So I'm new to the forum and the website and looking to get back into programming and get into game development. I'm looking to purchase a laptop for this and wondering if anyone has any recommendations of good laptops that are reliable and what types of specs I should look for so it's powerful enough to handle game development.
Thanks for your help!
~Brian
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Good Laptop for Game Development
So I'm new to the forum and the website and looking to get back into programming and get into game development. I'm looking to purchase a laptop for this and wondering if anyone has any recommendations of good laptops that are reliable and what types of specs I should look for so it's powerful enough to handle game development.
Thanks for your help!
~Brian
That's pretty vague? What type of game development? Generally I would say get the best one you can afford.
Try to find one with the most vertical screen resolution as you can in the size you're looking for. I upgraded from a MacBook Pro 13 inch to an Asus U36JC with a 13", wider but shorter display. I am not pleased with the smaller vertical dimension... The extra 1" height on the MacBook pro really makes a difference when coding. In most development environments you already lose a couple of inches of vertical screen real estate to window borders, toolbars and docked watch windows, call stacks, etc.
Make sure that you're comfortable with the keyboard and trackpad arrangement. You're going to be doing a lot of typing. You probably will want dedicated home, end, insert, and delete keys. My MacBook Pro did not have these, and it really annoyed the hell out of me. I had to use a FN+direction key combination to emulate these keys. I got used to it, but I never liked it. I've yet to find a trackpad that could beat the MacBook's trackpad though, so that sorta made up for the lack in having those dedicated keys. It's almost as comfortable as using a mouse (except for games).
As far as the actual specifications go, it really depends on the type of development you're doing. Really, you want your development machine to be more powerful than the machine you intend your audience to be using. In addition to running your game, you'll also have a number of tools running at the same time and you'll want them all to have enough resources available to be responsive. Mobile development is a mixed bag. On one hand, you can use your device to actually run the application, but typically there's also a device emulator. This goes for Android, WebOS, Windows 7 and iOS. In order to run the device emulator at an acceptable speed you'll need as much CPU horsepower as you can get, especially since mobile devices are becoming even more powerful.
Also, if you plan to do iOS development, you're limited to using a MacBook of some sort. Just get the one you can afford.
Make sure that you're comfortable with the keyboard and trackpad arrangement. You're going to be doing a lot of typing. You probably will want dedicated home, end, insert, and delete keys. My MacBook Pro did not have these, and it really annoyed the hell out of me. I had to use a FN+direction key combination to emulate these keys. I got used to it, but I never liked it. I've yet to find a trackpad that could beat the MacBook's trackpad though, so that sorta made up for the lack in having those dedicated keys. It's almost as comfortable as using a mouse (except for games).
As far as the actual specifications go, it really depends on the type of development you're doing. Really, you want your development machine to be more powerful than the machine you intend your audience to be using. In addition to running your game, you'll also have a number of tools running at the same time and you'll want them all to have enough resources available to be responsive. Mobile development is a mixed bag. On one hand, you can use your device to actually run the application, but typically there's also a device emulator. This goes for Android, WebOS, Windows 7 and iOS. In order to run the device emulator at an acceptable speed you'll need as much CPU horsepower as you can get, especially since mobile devices are becoming even more powerful.
Also, if you plan to do iOS development, you're limited to using a MacBook of some sort. Just get the one you can afford.
As I've said in many such threads, I've found my Macbook (I've got the original Unibody MB, pre-MBP) to be the best laptop I've used, hands down. The Trackpad is really awesome and I actually prefer it to dragging out my wireless mouse -- though you do loose some of the dedicated keys many people are used to. Build quality is excellent, and it runs Windows just fine through bootcamp.
Samsung *just* came out with the series 7, which is practically a MBP clone -- they even have the same style trackpad. It comes in at a bit cheaper than a MBP, you get a bump in resolution to 1600x900, and there's 8GB of flash storage on the motherboard that is used to cache frequently-accessed files from the hard drive -- turning any standard mechanical drive into a hybrid SSD (you can also buy actual hybrid SSDs, usually with 4GB flash, for a small premium over regular mechanical drives)
Lenovo also just announced their new "ultrabook" thinkpad line which is also practically a clone of the MBP, but its not out for a few weeks.
Lenovo, Samsung and Asus make good kit in general. I've heard good things about Toshiba (who *also* have an ultrabook MBP clone coming) and have had good experience with Dell personally, but have family who have had bad experiences with them. I don't really like Gateway, HP, or any of the more off-brands.
Like SMR said, resolution -- especially vertical resolution -- is really worth its weight in gold for a programmer. The difference between a height of 768 pixels and 900 pixels may not sound like much, but it makes a world of difference. Unfortunately, the vast majority of laptops are running 1366x768, partly owning to the fact that nearly all "budget" laptops in the 15.4" size use these screens. I saw an interesting chart yesterday on the Building Windows 8 blog that around 45% of PCs running windows 7 are running at 1366x768 -- if you throw in the somewhat oddball related resolution of 1360x768 and the similar but less-favored 1280x(720,768/800) then that's literally half of all Windows 7 PCs -- given that none of these resolutions are especially popular in desktop displays, one can extrapolate that very nearly *all* laptops, maybe north of 90%, have this disappointingly-low resolution. I would strongly recommend the upgrade, though this fact is also something to keep in mind of your eventual customers.
Also, I find 15'4" an up to be rather bulky, and tend to like laptops with displays in the 12.5"-14" inch range. Both for size and weight reasons. Some people prefer larger, I don't. It should be noted that you can find perfectly good laptops at that size with full-blown processors and even capable discrete graphics if you have the need. You don't need some 17" monster "gaming" notebook or "portable workstation" to do game development on the go.
Oh, one final note, is that, if you're on a budget that's south of $700 or so, I would strongly recommend something with an AMD Llano APU -- The CPU is a little dated compared to Intel's kit, but its hard to argue with having very competent graphics on the CPU -- You get a 4-core CPU and 400 6000-series shaders (which is equivilent to entry-level discrete GPUs on the desktop, or lower-mid-range discrete GPUs on the portable side), all in a package that comes in at 6 or 7 hundred dollars. Its hard to beat the value proposition, although I'm not aware of any such machines sporting anything other than 1366 by 768.
Samsung *just* came out with the series 7, which is practically a MBP clone -- they even have the same style trackpad. It comes in at a bit cheaper than a MBP, you get a bump in resolution to 1600x900, and there's 8GB of flash storage on the motherboard that is used to cache frequently-accessed files from the hard drive -- turning any standard mechanical drive into a hybrid SSD (you can also buy actual hybrid SSDs, usually with 4GB flash, for a small premium over regular mechanical drives)
Lenovo also just announced their new "ultrabook" thinkpad line which is also practically a clone of the MBP, but its not out for a few weeks.
Lenovo, Samsung and Asus make good kit in general. I've heard good things about Toshiba (who *also* have an ultrabook MBP clone coming) and have had good experience with Dell personally, but have family who have had bad experiences with them. I don't really like Gateway, HP, or any of the more off-brands.
Like SMR said, resolution -- especially vertical resolution -- is really worth its weight in gold for a programmer. The difference between a height of 768 pixels and 900 pixels may not sound like much, but it makes a world of difference. Unfortunately, the vast majority of laptops are running 1366x768, partly owning to the fact that nearly all "budget" laptops in the 15.4" size use these screens. I saw an interesting chart yesterday on the Building Windows 8 blog that around 45% of PCs running windows 7 are running at 1366x768 -- if you throw in the somewhat oddball related resolution of 1360x768 and the similar but less-favored 1280x(720,768/800) then that's literally half of all Windows 7 PCs -- given that none of these resolutions are especially popular in desktop displays, one can extrapolate that very nearly *all* laptops, maybe north of 90%, have this disappointingly-low resolution. I would strongly recommend the upgrade, though this fact is also something to keep in mind of your eventual customers.
Also, I find 15'4" an up to be rather bulky, and tend to like laptops with displays in the 12.5"-14" inch range. Both for size and weight reasons. Some people prefer larger, I don't. It should be noted that you can find perfectly good laptops at that size with full-blown processors and even capable discrete graphics if you have the need. You don't need some 17" monster "gaming" notebook or "portable workstation" to do game development on the go.
Oh, one final note, is that, if you're on a budget that's south of $700 or so, I would strongly recommend something with an AMD Llano APU -- The CPU is a little dated compared to Intel's kit, but its hard to argue with having very competent graphics on the CPU -- You get a 4-core CPU and 400 6000-series shaders (which is equivilent to entry-level discrete GPUs on the desktop, or lower-mid-range discrete GPUs on the portable side), all in a package that comes in at 6 or 7 hundred dollars. Its hard to beat the value proposition, although I'm not aware of any such machines sporting anything other than 1366 by 768.
Author
Thanks for the replies. I was thinking that I need to get a laptop that has a lot of power, but then I realized that I'm just starting off with game development and 1) won't be doing any intense programming in complex and elaborate 3D environments and 2) when (if) I ever get there, it would probably be best to do that type of work on a desktop with multiple monitors, not a laptop. So after waking up from my fantasy world, I realized that just a basic laptop for under $1000 should be plenty for me to do what I need while I get my feet wet.
Thanks for the replies. I was thinking that I need to get a laptop that has a lot of power, but then I realized that I'm just starting off with game development and 1) won't be doing any intense programming in complex and elaborate 3D environments and 2) when (if) I ever get there, it would probably be best to do that type of work on a desktop with multiple monitors, not a laptop. So after waking up from my fantasy world, I realized that just a basic laptop for under $1000 should be plenty for me to do what I need while I get my feet wet.
I like to use older computers and technology for general purpose and developer computing. Works the same.
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