Simple 3d mobile Game Development

[rosejap]

First of all sorry for my english. Is the current Mac Mini capable of doing 3d mobile game development like creating angry birds,plants vs zombies,z tsunami etc.. in mac mini. Here is the specs that I plan on buying 2.3ghz quad core i7 I'm not gonna max the processor cause I think .3 GHz difference wont matter much and since they both offer 6mb L3Cache, 16gb ram, and a 256 SSD or is it better if ill just buy an ssd card? . And also Im going to use it for adobe illustrator,photoshop and web design/development. And lastly how is mac mini's durability will it last for like 3-5 years? Thanks in advance

 

[762999]

First of all sorry for my english. Is the current Mac Mini capable of doing 3d mobile game development like creating angry birds,plants vs zombies,z tsunami etc.. in mac mini. Here is the specs that I plan on buying 2.3ghz quad core i7 I'm not gonna max the processor cause I think .3 GHz difference wont matter much and since they both offer 6mb L3Cache, 16gb ram, and a 256 SSD or is it better if ill just buy an ssd card? . And also Im going to use it for adobe illustrator,photoshop and web design/development. And lastly how is mac mini's durability will it last for like 3-5 years? Thanks in advance

yes, 256gb ssd, yes

 

[rosejap]

yes, 256gb ssd, yes

Thanks for the reply. But how is mac mini's durability? And also what spec's of monitor is advisable? I want the apple thunderbolt but its too expensive. last question, is the MBA 13" 2014 with i7 processor,8gb RAM,and a 512gb ssd has a better performance compared to mac mini 2.3ghz i7 quad core processor, 16 gb ram and 256 gb ssd? portability is not an issue to me what matters most is the performance.

 

[iMacFarlane]

I'm in the market for a Mini for the same use case as you are. My word of caution regarding the current Mini is this:

Even if we could make the argument that the Mac Mini is of a quality build, and it can provide 3-5 years of stability, updates, and performance, it's already 2 years old. Right out of the box, it's already 2 years old, so pare that 3-5 year lifespan down to 1-3 years. No sale for me, waiting for an update.

 

[rosejap]

I'm in the market for a Mini for the same use case as you are. My word of caution regarding the current Mini is this:

Even if we could make the argument that the Mac Mini is of a quality build, and it can provide 3-5 years of stability, updates, and performance, it's already 2 years old. Right out of the box, it's already 2 years old, so pare that 3-5 year lifespan down to 1-3 years. No sale for me, waiting for an update.

That is what I'm thinking for the past few days, and have decided to wait for an update. Do you have any idea when will they gonna update the mac mini? and what will the update be? .What I have in mind is that they wont update it this year since they have release an imac which has the same price range with MBA, so i guess they will only refresh it this year like what they did last year.

 

[MartinAppleGuy]

Isn't the HD 4000 GPU going to drag you down?

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That is what I'm thinking for the past few days, and have decided to wait for an update. Do you have any idea when will they gonna update the mac mini? and what will the update be? .What I have in mind is that they wont update it this year since they have release an imac which has the same price range with MBA, so i guess they will only refresh it this year like what they did last year.

I wouldn't buy until there is a better GPU option. Intel HD 4000 is not all that great for the kind of work you wish to do (you will get away with it, don't get me wrong, it will just be quite a bit slower). I see Apple putting HD 5000 in the Dual Core Mac Mini, and either the Iris or Iris Pro in the Quad Core model. That would make it much more appealing.

 

[crsh1976]

Isn't the HD 4000 GPU going to drag you down?

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I wouldn't buy until there is a better GPU option. Intel HD 4000 is not all that great for the kind of work you wish to do (you will get away with it, don't get me wrong, it will just be quite a bit slower). I see Apple putting HD 5000 in the Dual Core Mac Mini, and either the Iris or Iris Pro in the Quad Core model. That would make it much more appealing.

The HD 4000 really isn't all that bad unless you're playing games, for everything else it's good enough (nothing stellar in GPU-accelerated operations, of course).

Unless Apple puts a ULV chip in the next mini (like the one used in the MBAs and entry-level iMac), we should at least get Iris Graphics instead of HD 5000 (non-ULV mobile Haswell processors have Iris Graphics).

 

[960design]

Yes mac mini will do perfectly for development ( not game playing ). I'd pick up the best monitor you can afford, your eyes will thank you. If you are looking to go medium quality, I'd recommend something like:
http://www.lg.com/us/ultrawide-monitors

The 25" or 29" will do wonders for your workflow.

PS. The games you listed are not 3D games.

 

[iMacFarlane]

Yes mac mini will do perfectly for development ( not game playing ). I'd pick up the best monitor you can afford, your eyes will thank you. If you are looking to go medium quality, I'd recommend something like:
http://www.lg.com/us/ultrawide-monitors

The 25" or 29" will do wonders for your workflow.

PS. The games you listed are not 3D games.

Oh, wow. I really like the idea of that wide monitor! I've given up coding on my 13" MBP because I simply can't deal with the cramped tininess. That 25" ultrawide, I could easily have xcode open on the left with the iPad Simulator running on the right, unbroken development and testing. Thanks, didn't even think of this! I guess I could buy the monitor now, and get the mini later . . .

 

[paulrbeers]

Isn't the HD 4000 GPU going to drag you down?

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I wouldn't buy until there is a better GPU option. Intel HD 4000 is not all that great for the kind of work you wish to do (you will get away with it, don't get me wrong, it will just be quite a bit slower). I see Apple putting HD 5000 in the Dual Core Mac Mini, and either the Iris or Iris Pro in the Quad Core model. That would make it much more appealing.

Not compared to mobile GPU's.... If he is looking to do mobile 3d development, then the HD4000 is better than anything in an iOS device.

 

[MartinAppleGuy]

Not compared to mobile GPU's.... If he is looking to do mobile 3d development, then the HD4000 is better than anything in an iOS device.

But would it not be getting emulated on the Mac (which would need much more power)? Kind of a pain to compile every time.