What laptop are you using for UE4?

Community Community & Industry Discussion
1

I would like to hear what other developers’ experiences have been so far with their make/model/specs. Pros/Cons? What kind of project are you doing?

I’m not asking which laptop I should buy, I already have one. :slight_smile:

Okay, I’ll start.

Specs:
Alienware 15 R3 (Purchased 2017)
Operating System:
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU:
Intel Core i7 7700HQ @ 2.80GHz
Kaby Lake 14nm Technology
RAM:
16.0GB Dual-Channel
Graphics
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060
Storage
128GB (SSD)
1TB (HD)
512GB ((SSD)) (added myself a few months later)

Project: FP puzzle/platformer game (No VR)

Pros:
+Runs Unreal fine
+Keyboard is backlit
+M2 slot to add another SSD
+Can play VR games

Cons:

  • Initially opening a project in the editor is slow
  • Heavy! 10lbs (Not good for traveling unless you are training to be a jedi and need a replacement for when Yoda is off drinking tea.)
  • Wifi adapter is finicky
  • Battery life stinks (When I initially purchased it it had about 3 hours of life as promised. A few months later I saw a decline in battery health. It was still under warranty so I went through the strange process of getting the battery replaced. It was fine for a couple of months and then it slowly degraded again. Now the battery lasts about 1 hour when trying to work with the editor)

Overall: Powerful but not really portable… I mostly use it as an agent of swarm for when I build lighting while working on my PC. I bring it to meetups to show off our and other local devs projects or for presentations. I don’t really bring it on the train or plane to work on the go because of the weight and it’s crummy battery life.

2

Do you work on scenes? Do you do landscaping on maps like 2kx2k or above? I didn’t think a 1060 would be enough. If it is, that’s great news. :slight_smile:

3

So do you want a thinner laptop that is not heavy to use everywhere with UE4 ? Well even the most expensive ones won’t give you a very high number crunching performance compared to desktops… I mean, laptops will always be limited compared to desktops, servers, HPCs and so on. The “laptop workstation” bulkier models are needed to get higher performance allowing for better power dissipation and so higher sustained TDP overall.

4

For my case 1060 is good enough - no hiccup whatsoever. Of course, ymmv depending on the usage. I really think as a developer, cpu plays more important role than gpu.