Need some PC advice

I am new to unity and I am working on a project as a learning experience more then anything else. However I have very limited time. So I am trying to minimize the time I am waiting for things like light baking and other computational time consuming tasks. Of the below two choices what is my best option to reduce wasted time vs cost.

1) I have an existing Dual CPU system with 64GB of ram and Dual Xenon E5- 2667 3.2 Ghz chips and a Nvidia 660TI sitting in my basement.

2) Buy a new system with one of the gen 9 i-7 chips

If the performance difference is marginal I would rather stick with what I have. If there would be a significant difference going new then I would rather go ahead and upgrade.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Masoric

 

Pretty much every i9 on the market has a Passmark score at least twice as high on a single CPU as the dual CPU setup you have is. Also, honestly, your graphics card is probably on its last legs too, seeing as even when it was new it was a mid-range card.

 

Thats a hefty amount of ram you got there. Which type and lock rate is it?

 

If you are starting out, just stick an SSD drive in that old rig you have and get started. That will be adequate for short term needs. Longer term, you will likely want something newer for CPU and GPU.

 

Honestly? Nah. The computer they're talking about is 7 years old and its processing power honestly won't even be on par with an i9-9900K. The only thing that computer has going for it in 2019 is the amount of memory and, honestly? I'm not even sure if it'd be as performant as half the capacity at a better speed. Hell, if there's any amount of 3D work being done, a 660TI isn't a great bet either.

 

I am going to have to go look at the specs its been a while since I built it for a work project. I believe its DDR4- 2400 but no idea on the lock rate without finding the build sheet.

 

It was all coming down the % of increase for me. I was not sure if unity could even take advantage of 16 cores or not (in the old rig). If going to an i9 got me 10-15 percent increase its probably not worth it. If it got me 50% then its a no brainier.

 

Actually, it would be a fine development rig for somebody getting started. I would not recommend it for a serious project, but it would be adequate for going through tutorials and building a bunch of small learning projects.

 

A Dual Xeon E5- 2667 would be 12 cores (6 cores per CPU). It would run 2.9GHz to 3.5GHz. It would not be great for playing modern games, but it would be fine for doing some game development work, especially when you are getting started.

The Unity Editor does use multiple cores, including when doing light baking. A seven year old computer won't run like a brand new computer, but it would be adequate for getting started.

The only thing I would upgrade would be the storage. If that system has an old school hard drive, replace it with an SSD. That would help a lot when compiling and building.

 

I'd start with the old one, and then either upgrade or replace it based on problems you actually run into. A new one will be faster, sure, but unless the old one is causing you problems then faster is just a "nice to have".

Short term, I expect that an SSD and a newer GPU would give it a nice kick. Long term, if you do a lot of work on it, upgrading all of the performance parts would be useful.

Disclaimer: I'm apparently a freak, in so far as I've not felt the need to upgrade my desktop's CPU in 7 years...

 

I would wait with the new computer, especially because of the market. This is a good beginner computer it's good enough to run tutorials and develop basic stuff. Even 3D. SSD is (very!) good to have if you want to spend.

And a little bit later when the dust settles you can pick something to buy, the new AMD processors for example look cheaper and more advanced than anything Intel currently can show. So I wouldn't buy as of now (the new AMD procs will come close to EOY and we don't know if Intel can answer).

 

The new AMD CPUs (the 3000 series) are supposed to be available on July 7, 2019.

 

I would wait for the 16 core though,it will be announced after the 12 core that is avaiable the 7th of July.

 

Maybe or maybe not. It would depend on if a person needed to build a system in July vs waiting an unknown number of additional months for the 16C part to be available. We all agree that AMD will release a 16C CPU, but none of us know when that will happen, what the price point will be, and what clock speed it will run at. Also, we don't know yet how well the 16C part will scale relative to the 12C part.

 

12 E5- 2667 cores is probably pretty good. 64GB RAM is pretty good. You probably don't have an SSD in that, so that would be my first upgrade. The video card is pretty garbage today, but it could be fine depending on the requirements of your game. A 1070 though wouldn't be a bad idea.

If you went with an i9 machine, you'll have faster single core performance, but fewer cores, as I think the i9 tops out at 8 cores. So it will be faster or slower depending on the specific workloads.

If I were you, I'd just go the SSD + new video card route. If you eventually hit some pain points with your development, then build a new computer to address that issue specifically.

 

Nope, but they have confirmed a 16C atleast. Im pretty happy with my 2700x will wait some and see if can increase core count with 100 procent instead of just 50 procent