CPU for PCVR and XR development in Unity (Intel i7 vs AMD Ryzen 7)

Unity Engine
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1

Hi, please give me advice about choice of CPU for PCVR and XR development. Is there any reason I should choose Intel i7?

I am indie VR developer and thinking to purchase new laptop gaming PC for PCVR and XR development in Unity.
My budget not that high so I am thinking to purchase Laptop with AMD Ryzen CPU. If there is anything I should know beforehand, please let me know.
I appreciate if you could tell me as well If there is not much difference.

2

I am not the best to answer this, but I can tell you my observations. I don’t believe having the best CPU is necessary. I stick with Intel due to past problems with AMD, but I have heard that is a lot less. I generally don’t buy the top tier CPU and end up just great on dev. Ryzen is probably just fine for what you need.

I think the bigger issue for you will be your GPU. If you want to be able to build and test directly in the Unity editor, you will need a high-end graphics card (and those are bloody expensive right now). This would then be using a headset like Rift or Quest with Link. If you going with deploying to an Android device to only test in build, then the graphics card doesn’t have to be as beefy, but it still better perform so you can design and run outside of the device.

3

I base a lot of my decisions off of Steam’s hardware survey.
https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam

I don’t need bleeding edge performance, but I do want to be sure that Unity and other game engine/peripheral manufacturers are likely to have done extensive QA on the hardware I’m using.

So, Intel CPU (~70% of the market) and NVidia GPU (~75% of the market). My current desktop is an aging i7 w/ RTX 2060 Super, and it’s fine for VR dev and handles high-end VR titles like Alyx well. You might still be able to find last year’s laptop models with similar specs for pretty cheap.

4

For now I’d say go with a ryzen 3000 or ryzen 5000 ryzen 5, 7 or 9.
For GPU if you wanna be comfortable go with an rtx 2060/gtx 1070 or faster. A 1060 or something also should be decent for many games

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Thank you for your comment! I agree that GPU is what I should think about more. The purpose of changing pc is to test directly in the Unity editor. (Currently building apk then trying on quest… is very troublesome).
And yes, the high-end graphics card (I want RTX 3070 above laptop) are expensive now and no stock in my region. As your comment, Intel or Ryzen is not really a matter if I can get good GPU.

6

Thanks for sharing your desktop spec.

This is good advice! I will also look at last year models with rtx 2060/gtx 1070 or faster. Thanks.

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Thank you for recommending Ryzen. I understand now that ryzen is not a problem but GPU spec is more important for VR. I will see pc from ryzen CPU with rtx 2060/gtx 1070 or faster!

8

Nice! GPU is indeed the main performance bottleneck with VR and many games. It’s just nive to have at least a decently fast 6 core for professional workloads :stuck_out_tongue:

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I used a Ryzen 1900X CPU for roughly 2 years for my first VR Unity project combined with a 2080 Ti and never had problems. One year ago I upgraded to a Ryzen 5900 (same gen1 mainboard) and still use the same GPU (plus a 2nd GPU which does NiceHash mining 24/7). Never have had any issues with development so far after 3+ years.

Save money and break the Intel monopoly on CPUs, go Ryzen! :smile:

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