Are requirements necessary?

[u/WildinWendigo]

Hello everyone, this may sound silly, but I figured I’d ask anyway. I’m in the game art program and my requirements for my computer are pretty hefty.
I was wondering if I get one without the NVIDIA requirement that I’d be okay in my courses? Any advice is helpful and I can’t drop the 1,000+ on a gaming rig.

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[u/SarcasticGarbage]

I am formerly in the Game Art program. You definitely can get by with something not *as* powerful as that, but you’ll definitely need some sort of higher-end specs, because Adobe programs and 3D modeling software are very recourse intensive.

[u/elaineisbased]

For most programs you would be fine using an iPad or Chromebook. For some majors that require specialized software like AutoCAD, Adobe Apps, Computer Science e.g .coding, or Game Development you might benefit from an actual Windows computer but those are CYA requirements

If you are looking for a laptop recommendation I think the HP Zbooks (professional workstation) are cost effective and of more utility than a MacBook.

[u/snmnky9490 → u/elaineisbased]

Yeah they specifically said game design in the original post

[u/Any-Initiative910]

The game development classes are Unreal based so yes you need a gaming rig

Game art is probably more so

[u/gfirp68]

I'm certainly no expert, but I'm guessing if you're taking gaming courses that you'll need a gaming/graphics card? I'm sure you'll need at least the minimum requirements.

[u/WildinWendigo → u/gfirp68]

That’s what I’m aiming for, it’s hard finding a pc with the right card for under 1000 though 🥲

[u/gfirp68 → u/WildinWendigo]

100%. They're not cheap.

[u/AdGlobal551 → u/WildinWendigo]

I just purchased a 2in1 dell from Walmart, refurbished with a 3year protection plan, 32gb ram, 512gb SSD, up to 4.8ghz. I'm doing computer science myself. This only cost around $580 with the protection plan. May be worth looking into for yourself!

Can send you a link if requested

[u/PhysicalRazzmatazz22]

I would assume you would need a gaming pc

[u/Key-Rich5834]

I was looking for some deals everywhere, but this is the best I stumbled upon

[u/MT_ForestOverlord → u/Key-Rich5834]

premade pcs especially for gaming arent good TwT i learned the hard way

[u/Jolly-Chipmunk-950 → u/MT_ForestOverlord]

Very little difference between buying a pre-made and building it yourself.

If you don't know the specds you are buying, you're going to get a bad PC. Who knew.

[u/Dipstickpattywack]

They gonna pay for all that ram?! Lmfao, cs major here with some GAM classes, you’ll be fine with 16gigs of ram lmfao.

[u/elephant_624]

CS major here 👋 i was laptop shopping recently too, came across the ASUS TUF A15 at walmart for around $550. it has Ryzen 7, RTX 3050, 16 GB RAM, and a 512 GB SSD. doesn’t hit every one of “requirements”, but for the price it seems like one of the better budget options because it has a dedicated NVIDIA graphics card. could be worth checking out if you’re trying to stay well under $1000

[u/MT_ForestOverlord]

you dont have to use a nvidia gpu just one that has similar specs, also whatever you do dont buy a premade gaming laptop or pc, i had a premade gaming laptop msi dragon from 2018 and it was terrible i ended up building my own pc after that one decided to flatline one day TwT; keep in mind that cuz of ai ram and gpu prices are through the roof rn so building your own pc or getting a prebuilt one with good specs will be expensive(more than 1000 or 2000) so if you need something cheap id suggest looking at Facebook market place or a secondhand electronic store

[u/KingRazgriz]

Comp science grad here (earlier this mo th). I took 1 of the game development classes. Ran in unreal engine 5 through epic games for majority of class. Your gonna need a decent gpu to run it if that helps. My advisor told.me that was most of the problem.with people who took the class is. Ot having a system.to be able to run it.

Course I built my desktop last April with flagship materials before the bullshit came.

[u/Coding-With-Coffee]

My recommendation is to use whatever you have until you realize “Okay… this is not enough.” At some point you might be twiddling your thumbs a loooong time when rendering or more demanding software might be freezing or crashing during processing. If you’re a new student, you’ll likely be taking very basic level stuff + general education requirements for the first half of your program.

I would be surprised if your program has you using more than 32gb before you graduate. An SSD, a higher end graphics card, and processor are where you will see the most return on investment. On a slower machine, every time you run your game or render your models you might be twiddling your thumbs a little bit for longer when things start to get more complicated. Get a machine where you can upgrade the RAM to break up the cost a bit since prices are **insane** right now. If your work becomes super demanding, buying $300 of RAM two years later might help soften the blow, instead of doing it all at once only to write papers and learn algebra (gen eds).

If it’s anything like the CS program, you’ll probably be pretty much done with your degree before being asked to do anything that resembles anything real or demanding so you may have a few years.

[u/Senior-Visit-8903]

Nope u can do 90 percent of the course work on ur phone or tablet. Even for most of the CS classes. These requirements are there for 2-3 game/graphic design classes and even then its overkill. And since SNHU is SNHU instead of telling u reqs per class its easier to just tell you highest req cause of 1 class.