Need a faster PC - too many options - suggestions?

Hi,

I've got to speed up build times, and I'm in the market for a PC build that will get me going.

From what I've gathered.
- I need lots of fast DDR4 RAM.
- Not sure if the Xeon or i9 or i7 is better. Xeon might be overkill. Some i7s are faster than the i9s.
- Keep the hardware cool

Is there an obvious best choice that game devs companies buy because they know they're the fastest?

My budget is up to about $2k, not including the graphics card, which I already own (RTX 2080ti)

Thanks!

 

There are a couple of related threads in the General Discussion forum. If you want to read them. This is the most recent one: https://forum.unity.com/threads/building-pc.731756/

I wouldn't buy Xeon, no reason to do that.
More ram the better, more SSD the better, more CPU the better. You can also consider the new AMD line-up, they are excellent and sometimes faster because of the more core for the buck.

 

Thanks for the input!

AMD better than Intel(?)
So, I'm moving towards AMD now, after reading your comments and the thread you supplied, as well as:
- This awesome deep dive in the thread: https://www.anandtech.com/show/14605/the-and-ryzen-3700x-3900x-review-raising-the-bar, - Linus Tech Tips reviews:

- More LTT reviews: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Linus+Tech+review:+amd+ryzen

ASUS Laptop?
Not that I wanted to complicate things, but I'm wondering if I should consider the ASUS laptops with an eGPU for my RTX 2080.
ASUS Zephyrus GA502 Review:

Not sure how to compare options (laptop vs custom pc build).


Anyone else care to chime in?

 

If you care for performance and efficiency of work, dont bother with laptop. Unless you are in often move. You would be better of considering 2 screens. And where you put your GPU in laptop?

AMD is current good for performance /value in comparison to alternative Intel. It tends to shift from year to year.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=external+GPU+case

Also for certain laptops you can buy a dock which can accept GPU.

 

The Ryzen 3900X is the obvious choice for a mid to high end game dev workstation right now. Either that or wait for the 3950X to release.

 

Agreed! Especially the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12-core, 24-Thread!

Et al.,
Any thoughts on putting together a build vs. a 3rd party vendor building it? I could do the build, but I have to get back to work, and shopping for parts, etc is holding me back.

Thoughts on a motherboard for the Ryzen 3900X?

 

I'd put it together yourself, and for a 3900X I'd probably use an x570 based motherboard. The 450's might work, but all the old boards need a BIOS update to support the zen 2 chips, so you may need an older AM4 chip just to get the BIOS update installed. But x570 was released with zen 2, so you shouldn't have that hassle.

Look at a few models and search up detailed youtube reviews on them before deciding on the specific board.

 

Cool, I'll build it then! Thx J!


I have to share this amazing review of motherboards that support the x570:
(love the info, his rapid, no BS delivery, and the detailed progress bars embedded in the video!)

Some points I grocked from the video:
- 00:56 - PCIe 4.0 is faster than my RTX 2080 ti (I read about this before - the RTX becomes the bottleneck)
- 21:02 - ASUS vs Gigabyte boards at the $200 price point seem like the sensible choice

My thoughts on motherboard options:
- I don't need PCIe 4.0, unless I'm going to want faster than SATA SDD read/write
- 10 GB Lan is a motherboard consideration, but I don't need it
- The onboard WIFI options seems to be about the same cost as having to buy a WIFI board without sacrificing a slot on the motherboard
- Gigabyte's external reset button sounds cool, but it's not a need for me

This seems like a good option:
- ASUS AM4 TUF Gaming X570-Plus ~$199

RE: Overclocking for Unity dev performance?
Is overclocking something I should be trying to do? If so, I should look at the options at the $350 range instead of the $200 range. It seems that to decide on the best-of-breed in overclocking, I'd need to compare actual results, not specs, making it more ambiguous.

RE: Drive speed for Unity dev performance?
From what I understand, a SATA SDD should be fast enough, and therefore I don't need PCIe 4.0 for PCIe SDDs. Right?

 

(Disclaimer - I don't have a 3900X)
My understanding is because of the binning AMD is doing, you're unlikely to get much out of overclocking. Not really worth the trouble, nor worth paying extra for a motherboard for it. The CPU dies which are stable at higher clocks are currently being set aside for use in the 3950X.

For a new build today you should be using an NVMe SSD, not SATA. You don't need it to be PCIe 4. For example, compare the Samsung EVO 860 SATA drive to the EVO 970 NVMe PCIe 3 drive.

EVO 860:
Max Sequential Read: Up to 550 MBps
Max Sequential Write: Up to 520 MBps
4KB Random Read
Random (QD1): Up to 10,000 IOPS
Random (QD32): Up to 98,000 IOPS
4KB Random Write
Random (QD1): Up to 42,000 IOPS
Random (QD32): Up to 90,000 IOPS

EVO 970:
Max Sequential Read: Up to 3400 MBps
Max Sequential Write: Up to 2500 MBps
4KB Random Read
QD1: Up to 15,000 IOPS
QD32: Up to 500,000 IOPS
4KB Random Write
QD1: Up to 50,000 IOPS
QD32: Up to 450,000 IOPS

https://www.newegg.com/samsung-860-evo-series-1tb/p/N82E16820147673
https://www.newegg.com/samsung-970-evo-1tb/p/N82E16820147691

 

Thank you for steering me in the right direction!

- NVMe SSDs look awesome
- 3950X looks worth waiting for if they're really going to be available in September (next week)

I'm guessing the boards that support the 3900X will work with the 3950X. Right?

 

Yeah any x570 board will work.

3950X is silly money for most indie devs in my opinion. I'm not sure whether to go 3600, 3700x or 3900x. For some reason I don't believe the 3900x would be that much faster in day to day unity than the 3600 and the price difference is pretty big. Shame no one does unity benchmarks.

 

At $2K without a graphics card, I'd probably go 3950X. Though you are paying 50% more for a minor clock boost and 33% more cores. So the 3900X is a better deal price to performance wise.

All X570 boards are supposed to support all Ryzen 3rd gen processors. It is the older chipsets where you need to look at BIOS updates and what size VRM was included on the board, to see if the board will work.

 

To work out the build, I used these sites:
- http://www.logicalincrements.com/ - to narrow down the choices while selecting supporting components
- https://pcpartpicker.com/ - to build a system and check compatibility

Here's my build:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/sVtFWD

PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor ($499.99 @ Best Buy)
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard ($195.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 64 GB (4 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($269.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($169.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Intel 660p Series 2.048 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($184.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB ROG Strix Gaming OC Video Card ($1239.89 @ OutletPC)
Case: Cooler Master MasterCase H500P Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case ($156.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($123.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $2841.71

Since I already have the RT 2080,
Total: ~$1601.82


RE: Storage
The 2TB SSD is twice as slow but I'm hoping is fast enough for as a secondary drive for storing Unity projects. Essentially, running the OS on the faster 1TB SDD. I'll use an 8TB HD for additional storage.