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 i3 (11th Gen or Newer) or AMD Ryzen 5 5600H or better
- GPU - Integrated
- RAM - 8GB
- Storage - 500GB SSD
- Mac Laptop
MacBook Air 13-inch
- CPU - Apple M1 8-Core
- GPU - Apple M1 7-Core
- RAM - 8GB
- 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. Laptops are recommended over desktops for portability in this level of hardware.
Windows Laptop
- CPU - Intel i7 (11th Gen or Newer) or AMD Ryzen 7 5800X or Newer
- GPU
- Integrated (Sound Design)
- Nvidia RTX 2060 or better (Video and Design work)
- RAM - 16GB
- Storage - 1TB SSD
Mac Laptop
- MacBook Pro 13inch
- CPU - Apple M2 8-Core
- GPU - Apple M2 10-Core
- RAM - 16GB
- 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 highly 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 i7 (11th Gen or Newer)
- GPU - Nvidia RTX 3060 or better
- RAM - 16 GB (32GB recommended if doing heavy simulation work, ie Houdini FX)
- Storage - 1TB SSD
- Mac Laptop (Usable but not recommended, as lot of 3D software/game engines rely on proprietary Nvidia hardware features)
MacBook Pro 14inch
- CPU - Apple M2 Pro 10-Core
- GPU - Apple M2 Pro 16-Core
- RAM - 16GB
- Storage - 1TB SSD