Using Unity on an old PC... any tips?

Hello,
I own a 10 years old PC (with Windows 7), which doesn't have any graphic card (it has a graphic chipset if I understood well).
I installed Unity on this old PC in order to make 2D games, but it's very slow. Each action takes 1 second before responding. And when I tried to build the 2D game example, it took ages and finally Unity crashed...

In your opinion, can I have any hope of using Unity on this computer with some kind of optimizing something on Windows, Unity itself, etc. ? Or there is no way?

Thank you for your precious help!

 

Unity does best with SSD storage, a good amount of RAM, and a decent CPU. Some Unity features benefit from high CPU core count. As long as you meet the minimum requirements for graphics, higher performing graphics are only needed based on the performance needed for your project. I don't know what the specs are for your computer, but consider any hardware upgrades, and also consider using an older version of Unity since they are typically less demanding on the hardware.

 

Are you able to identify the manufacturer and model?

There are ways to upgrade a computer to make it more useful but it's very dependent on the computer and its original capabilities. Some can be made useful with upgrades while others can't, and there is a point where upgrades are less practical (from a cost per performance perspective) than simply buying a newer machine.

 

Get an SSD. If that doesn't help, you already have the first part for your new PC.
10 years is just soo very old. If it was anything other than a killer gaming machine back then, you are pretty much out of luck.

Edit: You will need to install both, Windows and Unity on the SSD of course.

 

I know that SSD has a limited lifespan. Working 12+ hours a day on a PC and making frequent builds (e.g. Android creates huge project in eclipse with tons of files) wouldn't break the hard disk very soon? I'm in the position to need a new PC and I'm very doubtful about putting unity+windows+temp files all in the same boat. Is it really a good idea?

 

My computer is an ASUS Notebook K70IJ Series. It has 3GB RAM, with Intel Core 2 Duo T6570 (2x 2.10Ghz).

Where can I find these older versions?

 

I only had one SSD (Samsung NVME 960 Pro 512gb) die on me, after i relentlessly used it for 4 years. But i assume it died due to running too hot, because it had not even had 10% of the specified 200tb written. All other SSD's i use are still alive and kicking. It's a myth that SSD's die fast. Buy Samsung or Crucial and make sure they are not running too hot.

3gb of RAM are getting you nowhere. Same for the CPU. It's just to old to use it for anything other than browsing the web or writing word documents. And even browsing the web on more than one tab will probably be too much for it.

There you go.

 

Dang that's not going to run Unity well no matter what you do. When you said 10 year old PC, I assumed a respectable performer for the time, but you're talking about a low end budget laptop even for 2010 standards. In 2010 it was already quite common to get DDR3 in 8GB configurations with 1080P displays, but in this case with 3GB of DDR2 and a significantly lower resolution, there's not really a pathway to even upgrade this thing to run Unity with any reasonable usability.

I'd just save up for a new PC and put Unity on hold until then.