Msi gl63 8rcs i7 for mobile game development.

I'm planning to buy msi gl63 8rcs i7 for 3D FPS mobile game development in unity.(to create a game like call of duty mobile)
These are the specifications of this laptop.

• • Latest 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 processor
  • Windows 10 Home / Windows 10 Pro
  • Latest GeForce® GTX 1050 4GB GDDR5
  • 15.6" Full HD (1920x1080), 94%NTSC wide-view panel(Optional)
  • Exclusive Cooler Boost 5 Technology
  • 5X bigger Upgraded Giant Speakers for captivating realism
  • Dragon Center with exclusive gaming mode
  • Gaming keyboard by SteelSeries with red backlighting
  • Exclusive SHIFT technology boosts performance under controlled noise & temperature

Tell me that what you think about it.

More information
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MSI GL63 8RCS 8th Generation
Intel Core i7-8750H+HM370
8GB DDR4 2666MHZ
250GB SSD
15.6" (1920*1080), wideview 94%NTSC Anti-glare
NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 1050, 4GB GDDR5
RED Backlit keyboard by Steelseries
Intel Wireless-AC 9462 (1*1 a/c)+ BT5
FREE MSI Gaming Backpack
2 Years warranty
Geniune Windows 10 64Bit Pre-installed

 

The graphics card is abysmal. A 1050 isnt really fit for development, you can definately use unity with it, but it wont run well and anything using the GPU is going to take a lot longer or not happen at all. The 1050 is the lowest budget option of the 10XX line of cards and already the 10XX cards are becoming old, so getting the lowest option kind of bottlenecks the rest of the kit.

Also 250GB SSD isnt very much, once you factor in OS taking up space, space for downloads, installations of unity and any other programs and finally extra space because at least 10% of SSD should be empty otherwise life expectancy goes right down, you will have not much space left. I would find one with at least a 500GB HDD alongside an SSD.

Personally I would say you need at a minimum:

- at least a 1060 or equivalent card if your going to be using a laptop
- at least a 120gb SSD for your OS and for installing unity on and anything else you want to run quickly
- at the very least a 250gb extra HDD for actually keeping content on. Unity builds can rack up to a big size, as can various other things such as GI cache etc

Everything else seems fine. Overall I personally would not buy this laptop for unity, I also wouldnt buy it for much else as its not really for gaming, it would make an okay laptop for basic office tasks and surfing the net.

 

"GameDevCouple_I,
Also 250GB SSD isnt very much, once you factor in OS taking up space, space for downloads, installations of unity and any other programs and finally extra space because at least 10% of SSD should be empty otherwise life expectancy goes right down, you will have not much space left. I would find one with at least a 500GB HDD alongside an SSD."

*It has a empty slot for a hard drive up to 1TB.

 

My recommendation these days - when someone hasn't bothered to tell me their budget - is the Acer Predator Helios 300.

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Predator-i7-9750H-Keyboard-PH315-52-78VL/dp/B07QXLFLXT/

While MSI definitely has nice laptops the reality is they charge entirely too much for them. This laptop has a fast 6C/12T processor, a current generation 1660 Ti (which for the record is equivalent to a previous generation GTX 1070), and 16GB RAM in addition to everything else matching the MSI laptop.

I'm going to disagree with @GameDevCouple_I on the usability of a 1050. You can use it for game development - you'll be able to make mobile games and light-to-mid-range games - but you will have a terrible experience when it comes to just about anything on the high-end like the HDRP. A 1660 Ti is approximately double the performance of a 1050.

Memory on the MSI is very bare minimum too. Game development tools are heavy on memory usage, browsers are heavy on memory usage, and the operating system generally wants about 2 GB to itself making a system that only has 8 GB a very subpar experience. You will need to upgrade to 16GB almost immediately after purchase if you buy the MSI.

Finally that just leaves storage. All of these laptops will need either a second drive or have their main drive replaced with a higher capacity model. My recommendation would be to replace the main drive, but that's just the geek in me saying you should format all the bloatware out of a laptop before trying to use it. A second drive would work if you're not that savvy.

What I can't recommend is a hard drive. HDDs are only good for backups and only because they're very affordable for that purpose. For general purpose tasks they don't have the performance for a good experience. Once you've tried an SSD you will never want to use an HDD again, and a budget SSD is not that much more than an HDD.

All of this assumes you're in a good part of the world to be able to afford the prices and have the budget. If you don't you need to tell us when you're asking for recommendations.

 

BTW, almost any modern laptop is good for mobile game development. Obviously the stronger the better, but since you don't work for PC or consoles, you can have slightly less powered computer.

 

The specs are of a computer you would have bought a few years ago and while still usable with Unity you'd be actively looking at what your next upgrade is going to be. I would not buy it today.

The CPU is good, the memory is about as low as you can go to be usable but I wouldn't buy a new dev machine with less than 16GB today. 256GB SSD is a joke when new Intel 1TB SSD's are just $100. A GTX 1050 is not in Intel integrated graphics territory, but is not good by any means. A 1050 would be sufficient for a dev machine for most uses though.

I'd go for a machine with similar CPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB or larger SSD (nvme if available), 1060 GTX or higher graphics. Assuming you can afford it.

 

What would you recommend Ryiah? I'm actually in the market for a replacement laptop.

I'm really pleased with the old MSI, but I'm also really looking for a good price/value with a chassis that isn't f**ing embarrassing for a grown man to use in public. The most important requirement is a 17"+ screen.

My price point is as close to 1k as possible, but I can probably stretch to 1500 if warranted. I've been looking at MSI GL series or similar.

I am willing to spend a little more on msi for the excellent cooling they're known for, but if theres a good case for another machine I'm game.

 

Outside of weird prices (which it wouldn't surprise me if this was the case for your area) building your own desktop will almost always be a better deal than buying a pre-built desktop or a laptop. What stores do you have access to for purchasing components?

MSI is a solid brand and if you've had success with them in the past I can completely understand wanting to stick with them but Acer is a solid brand too in my experience and they specialize in getting the most bang for your buck. Check out the Acer Predator Helios 500.

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Predator-PH517-61-R0GX-Processor-Graphics/dp/B07GWX5X26/

One of the main advantages is that it is an actual desktop processor complete with desktop clock speeds in the form of a laptop. In fact one of the top reviews on Amazon mentions how they were able to remove the processor and replace it with a different model in the same generation indicating that it is in fact not soldered to the board.

That said there doesn't appear to be a BIOS upgrade allowing for the new third generation processors and the battery life on this thing will be one of the shortest out there if that's a concern for you. It's advertised as only having up to one and a half hours.

 

Thanks, given that you're the resident forum hardware expert - can you gimme a breakdown on the current state of AMD vs nvidia these days? Again, I'm looking at around this price range.

I'm really not a hardware guy and know nothing about the current state of things.

 

AMD vs NVIDIA right now isn't the most exciting aspect of their company. AMD has launched a new series of GPUs but for the most part they're mid-range graphics cards. AMD Vega 56 is an older GPU that is based off of a design that is aimed more at datacenters than actual gaming.

Compute performance is very high with the Vega 56 but it's actual gaming performance is only slightly faster than the GTX 1660 Ti. Below is one of the first links that I came to when searching for benchmarks that shows the Vega 56 versus GTX 1660 Ti. Both cards tested were for the desktop but laptop shouldn't be too far behind those numbers.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13973/nvidia-gtx-1660-ti-review-feat-evga-xc-gaming/5

That said there are is a caveat you should know about. Some assets on the store - like Bakery which is a GPU-powered lightmapper - are not compatible with AMD for the purposes of compute. I know you're primarily a programmer but if you intend to try to use tools like that it's good to be aware.

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

 

Yeah i got this guys.thank you.