Cheapish game development rig?

[DragonQ]

A friend of mine wants to get into gaming development using Unreal Engine and Blender but only has ~£800 to spend. I'm guessing this won't go very far but I'm not even sure what to focus on with such a build. I'm guessing more CPU cores and RAM are important for rendering but at the same time a decent GPU will be necessary to see the results? I know he's targetting the PS4/Xbox One ultimately but since those are being replaced next year I don't know if that helps much in terms of getting to the budget.

He has peripherals and monitors already but I think he needs everything else. Any ideas on this?

 

[orbitalwalsh]

A friend of mine wants to get into gaming development using Unreal Engine and Blender but only has ~£800 to spend. I'm guessing this won't go very far but I'm not even sure what to focus on with such a build. I'm guessing more CPU cores and RAM are important for rendering but at the same time a decent GPU will be necessary to see the results? I know he's targetting the PS4/Xbox One ultimately but since those are being replaced next year I don't know if that helps much in terms of getting to the budget.

He has peripherals and monitors already but I think he needs everything else. Any ideas on this?

what programs is he using for modelling ? specially when doing big level designs in mesh view starts to take its tool with vram and GPU power. I use to render via GPU straight from 3DMax with plugins for cut scenes etc (BA in games design many moons ago )

overshot by £40 but thats ryzen 3600 and rx 5700xt !!!!


My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £175.00
• 1 x Gigabyte B450M-DS3H AMD B450 (Socket AM4) DDR4 Micro-ATX Motherboard= £68.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD416G30= £59.99
• 1 x Gigabyte Radeon RX 5700 XT Gaming OC 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £375.00
• 1 x CoolerMaster MasterWatt 650 - 650W 80 Plus Bronze Semi Modular Power Supply= £64.99
• 1 x TeamGroup 500GB Vulcan SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 3D NAND Solid State Drive= £46.99
• 1 x Kolink Citadel Micro-ATX Case - Black= £39.95

Total: £842.61 (includes shipping: £11.70)
​

dropping to 2600 (ryzen 3600 matches 2700/x with rendering and beats it in gaming) would save about £45 odd

3600+ rtx 2060 + larger SSD+better PSU

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Gigabyte B450M-DS3H AMD B450 (Socket AM4) DDR4 Micro-ATX Motherboard= £68.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD416G30= £59.99
• 1 x Kolink Citadel Micro-ATX Case - Black= £39.95
• 1 x Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 OC Rev2 6144MB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £299.99
• 1 x Kingston A400 960GB SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Hard Drive - (SA400S37/960G)= £79.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £175.00
• 1 x be quiet! Pure Power 11 500W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply= £72.95

Total: £808.56 (includes shipping: £11.70)
​

 

[mid_gen]

Above specs are OK but if they want to do anything significant, they'll want 32GB RAM (deoptimized builds chew through RAM). Can be upgraded later of course. If they're just starting out with gamedev then target platforms are a bit moot tbh, worry about that once you can make something.

 

[Ian Woolfenden]

As a developer myself, 32gb of ram is required pretty much unless you want to experience a total headache.

I also PERSONALLY think I would want a ******** more graphics memory and would opt for a used Titan X for 12gb HBM, I would also go nvidia GPU as I've had wierd ass issues with AMD cards before...….

 

[DragonQ]

Thanks for the replies. I definitely agree about 32 GiB of RAM. I suppose the problem with buying new is that AMD offers more VRAM at each price point compared to nVidia - what specific issues would surface when choosing one over the other? Does either Blender or Unreal Engine prefer one over the other in terms of performance?

 

[orbitalwalsh]

Thanks for the replies. I definitely agree about 32 GiB of RAM. I suppose the problem with buying new is that AMD offers more VRAM at each price point compared to nVidia - what specific issues would surface when choosing one over the other? Does either Blender or Unreal Engine prefer one over the other in terms of performance?

the more powerful the better- but as you say you then run into vram issues maybe . AMD would age better then Nvidia at least though lack of Ray Tracing at hardware level if you wise to explore the future of Gaming - specially now Next Gen consoles will have it at a Hardware level

cheaper then rx 5700xt slightly , but more vram then 2060 with a little more cost and slight more power performance then 2060 super

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...ddr6-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-1bg-gi.html

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...ddr6-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-1b1-gi.html

£325 for Non XT 5700 - keeps 8gb vs 2060 6GB non super
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...ddr6-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-1bk-gi.html

blender, think RDNA has slight advantage - specially at larger tiles

https://www.extremetech.com/computi...-vs-5700-xt-rendering-and-compute-performance

 

[DragonQ]

RDNA does look impressive for Blender and obviously the 5700 and 5700 XT have the 8 GiB VRAM which is nice. I just wonder if it's worth dropping to the 5700 (instead of the 5700 XT) in order to get a larger SSD and 32 GiB of VRAM. Particularly given 5700s can be flashed to 5700 XTs, although I haven't looked into the risks of this.

 

[orbitalwalsh]

RDNA does look impressive for Blender and obviously the 5700 and 5700 XT have the 8 GiB VRAM which is nice. I just wonder if it's worth dropping to the 5700 (instead of the 5700 XT) in order to get a larger SSD and 32 GiB of VRAM. Particularly given 5700s can be flashed to 5700 XTs, although I haven't looked into the risks of this.

BB CODE
My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Patriot Viper Steel 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS432G320C6K)= £128.99
• 1 x Gigabyte B450M-DS3H AMD B450 (Socket AM4) DDR4 Micro-ATX Motherboard= £68.99
• 1 x Gigabyte Radeon RX 5700 Gaming OC 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £325.00
• 1 x Bitfenix Formula Series 550W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply= £66.95
• 1 x WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (WDS500G2B0A)= £52.99
• 1 x Kolink Citadel Micro-ATX Case - Black= £39.95
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £179.99

Total: £874.56 (includes shipping: £11.70)​

​

can flash XT Bios but need to get same card vendor BIOS from XT Seems some pricing had increased like ram and SSD - which now will increase with price

 

[DragonQ]

Yeah that basket looks very similar to what I had in mind. Prices have crept up a bit sadly. I'll ask my friend if he's happy to stretching to ~£900 and if so I think we have a winner.

One last thing I'm not sure about is disk space. I was thinking 1 TB because I assumed model files etc. would get quite large. Do you think 500 GB would be enough? That'd cut ~£50 off the price if so.

 

[orbitalwalsh]

Yeah that basket looks very similar to what I had in mind. Prices have crept up a bit sadly. I'll ask my friend if he's happy to stretching to ~£900 and if so I think we have a winner.

One last thing I'm not sure about is disk space. I was thinking 1 TB because I assumed model files etc. would get quite large. Do you think 500 GB would be enough? That'd cut ~£50 off the price if so.

b450 msi toma matx if you can .

unfortunately SSD prices have increased and will continue . least with storage it can always be expanded, again if your able to source 1tb ssd then great or HDD 1TB to go with the system

 

[DragonQ]

BB CODE
My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Patriot Viper Steel 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS432G320C6K)= £128.99
• 1 x Gigabyte B450M-DS3H AMD B450 (Socket AM4) DDR4 Micro-ATX Motherboard= £68.99
• 1 x Gigabyte Radeon RX 5700 Gaming OC 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £325.00
• 1 x Bitfenix Formula Series 550W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply= £66.95
• 1 x WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (WDS500G2B0A)= £52.99
• 1 x Kolink Citadel Micro-ATX Case - Black= £39.95
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £179.99

Total: £874.56 (includes shipping: £11.70)
​

can flash XT Bios but need to get same card vendor BIOS from XT Seems some pricing had increased like ram and SSD - which now will increase with price

If I take this bundle and swap:

• SSD for an MX500
• GPU for PowerColor Radeon RX 5700 Red Dragon (dual BIOS so safer for flashing to XT)
• Motherboard for MSI B450 Tomahawk Max (just a solid board)
  
• RAM for 32GB Dominator Platinum RGB 3000CL15 (3000CL15 is the same bin as 3200CL16 I believe)

I can get it all for £866. I think it's worth it over a compromised build closer to £800, which'd probably have a weaker motherboard, slower RAM, a worse PSU and a smaller SSD.

 

[orbitalwalsh]

You'll have to Google flashing with AIB boArds, since they deliver more power already along with better cooling for higher clocks

Silverstone matx case of you can afford it , much better airflow dual I think dual RGB 140mm fans and rear 120mm

Get what ever ram is cheapest, can always manually tweak.

Wouldn't get red dragon from anyone other then OCUK for RMA