Running Unity has been a hassle with my cheap low ram. though my CPU and GPU are powerful enough. I use a cheap 2666mhz 8GB ram. I cannot afford another stick of ram for now. When using Unity I open Google Chrome to search through the Unity Documents and with a few tabs open. I also have Visual Studio running for coding. just cuz of these programs my memory usage sky rockets to over 95%. thus making Unity and other programs run LAGGY. I also use system set virtual memory. and also here’s a screenshot. I actually don’t know if it’s the memory usage making unity and vs run laggy. normally when I just run Visual studio or Unity without any other programs open they run smooth.
There’s little you can do besides getting more RAM which really isn’t that expensive all things considered. 8 GB of RAM isn’t enough for Unity development under Windows.
As you noticed, running Unity + Browser + IDE quickly uses up all available physical memory and thus virtual memory disk swapping occurs which slows everything down significantly. When you boot the PC you’ll likely see 3+ GB already used up, that leaves very little room for other applications.
A few things that could help:
close the browser window whenever you don’t actively use it
use a different browser, check which uses the least amount of memory for the same tabs
use a different IDE, VSCode is more lightweight but not as tried and proven
Editor opened with somewhat complex scene, loads of animated (Deformable) meshes; static meshes enough to reach 0.5M vertices and tons of C# code, (No packages installed except the ones that are on by default when starting a project).
(Not exactly measurable stats without providing a package, i know but the gist of it is as following) :
With the exception of GPU instancing as well as being able to break your C# code to multiple assemblies) i find that all the things that were added post version 5.x are… well… fluff (Even for a full fledged 3D project), But that’s just me.
*Even for animations i use legacy system eventhough animator is supported.
When i lack basic functionality; i write an add-on for it (Not to be confused with a package), *Obviously you can’t change unity’s logic and how it works but i accept the way it works; that’s why i use unity.
*But why is everything i just mentioned even matters? because OP is paying the price for it; Unity is now bloated.
Just to nail this point btw; this will only be the case with unity editor , not visual studio (In case its not clear to the OP if he is not tech savvy).
I tried to run Unity 6 on 4 GB. But it is absolutely impossible to work in it, it slows down a lot, even if you disable absolutely everything (all packages). The same applies to versions (2023, 2021, 2020). Build of simple Project takes at least half of hour.
UPD: Much of this has to do with kernel processes
But even if disable all modules, it is still not enough.
I mean 4GB of RAM is Nintendo Switch levels of underpowered. Even my dated mobile phone has more than that. A Steam Deck has 16GB by comparison.
Looking at electronics stores… I’m honestly surprised you can still buy Laptops with that paltry amount of RAM. Mind you, they cost ~300 AUD (150 USD roughly), so… you get what little you pay for.
Yet you can get 16GB of RAM for as little as 60AUD (30 USD).
Well; with the AI craze of unity 6 and the new upcoming projects…
i don’t see refactoring or optimizing anywhere on the roadmap…
its not gonna get better mate.
seems like at the moment, its a race to the bottom on “who is the biggest idiot with the smaller dick, unreal or unity”… and ofcourse the answer will always be … the consumer who is willing to pay for this idiocy.
i wouldn’t recommend questioning it; or you will get a reply such as "How come you don’t have hardware from 28th of jan, Tuesday, 2025 (Date of posting), you are not POOR , ARE YOU?)
Personally, I won’t be happy until I have Unity 6 running on my 1999 eOne eMachine. 433Mhz CPU, 64MB of ram, and a whopping 8MB of video memory! Then and only then will Unity have shown to me that they truly care about optimisation and backwards compatibility.
