Recommended Hardware for General Studies
The following hardware recommendations are for baseline class work such as taking notes, presenting, light design work, accessing the internet, etc.
Note: this level of hardware may struggle with running heavy design software and video audio production. It will be inadequate for 3D animation and game development. Laptops are recommended over desktops for portability in this level of hardware.
Windows Laptop
- CPU - Intel Core Ultra 5 or AMD Ryzen 5 7600 or better
- GPU - Integrated
- RAM - 16GB
- Storage - 500GB SSD
Mac Laptop
MacBook Air 13-inch
- CPU - Apple M4 chip with 10-core CPU
- GPU - , 10-core GPU
- RAM - 16GB Unified
- Storage - 512GB SSD
Recommended Hardware for Video, Audio, and Heavy Design Work
The following hardware recommendations are adequate for doing heavy design work in Adobe software like Photoshop, Illustrator, etc, or other equivalent software. It will also be able to support video production software such as Premier or After Effects, or equivalent non-Adobe software. Finally this level of hardware will be able to support Audio production and design. MacOS machines are preferred for Audio production. This level of hardware may struggle with 3D animation or game development.
Windows Hardware
- CPU - Intel Core Ultra 7 or AMD Ryzen 9 9700X or Newer
- GPU
- Integrated (Sound Design)
- Nvidia RTX 4060 or better (Video and Design work)
- RAM - 32GB
- Storage - 1TB SSD
Mac Hardware
- MacBook Pro 14inch
- CPU - Apple M4 Pro 12‑core CPU
- GPU - Apple M4 Pro 16-core GPU
- RAM - 24GB Unified Memory
- Storage - 1TB
Recommended Hardware for 3D Animation and Game Development
The following hardware recommendations are adequate for 3D animation and game development work including Autodesk products, Houdini, Unreal 5, etc. Windows machines are recommended over Mac for these hardware requirements. Desktops are recommended over laptops for the extra performance offered by desktop hardware components over those found in laptops.
Windows Laptop
Note: Desktops are preferred.
- CPU - Intel Core Ultra 7 or 9 or Ryzen 9 9700X, 9800x3D or better
- GPU - Nvidia RTX 5060ti or better
- RAM - 64 GB (128GB recommended if doing heavy simulation work, ie Houdini FX)
- Storage - 1TB SSD