrisome part. AMD's E1-1500 was released in 2013 but it's performance is on the level of a Pentium 4 from 2008. It's graphics is a Radeon HD 7310 which sounds great on paper but is half the performance of Intel HD 4000 which came out in 2011.

 

i am currently planing to replace my motherboard to get a i9 12900K processor. should i go with a DDR4 or with a DDR5 motherboard? will it have any speed benefit going with DDR5 over DDR4 - especially in script compilation?

 

This isn't a good choice at all. Chances are that there are better offers for the same amount of money (even in the current market) as i've noticed those older laptops being pushed on the market for higher prices than what they are actually worth.

 

Not that user, but here's an analogy: an image could be printed using different inks, paper types, resolutions ("low quality displays") but the source of the image (the product made on a "high quality display") must be as close to authors intent as possible to ensure that even on low quality paper, the image is still going to be somehow "accurate".

 

Script compilation times mostly depend on raw CPU power. DDR4 or DDR5 will make no difference.

 

Trying to decide between two laptops which I'd like to use for both game dev and playing games. (although game dev is the primary goal). Besides Unity I would also want to run apps like Blender and do "regular" stuff like browsing, email, docs etc.

1) ASUS Rog Zephyrus G15 2022
Model: ‎GA503Q
CPU: Ryzen 9 6900HS
GPU: RTX 3060 (6GB)
RAM: 40GB
Storage: 2TB SSD NVMe
Screen: 15.6" WQHD (2560x1440), 165Hz Refresh Rate
Weight: 4.21 lbs

2) Dell XPS 15
Model:
CPU: Intel Core i7 (12700h)
GPU: RTX 3050 Ti (4GB)
RAM: 32GB
Storage: 2TB SSD NVMe
Screen: 15.6" FHD (1920x1200) 60Hz Refresh Rate
Weight: 4.22 lbs

The prices at the specs above are comparable.

The Dell has the 12th gen Alder Lake CPU which has supposedly really good performance which would probably be better for compiling? The ASUS obviously has the better GPU (RTX 3060). Also the Dell can be specced up to 64 GB RAM for an additional $350 whereas the Asus maxes out at 40GB RAM. The Asus GPU can be specced up to RTX 3070 Ti, although I can't seem to find that anywhere at the moment.

One area that I am confused about in general is storage. It seems that nowadays that every other asset on the asset store weighs in at gigabytes in size. How do people manage to do development with anything less than 2TB? Should I be thinking about 4TB? Is development on a USB-C connected SSD practical? Both laptops can be specced up to 4TB SSD.

Given that both laptops are (relatively) light, I'm also somewhat concerned about thermals. Even though this would be a game dev laptop, I still think that 75% of the time would be "general computing", i.e. browsing, mail, documents etc. I'm assuming in this scenario given that the GPU doesn't come into the picture, that the Asus (Ryzen 9) would run cooler?

Any advice would be appreciated.

ps) My current laptop on which I do Unity dev is a 2 year old Dell XPS 3790 13" . It does not have a dedicated GPU but I've managed to make do. However, the major problem I have with it is that it has a very wide GHZ range. So it will briefly burst up to 4+ GHz and then quickly settle back into the 0.8-1.2 GHz. range. For the longest time I was getting huge performance variation from run to run with no code or asset change. It took me a while to figure out it was because of the CPU variability. Based on this experience it seems to me that the Ryzen might be better because even though it has lower peak performance than the Intel 12th gen, the Ryzen CPU Range (3.0 GHZ-4.6 GHz) seems much narrower than the Intel's (2.3GHz-4.7GHz).

Are there any best practices when trying to optimize/benchmark one's game when the CPU itself has such a wide range of speed?

 

I almost responded that the screen was the best selling point but then I looked up the performance differences between the mobile RTX 3050 Ti and the 3060. According to Tom's Hardware the 3050 Ti is on average 50% slower than the 3060 at 1080p with some games seeing 74 to 115% more performance on the 3060.

The higher resolution will be more demanding but the card is more powerful so it balances out, and DLSS works better when you have a higher internal resolution which you will thanks to the native resolution being higher.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/mobile-rtx-3050-ti-terrible-buy

I'm also not a fan of the 4GB of the 3050 Ti. Ignoring the mobile market for a moment there are only two desktop cards that have 4GB and both of them are low end models. Every other card has at least 8GB with most of them having at least 12GB. I just don't trust the 4GB of the mobile 3050 Ti having any longevity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_30_series
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_RX_6000_series

 

Thanks, that was helpful.

still wondering how much ssd developers realistically need especially if they’re using a lot of asset store assets.

 

Depends entirely on the size of your project. Also since you're going to play games keep in mind that many modern AAA games take up to 100+ GB of storage. In my opinion 2TB should be enough for most and you should be able to upgrade your storage should it become an issue down the road.

 

thanks!

 

I wouldn't worry about this at all unless you're planning on buying used hardware that is more than five or so years old because the simple truth is aside from raytracing almost all of the advanced features we work with have been available for years now.

Performance is far more critical than new features. Compute shaders for example have been available on desktop since 2010 and mobile since 2014 but good luck using HDRP which requires them on a device that old. It won't be pretty if it's even functional.

OpenGL ES 3.0 is another great example. It's been available on desktop since Intel HD 4000 but just about every phone made in the past few years is at least on par if not faster and Intel HD 630 which is anywhere from 3 to 10 times the performance of HD 4000 is still only at best on par with a recent mid-range phone.

Want to create games for Android and iOS without having to worry about performance and features for the next few years? Just buy the baseline M1 Mac Mini. It starts at $700 but is frequently on sale for $600 to 650. If that's too much money the 2018 model is still current and supported but it's far slower too.

 

That post you replied to was created to create a risky link. I would avoid clicking it. Reported.

 

I'm thinking of upgrading my 8400. I'd probably need a new PSU, might go for DDR5 so new RAM and a new heat sink. What do you guys recommend below 800$?

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Hello, I am new to Unity, I have a Legion 5 pro, 2022 version with a RTX 3060 and i7, whenever I try to run the unity build, it tends to heat up like crazy, the thermals reach around 95+ degrees and I am worried.

 

I know it can be worrisome the first time you see it but this is completely normal for gaming laptops. They're made both to handle high temperatures and hit them while under load. Computers are designed to throttle and then shut themselves off if the temperature becomes too great. If it isn't turning off without warning its fine.

Edit: It's not just laptops either. Computer components have two things that affect their performance. Temperature and available power. A component will push itself until one of these have been met. A custom built desktop will only rarely hit power constraints which is why reviews often show Intel CPUs sitting at 100C with AMD a little lower.

 

I only ever had one proper laptop and that was one of the core duo macbook pros that were heating up their GPU so much that solder joints were starting to weaken. It was repaired free of charge eventually because the screen no longer turned on. Glad to hear stuff is designed better today.

What do you think of the Lenovo Legion Series in general? I'm looking into buying a PC Laptop for asset creation, gamedev, gaming, composing and writing. RTX3060 is the minimum GPU that I'd want and it needs to have a screen with very good color accuracy and viewing angle, and resolution higher than 1080p would be great. 32GB Ram would be good and easy access to the SSD and a second SSD slot would be a plus. Trying to keep the price in the 1000 to 2000 Euro range. Maybe I'll be able to get a good deal during a prime promotion sale on amazon or something like that.

I'm still using very old (like way older than 10years) Lenovo TFTs (not sure about the panel type but something *VA I think, no IPS for sure) and I still like them a lot more than the average IPS panel that you can buy today. So I've had good experiences with Lenovo screens and hope that holds true for their laptops too.

 

Honestly I had never heard of the series before this thread. At a glance it's basically the same value as an Acer Predator Helios 300, ASUS TUF, or MSI laptop. Amazon is having another prime sale Oct 11th to 12th and Black Friday/Cyber Monday will be here soon.

 

Thanks!

 

I have a 2013 Macbook running Unity 2020 and I was thinking of going over to Unity 2021 to take advantage of some of its features. The problem is while Unity 2020 runs fine 2021 gets the Macbook all hot and bothered, even in a simple empty scene. This problem is compounded when doing multiplayer development having multiple Unity instances running which again is fine in 2020 but 2021 puts the Macbook into meltdown.

Is there any way to reduce the cpu load in 2021 or is it best just to stick with 2020 on this aging Macbook?

 

I propose the same discussion created by this guy as mine
but unlike him, I'm trying to figure out if or which laptop to buy for game development with Unity3D and use of Blender and also for the purpose of playing games.

My idea was to buy this pc having a budget of about 1300 €
can anyone advise me?


*) HP - Victus 16-e0054nl (notebook)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800H
GPU: Nvidia RTX 3060 6GB
RAM: 16 GB
STORAGE: SSD 1TB Nvme PCIe M.2
Display: 16,1" FHD 144Hz IPS

 

I might have an opportunity for my employer to purchase a very high end laptop for unity dev. It would be docked as a desktop station most of the time, but laptop for occasional portability.

Is it feasible to call this a desktop replacement? The specs are better than my current desktop but I just have this feeling like a laptop pushing out huge gpu work day in/day out is going to heat up and be an issue. Or no?


ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 SE G733CX
17.3" WQHD 240Hz
1.7 GHz i9-12950HX
RTX 3080 Ti
64 GB 4800MHz RAM

 

Can Intel core i5 10500h + GTX 1650 use for 3D (MSI Gf36 Thin 10SC) Handle 3D Development?

 

Depending what type of application, or game you will be working on.

Generally speaking, laptops using MOBILE version of hardware vs equivalent DESKTOP version of hardware.
MOBILE hardware are made to use less power, to generate much less heat, since they don't have same cooling capabilities of the DESKTOP one.

That means, your GPU and CPU on the laptop will be much weaker, than if you would buy equivalent of these for the desktop. Plus you pay an extra price tag, for mobility.

May I ask, what is the purpose of Unity development environment mobility?
Are you going to work on Unity application in multiple places?

 

Yes I will be traveling at times and will not have a machine at the other locations.

I really can't function without multiple monitors, keyboard, desk, so it's always going to be used like a desktop, I just will need to move sometimes so trying to figure out the best option.

If the benchmarks of these mobile components are at least better than my current older desktops benchmarks. It's still an upgrade for me I guess, although I somehow feel like the laptop would be lesser.

I am aware the desktop equivalent of the same name parts are more powerful.

My current desktop is Ryzen 3900x and 2060super gpu, 64gb ddr4

 

Someone pointed out these mini PC Intel nuc but I can't seem to find anything in stock with high specs. I guess you can hook it up like a desktop but also throw it in your bag and travel

 

Just go to benchmark websites and compare components.

 

Right so in my case the laptop benchmarks are higher than my current desktop so it's still an upgrade for me. But I would prefer some kind of mini desktop that's portable.

Seems the good gpu are out of stock everywhere

 

My

I'm using a lot of assets. My WIP is over 200GB - just the unity project - and I'm nowhere close to done.

 

I think that may be sensible choice. But you need investigate the components. Since they tend to be a bit bigger.
You can get smaller gpus for examples, with 2 fans, instead of 3. They are probably a bit louder, when on load.
As long you don't overclock, you should be fine.

Gtx 3xxx series should be available in stocks. Also similar for radeon 5xxx and 6xxx series.

 

Black Friday/Cyber Monday emptied most of the stores.

 

in laptop form its gonna be RTX 3080ti (laptop version) so for mini desktop I was thinking id have to at least beat that. Also questioning if its reasonable to pack a small desktop in an airport carryon bag. I'm not sure if they can take the beating of travel the same as a laptop.

 

You got limited carriage allowance on airport.
Most likely you will not be able to take PC on board. Only into cargo space.
Plus you would need monitor as well.

 

You would have to build it for that purpose as normally the major components are not sufficiently fastened down with the biggest potential problem causers being the CPU heatsink and the GPU. If either of these move enough their weight can damage the motherboard, and that doesn't count if they come loose and bounce around.

 

ok good point so really i would have to customize it to brace the gpu at the very least.

 

typical paid carry on is 22x14x9inches. So looking at something like a nuc13 case (13.3 in x 12.5 in x 5.1 in), slimline monitors, keyboard, it actually would fit i think even with like 3 monitors. hardly seems worth it though when i can just get a laptop but now i feel like i want the challenge

 

I can not imagine doing any Unity work on it.

 

Why slimline monitors are not good? I figured they were the same as normal monitor?

Cheap example
https://www.amazon.com/Acer-SB220Q-...fix=laptop+monitor+,aps,118&sr=8-3&th=1&psc=1

 

I mean the monitor size.
Very little space, to squash any sensible Unity workspace.
And the fact, how to handle it in such place like an airplane.
But as mentioned, for various reasons, if you fly often, go with laptop.

Or consider this.
Buy good desktop workstation.
Then some cheap laptop.
And connect remotely to your pc.
I do that very often.
I got both performance and mobility.
Plus don't need to worry, for damaging highly valuable machine.

Just make sure, you got UPS at the place where is the desktop.

 

For monitor size I would be looking to cram the desktop, and (2 or 3) 22"monitors in to the bag, That's why I was looking at slimline thin monitors

I think this plan actually could work if it weren't for the bashing around of the desktop in travel

 

I doubt to be honest.

You would need to do custom build mini PC, which would be extremely limited, for what you can put in. Extreme fragility and inpracticality, for flights type of journeys. You would need to handle monitors, which are not designed for travel, but to be stationary. You also would need cary additional UPS, or battery equivalent, which are heavy.
Plus safety of using such on board of the airplane.

So unless someone show me such setup, with high end specs, to beat laptop equivalent and yet be able stay mobile, untill then I will stay sceptical about any feasibility of such builds.

 

The nuc13 extreme fits this description, except not sure about the quality during travel. It's small and for $3500 beats the $4200 laptop benchmarks.

Either way I would still be traveling with monitors so this is why I went down this rabbit hole. The carry-on size bag seems to fit everything, in theory anyway

 

Just curious are you planning many per year long travels?

Why don't you consider remote access, as I suggested?

 

Well I wasn't quite sure what you meant. Do you mean your standard remote application like team viewer?

I've used that program a few times in the past but I never thought of it for a full days use of real work like that. Either way I still need to work w multiple screens

 

Not years, but for about 1 year yes

 

Yes, teamviwer would work as an example.

I do live in two places atm. I travel often, switching places.
One place has my main development PC, other has just laptop.
I got secondary screen connected to the laptop.
Laptop is really basics.
And remote accessing.
I can even use mobile to remote access PC, if during travel. But I usually don't.
However, I don't need to carry laptop, nor PC with me for most times.

 

Youtube got me deep into the core.
I have finally bought long awaited High end PC, to watch cats and dogs.
Cinebench 23 @ 31-32k

 

I want to upgrade my workstation. I have some question.
1. i9-13900k and R9-7950x, which one is better for unity compile and build?
2. High speed ram is necessary? DDR5 6000 and more is much better than 4800? What about CL?
3. I see the memory support list of a motherboard shows a memory supports 6400 and slot 1, 2, no 4. It means it must be not support 4? Or maybe ok but not certainly?

 

If you want more software compatibility, go with intel and nvdia.
AMD shows often in various situations lesser of compatibility.

Atm you will not see any gain of using DDR5 high frequency. Large CCL basically eats all gain of the frequency at is nothing more than marketing buzz. Maybe if you go with Nvidia 40000k series, you may see small improvement.
I got on my i9-13900k, DDR4 cinebench score of around 31-32k.

If for development i9 is good, but depending what you do. It may be overkill.
If for gaming, is extreme overkill.

 

In most cases they are identical but there are some where one is faster than the other. Unity doesn't care though so unless you have another program you care about that does just choose whichever is the better overall deal.

https://www.techspot.com/review/2552-intel-core-i9-13900k/

Choice of memory is primarily about how much memory you want. Higher capacity modules typically have lower maximum speeds that you can choose from. Higher speed compensates for higher CL. That said AMD is more sensitive to memory speeds and typically has one ideal speed for a generation. For the 7950X that's 5200.

That list contains all of the module combinations that the manufacturer has tested and verified works. In theory you might be able to get away with more or higher speeds but in practice (ie the vast majority of the time) the modules will simply run at a lower speed than they were rated for.