Specs/Laptop for 2D Development

News & General Discussion
1

Hi there so i’m making a 2d endless runner and was wondering which specs/laptop you would recommend, I mostly care about the ram and the processor.

The main laptops i have seen is http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/refurbished-laptops/hp-pavilion-15-p076sa-refurbished-15-6-laptop-blue-10012254-pdt.html#cat-0 this one which has an i3 processor and 1tb hard drive space or wait for http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/refurbished-laptops/hp-pavilion-15-p199sa-refurbished-15-6-laptop-blue-10075686-pdt.html this one to come back into stock which has an i5 processor and 1.5tb hard drive space. Also if you have any more suggestions my price range is £200 to £300. Any help will be appreciated, thanks.

2

Anything meeting the system requirements for Unity will be more than sufficient for 2D. At this point that is pretty much every new Windows or OS X desktop or laptop on the market. The cheaper model should be more than sufficient.

http://unity3d.com/unity/system-requirements

3

I’ve already got a desktop, it meets the system requirements but is painfully slow, thanks anyway.

4

For 2D, I find that compile times are really fast even on a low spec machine that meets the system requirements. What aspect of Unity do you find to be painfully slow?

5

Actually playing the game and opening up monodevelop and stuff like that really.

6

Right, but that’s why I stated any new desktop or laptop. You can go back as far as the end of the Pentium 4’s era with hardware and still match those system requirements. It will be quite miserable too.

Any modern device though is leaps and bounds ahead of that time period and even some of the later years. The Core 2 series, which was the leader in 2006, cost hundreds of dollars but it is now evenly tied with AMD’s budget processors costing no more than $40.

The Core i3 series is at the high end of Intel’s budget processors with their actual budget chips being Pentium and Celeron and should be more than adequate.

7

Yeah I’m pretry sure I’ve got a pentium in my desktop at the moment just like you said, it still runs it but very slowly.

8

What manufacturer and model for that desktop?

9

It’s a dell dimension 5150

10

Yes, I suspected it was a Pentium 4. The Core i3-4030U in that cheaper laptop is over 7.5 times faster than your desktop.

PassMark - CPU Comparison[ ]=2277&cmp[ ]=1074

11

7.5 times!!! You’ve got to be kidding? I wonder how much quicker the second one with th i5 processor is?

12

Those basic i3’s are plenty for even mildly intense 2d development on unity. I’m happy with my i3 (Gen 2 I think) that had a hd4000 integrated, it’s pretty spunky with a ssd and 8 gigs ram in there.

13

The Core i5 has almost 12.5 times the PassMark score of the Pentium 4. The Pentium 4 scores 358, the Core i3 scores 2705, and the Core i5 scores 4468. Here’s the updated link.

PassMark - CPU Comparison[ ]=2277&cmp[ ]=1074&cmp[ ]=2074

14

Thank

Thanks man youve given me more than enough info and help to decide what to get. I think I’ll go for the i3. Thanks so much.

15

By the way I wasn’t able to find the exact Pentium 4 model in your Dell. So I selected the fastest Pentium 4 PassMark had on their site. It could be an even greater difference.

16

Yeah thinking about it now an i3 processor is more than enough.

17

Wow even more?!

18

I wouldn’t say “more than enough” lol - but it’s plenty for basic 2d games, up to “mildly intense” 2d games - but it might start to struggle on say a 3d realtime lit high res texture having fps with big levels… but for android 2d development I’ve had no problems whatsoever.

Edit: go for a solid state drive, this is a big boost in performance on any system with a old platter drive!

Edit2: but don’t let that influence your purchase, you can always stick your own ssd in there fairly easy.