NOTICE: This blog post is outdated. Since this post has been released, new hardware has been released.
We are commonly asked, What’s a good PC build for Game Developers. Depending on the type of games you are developing, the best build will greatly vary. They can be as little as $1,000 (if not less), or as much as $10,000 (or more). Generally, you want to develop on either better specs than your game will run on, however you may need something different depending on what your task is. For example, if you’re developing an entire game with advanced graphics, you may want to develop on something like a Ryzen 9 or i9 but when rendering lighting you may want to use a Threadripper to speed up the process. So what do we recommend?
2D Game Development
This one is by far the easiest to do. You don’t need any crazy processors or graphics cards. If you strictly develop 2D games and are getting a PC specific for it, we recommend minimum specs. Our recommended specs are:
-Processor: At least an Intel i5
-Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX 1650 Super or GTX 1660 Super (Optional depending on the game engine)
-RAM: At least 16GBs of memory
-Storage: Doesn’t really matter in 2D development
This type of game development may not even need a GPU at all. A 2D game is not difficult to run, therefore does not require demanding hardware. The available game engines (such as Game Maker Studio 2, Godot, etc.) generally won’t require the GPU. It’s really up to you the specs that you want to develop on.
3D Indie Game Development
Generally, depending on the type of game and engine you are using to make your Indie game will affect the hardware, however it will not vary greatly. Our recommended specs are:
-Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 or AMD Ryzen 9
-Graphics Card: 1660 Super and up (RTX card recommended for more advanced games)
-RAM: At least 32GBs of memory
-Storage: We recommend a decent amount of SSD storage, as 3D games may take up a lot of space. We recommend an SSD to bring down build times.
This build is a good choice for an Indie developer and has a decent price. To develop this type of game, you generally don’t need a crazy build but we do recommend going with at least a Ryzen 7 and a 1660 Super. The 1660 Super should be upgraded to an RTX card if you’re doing any sort of realistic graphics with advanced lighting. 32GBs of RAM should be enough, but if its within your budget 64GBs would be a better choice especially if you’re using Unreal Engine or Unity.
Advanced 3D Game Development
For advanced 3D game development, we recommend maxing out your settings. If you are developing this type of game, chances are you aren’t doing it alone.
For Developing:
-Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X or 5950X
-Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
-RAM: At least 64GBs of memory
-Storage: A good amount of SSD and HDD storage. If you are developing this type of game, you would want to save the game to an SSD and save multiple backups to an HDD, and even better on a different system for backups such as a NAS.
For Rendering (Models, Lighting, etc.) and Advanced Calculations (Training AI Data):
-Processor: AMD Ryzen Threadripper (Any is a decent choice depending on your budget)
-Graphics Card: Single NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000
-RAM: At least 128GBs of memory
-Storage: We recommend a decent amount of storage if needed. Given this type of game, we assume your models will be a more intensive task and take up more space due to details.
This build assumes you are developing a huge game with a big budget and an extremely detailed environment. Whether you are using Unreal Engine, Unity, or a custom engine, these builds will be good for the given tasks.
Where can I buy these builds?
You can purchase these builds by configuring them in our configurator, or checking out our “Recommended PCs” under the “Computers” tab. These builds are optimized for certain tasks and pre-configured. They can be modified, upgraded, and downgraded as needed. For further assistance, feel free to reach out to the Supernova Gaming team.
