Twenty 100 poly instances dynamically batched vs a single 2,000 poly mesh

So lets say I have twenty 100 poly mesh instances. Will this render faster if I leave them all a separate mesh and let dynamic batching take care of them. Or will it render faster if I combine all these instances into a single 2,000 poly mesh?

They are all in a single clump, not spread around.

are they all sharing the same texture? How far/close do you plan on getting from the clump of meshes?

All have same material. Distances will range between 0 to 100 feet.

Basically I am curious to know, how much overhead does dynamic batching have, if any? And when do you run into it?

Is dynamic batching intended to be more like a thing where you can clump a dozen balls in a pool game into a single draw call. Or is it intended to be used as something that can batch together potentially dozens and dozens level detail meshes.

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/102739-How-to-get-Dynamic-Batching-to-work

See last post for summary…

So best to avoid relying of dynamic batching…

This is one area of Unity that I think needs alot of reworking. I’ve never dealt with an engine before that required any kind of paying attention to drawcalls.