Is upgrading your computer still a common thing with current component prices, or are you happy sticking with what you bought a few years ago?
I have a 2023 Mac that handles normal tasks just fine, but when it comes to Unreal Engine, I can see it struggling to hit a stable 16.66 ms frame time (60 FPS) on higher settings.
When I looked around at pre-built PCs, most of them surprisingly come with only 16 GB of RAM, low-tier CPUs, or GPUs with just 8 GB of VRAM.
How do you see the current market?
Is this a good reason to upgrade, or should I just put extra effort into scalability and optimization?
Obviously, most games are primarily exported for Windows.
I don’t particularly like Windows, and buying a PC means dealing with that extra OS baggage eating up resources, but that’s a separate issue.
Once, an Eastern sage was asked, “When is the best time to eat?” He replied, “If you’re rich, eat whenever you want; if you’re poor, eat when there’s food.” Well, it’s pretty much the same with updating your computer.
The question is too general to have a single, definitive answer.
The only thing I’d add is that it’s recommended to develop games on a more powerful computer than the one on which they’re supposed to run smoothly. After all, optimization is the final stage.
With the current prices… No, not really.
I’m still working with my 2019 ACER laptop. For the type of games I play, it manages. I’m alright with playing Minecraft at a steady 30-40fps. It runs smooth for me, and I’m fine with that.
It used to come bundled with Windows 10, which it steadily declined in performance with every update. And I had been saving up to build a beast of a proper gaming PC - and then, well… We all know what happened. Then I couldn’t play my games anymore - even after cleaning and optimizing as much as I could, Microslopsoft continuing to send through updates, etc.
And it’s not even feasible for me to look for an upgrade when it came to storage - we’re talking around +200€ for a 1TB HDD in my local stores, that’s insane.
In the end I just decided to save everything in a USB drive, format everything and migrate to Linux. (Even buying a USB drive to put the Ubuntu installation was close to 20€ and I’m still baffled.) And yeah, I could tell the difference, and play my games again.
It worked wonders for me, and a friend I know that uses Windows 11 is also considering migrating to a Linux distro.
Then again, It’s just a temporary solution.
I have the knowledge and tools to fix my laptop if anything happens, but if any of my drives end up dying? I’m cooked.
I guess I’ve made my peace with it, and I’m just biding my time. Waiting for the bubble to burst and all that.
Moral of the story: I guess just, work with what you have? There might always be room with optimization. And if you end up buying a pre-made PC with Windows bundled in - just switch to a Linux distro of your choice. I can’t recommend it enough.
I’m still using a 10 years Core I7 7700, with 16Gb RAM, which still runs fine.
And when I looked at current componnents prices, I searched for several opinions too, just like you.
Globally, most people said "If you don’t have a really strong need of a new PC, wait until next year.
So, I’m waiting… xD
I am referring to scalability in terms of render resolution in Unreal Engine (for example, setting it to 50% of the system resolution).
In regards to optimization, I have found that the GPU cores in Apple Silicon are the weakest link, rather than the memory. However, almost every tool or setting can be controlled via the console in a packaged game. I actually prefer this approach because it allows me to toggle settings, pause, or quit without needing to build a custom UI
Your players aren’t upgrading right now. So you don’t need to either.
In 2006, I went to buy my first house. Real estate prices were high, but loans had low interest rates and they had a special first time buyer loan. I closed on my house at the end of 2006. By 2010 I had to short sale the house, my credit was in ruins, and I’ve never wanted to buy a house since then. Because the housing market crashed, the economy was in recession, and I lost my job.
When I see your question, I read it as, “Should I buy new computer parts when they’ve never been more expensive?” No. Because they will not hold their value, and you will feel like you wasted your money. Unless, as @tomcat points out, you are a rich man.
Build a man a fire, and he’s warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he’s warm for a lifetime.
Keep in mind I am a pessimist, but for my two cents:
RAM, SSD storage, and graphics cards are all very expensive right now, but I personally do not believe the prices are going to go down, ever. I think that this is just how things are now.
Many companies manufacturing PC parts are failing and slowly going out of business, because if you make money selling cases or power supplies, right now you are just not making money. Even the people who manufacture RAM sticks and SSDs are not doing good, because the chips are being hoarded for server components.
I’d love to be wrong, but I fear this is the new normal.
Building your own machine has always been niche, many people don’t even have a PC anymore, since they can do everything they’d need a computer for on their phones, and game on the Switch they bought anyway to play the Nintendo exclusives …
Microslop want you to rent your PC and own nothing, and we’re getting closer to this every day.
Again true. I think they want us all back on dumb terminals with everything on it as SaaS. I mean, look at Adobe. Subscriptions are just so attractive to companies.
I don’t doubt the current “hoard every single gram of silicon for AI datacenters” craze will end.
I’m just unsure that the hobbyist PC industry, which is very small, operates of thin margins, and is not really relevant to the rest of the economy (and therefore has no chance of government bailout) can survive until the idiots are done passing each-others the same 10 billions USD for a few more months.
Some things are so deeply needed than the industry around them will survive anything short of the apocalypse: people will always want to buy or rent houses, eat food, fill up their cars… But unless your computer is a tool you work with, it’s quite far down the priorities list.
And even then, computers that are tools are most often owned by the company you work for, who don’t really care about specifics, and would certainly be okay renting laptops instead of buying them because somehow it looks better in the quarterly spending or something.
Realistically, for solo indie devs and hobbyists, open-source engines such as Godot are great options as they are not hardware demanding, meaning you don’t have to fork out cash to upgrade your PC just to use them.
But how about those who want to land a job in a field like gameplay programming or an equivalent role? Should we release projects in Unreal? Does Unreal experience look better than an open-source portfolio?
If so, Unreal would require decent hardware to run it and learn how to use those features in a project.
I’m curious what knowledge/experience increases the chances of getting hired by a studio to work on a AAA title.
Impossible to really know, the hiring process is a black hole from which nothing comes out, I’ve spoken to hiring managers in the same room where half say they would never read a cover letter and the other half say they only read cover letters.
Still, knowing people is important first and foremost. Then being versatile, it shouldn’t matter which engine you know best; instead how fast you can learn a new one. AAA will use custom engines or their own tools just as large. Unity is way more common from what I’ve seen, if the 10 biggest games use Unreal then the next 90 are on Unity.
This is a completely different question. The answer is on their website in the job descriptions. If you want a job in games, you need to see what companies are looking for - then get those skills. Games shipped in Unreal or Unity or Godot may help you get a job, but it doesn’t mean you’re a good team player, or will be happy being a cog in a machine.
AAA game studios are meat grinders that spit people out that are overworked, severely unhappy, and underpaid. Part of your compensation is, “You get to work in games.” Because of that, you will get paid less than you would doing the same job in another industry.
My income almost tripled when I left EA in the early 2000’s. I no longer had to work 80 hour weeks. I could see my family, and I could afford to support them. I still cannot talk about the horrors of working there because I signed an NDA when I left as part of getting my severance package. Most video game companies do the same thing. The reason you don’t hear many bad things is gag orders. But oh the stories I could tell you.
So my question to you is: What is your goal of getting a job at a AA game company? If it’s to get it on your resume, cool. No one will give a sh*t outside of games. If it’s to live your dream of making video games, I recommend you just start doing that.
My primary goal is to gain hands-on experience in a professional team environment while building a stable, long-term career.
That is an incredible jump in income! If you don’t mind sharing, what career move or change did you make after leaving EA that allowed you to triple your income?
People do not make video games to have a stable, long-term career. You can have a long-term career in games, but it won’t be stable. You will be laid off - multiple times.
If you want a stable career, well… I have no idea what that is TBH. LLMs have thrown everything up in the air. But I’d recommend being an accountant. It’s a stable, long-term career that LLMs cannot take over because they make mistakes, there is a dearth of people in the industry, and it pays well enough for you to have a video game hobby on the side.
If you really want to be a software developer of any kind, you should know that you only get raises by getting a new job, and if you stay at any company longer than 3 years, people are going to wonder what’s wrong with you. They’ll wonder why you couldn’t get a new job.
I did the exact same job I did at EA, I just did it for a non-gaming company. Which is what I’m trying to tell you. It doesn’t matter what your job is - you will make more money outside of a AAA company. I had a friend who was an accountant at EA a few years ago. He hated it. He decided to become an EMT (a historically woefully underpaid profession), and he didn’t lose any income.
But let me be clear, it was not an incredible jump in income. It was an incredible depression of income that I left.
Also, I got to the point that I was making 6 times what I was making at that first job after I left EA (so about 18 times what I was making at EA), and it did not make me happy.
That’s another great reason not to upgrade my PC just for the sake of building a portfolio. I’ll look into those accountant jobs; in the meantime, my current gear is absolutely fine.
BTW, do you have any experience making games for clients on platforms like Fiverr as a freelancer?
I have experience consulting, but I don’t use sites like that. I’d recommend checking out https://www.gamedevfreelance.com/ It’s owned by https://www.gamedevmarket.net/ and while I don’t know if it’s any good, it’s worth trying out. I’ve gotten some good assets from GameDev Market through Humble Bundle. Though their site organization is kinda crap.
