Unity on integrated graphics?

I'm looking to build a pc for unity development, but I can't get my hands on a graphics card with all the shortages going on. What integrated graphics have you guys been able to run unity on?

I'm considering an i5 9400 or a Ryzen 5 3400g for the task (I am on a tight budget) with a 512gb SSD and 16gb Ram(@3000mhz)

 

I mean if you are on a tight budget, just get a laptop. Laptops still have GPUs without being affected unless you are going for a mid-high end GPU

You are simply not going to be able to do anything running purely on integrated graphics.

 

The 3400G's Vega 11 GPU is easily triple the performance of the i9400's Intel HD 630 GPU. Just be aware that you will have to buy two memory sticks instead of one as without dual channel it will lose most of that advantage. It's a very memory starved GPU.

 

Just get a Asus G15 it comes with a AMD 5900hs and RTX 3080

 

I have used a intel nuc with intel Iris 650, was not that bad in unity 2019, but 2020 and 2021 have severe stability issues and crash even at start with the swapcain dx11 error.

 

For specifically developing in 2D, I've seen recommendations that a GPU is one of the lowest-priority things to worry about (compared to processor, RAM, and SSD). Is this bad advice or accurate to some extent? I was hoping to spend around $1.2k or less and was thinking about getting something like this HP Envy (i7, 16 GB RAM, Intel UHD Graphics 630), though maybe upgrading to an inexpensive GPU shortly after getting it

 

I supose depends a lot on what 2d effects will go in, e.g. if need some volumetric shadowing or lighting then can be heavy. Aldo depends on sprite numbers that will be on screen and transparencies, overdraw etc

So gpu can be important, i would generally not go with a 630.

 

It's accurate but I would never recommend Intel HD unless you have no alternatives available. AMD's integrated graphics is anywhere from double to triple the performance and just about any current card is faster than that.

Good luck with this. In many countries they've been out of stock for a good while and for the countries that do have them they are way overpriced from where they should be. It took me months to get my hands on an RTX 3070 and I paid nearly double the price it is supposed to be retailing at.

It's not just the high-end or brand new cards that are overpriced either. A GT 1030 GDDR5 model is supposed to be selling for around $80 but I'm seeing them for around $160. A couple years ago RX 580s were selling for below $200 and now they are selling for $800.

I highly recommend you purchase a system with a graphics card as it's currently one of the most affordable ways to get a graphics card. If you want to wait for the situation to improve before purchasing it's being estimated by most hardware reviewers that it will be at least a year if not two and that prices may never go back all the way.

 

As usual, this is not helpful advice to OP in regards to hardware based on what they have said:

 

Inexpensive GPUs aren't a thing currently, unless we're talking about something like GT 710. I'm not sure if something like that is even more powerful than integrated GPU from AMD.

 

Thanks. Guess I'll go with a "gaming desktop" for ~1.2k-1.3k.

 

Fun fact: for general purpose rendering including light 3D, you can expect the same performance from pretty much any integrated Intel card manufactured in the last 5-ish years as you can expect from an Geforce 8800 GT, with notable caveats being related to fill rate before anything else. Not even the Iris line, but just the HD chipset.

I spent a not-insignificant amount of time doing dev work on a Mac Mini that struggled to run Sunless Sea. There's a lot more wiggle room in the HD line than people expect, I think.

 

I was going to recommend getting a higher end 900 series GTX card, but I see people on Ebay finally figured out they have the performance of the mid to high end 1600 series cards. My desktop's GTX 980 goes for almost what I paid for it back in 2015 or so. Maybe I should cash out? I mostly use my laptop now.

But on integrated graphics, I used Intel's on a different laptop for years. You run into the occasional compatibility issue, cause Intel appears to be terrible at making good graphics drivers, but as far as performance it all comes down to your project. You keep the GPU performance requirements of your project low, and you'll be fine.

One of the "big" improvements to Intel's new 11000 series desktop CPU's is better performing integrated graphics. I believe Gamers Nexus did a good review of this a couple weeks ago or so. So you might want to consider an i5 11400 instead of the 9400 if you plan on sticking with the integrated gpu for a while.

One problem with going AMD for integrated graphics is AMD hasn't been making their Zen 2 and Zen 3 APU's available for purchase separately. You have to go to system builders or get a laptop to get a newer architecture than Zen+. So you're going to be handicapped by relatively poor single thread performance of the CPU, while Unity loves a good performing main thread. So not ideal today. The 3000 series CPU's from AMD are Zen 2, but confusingly all the 3000 series APU's are Zen+. The Zen 2 APU's are marketed as 4000 series, as are the laptop versions. (and I believe a few of the lower end 5000 series laptop CPU's are also Zen 2 instead of Zen 3)

 

I have a 980 TI laying around somwhere. Question is were