Which Mac for Unity3D?

I am planning to buy a Mac but I'm totally stranger to Mac models. Reason I want a mac is Unity3D and developers said there won't be any Windows version anytime soon.

So, Which Mac model would you recommend me to get, for working with Unity3D with decent performance? Please suggest the cheapest that will fulfill my gamedev needs :)

Thanks in advance

(Edit:)
By the way, here is the e-mail they sent me, for the ones interested.

When people ask for cheapest Mac I always recommend the Mac Mini's. They have a small footprint, can be put on a KVM switch so you don't need an additional monitor, keyboard or mouse, and they are dead quiet.

Not just the cheapest, cheapest that can run Unity3D in decent performance. Thanks though :)

Unity runs fairly well on my 2Ghz G5 iMac, and will run better on the new intel models. i would recommend getting one with the biggest screen size you can afford, as all those panels take up lots of space on my 17" screen.

Cheers
Charlie

Thanks for posting that e-mail, although it disappoints me that the PC version may not be here as soon as I was hoping.

I thought about a Mac-Mini for Unity too, as it was the only one in my price range, but after some investigating came to the conclusion that it wouldn't really cut it. They do look cute though. :)

The reason I don't want mac mini is their on-board graphics processor.
Thanks jkrankie, what is your gpu by the way?

Unity runs good on my mini 1.2ghz. Make sure you have at least 512mb of ram though otherwise you will notice an issue on the shared graphics. Originally I had 256, bought a 1gb and threw that in, haven't had an issue since.

So, you don't have any problems with shaders, lighting and stuff with mac mini's onboard gpu?

nope, in fact the shaders are beter than one of my newer laptops.

There are a few downfalls with unity mind you, but there are workarounds.

What are they?

well, Javascript isn't actually javascript. It's more of a Boo implementation. So much of the functions and classes you would normally use everyday in a javascript you have to look up the Boo equivalent. A good example would be the string.split() function which splits a string into an array using a delimiter. It would use the Boo (or C#) equivalent which requires a single character and not a string as an argument (sounds stupid, but once you get to needing the split you will see what I am talking about heh).

C# is supported very well however the docs are mostly geared towards javascript (for the time being, they are changing that thank god) so many of the GUI interface functionality and what not is a bit confusing if your coming in from a C# perspective as there are only javascript examples for code.

The framework is very fast considering what's going on behind the scenes. The object functionality is a bit to get used to but overall is setup really well. Once you get far enough into it you can see why they made certain development choices like they did (there are some areas where they coded themselves into a corner and had to make an ugly hack to get around a shortcoming). There are other areas that really shine (the shader engine, the gui system, and the object handling just to name a few).

Pretty much it's the usual growing pains with any new environment. I choose it over Blitzmax even though I need a mac to develop on it.

I appreciate the information Dark Half, I'll keep those in mind.

128mb ATI something. I would avoid a computer with an Intel Graphics chip in for 3D stuff though, whether it all seems to work or not.

Cheers
Charlie

I wouldn't be getting a mac mini .... yet. They are long overdue for an update.

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

I'd get the 2.66Ghz iMac if I wanted something to work with right away. Mind you, I've never used Unity. But I do have a mac mini and the ?2007? iMac. Both are very nice computers, but the iMac is noticeably faster.

Well, a company I'm working for as a freelancer will buy it so they want the cheapest option. iMac 20inch then :)

hopefully the older macminis will come down in price if they release a new one

I'd recommend getting an Intel iMac, they start at 20" screens now for about $11-1200. The 24" models have a nice large-ish screen and the higher-end model has an even better graphics card, but I'd say even the lower end 20" would be pretty reasonable for average 3D.

And then when you've bought it, come back to being a BlitzMax user ;-D

..im using MacBook pro 17 inch, with nVidia 8800 GT installed on it..and its running like a charm with Unity Pro..never had any single simple issue with it...real beauty...

I got a Mini recently -- it's pretty much a Macbook in a box and its performance reflects this. Also, regarding Unity's shaders, I did notice that the reflective water is very temperamental when you run native from the editor (despite being fine through the browser plug-in!)... if Unity is the chief reason you're picking up a Mac then go for an iMac if you can swing it.

I have no issues with the water reflection after I upgraded the ram.
Also, the mini I have ran about $350 on CL

I will talk about the third option but our boss is such a tightwad.

I'm mainly still using my Mini and sometimes an older iMac. :O)

Mortiis,

Yeah the 2.8GHz will be really fine - especially with the screen size.

If you want to do iPhone development (you didn't mention it but hey who doesn't want to develop for it?) you are going to need an Intel Mac anyway, a Windows environment wouldn't allow for the last section of the process - deployment to the iPhone via Xcode (afaik).

As others have pointed out, you can develop on a mini mac but its a little slow and therefore could be in-efficient, development could cost more per project especially on large scenes unless as stated you add more RAM.

I didn't realise the graphics chip would cut it so well on the mini Mac, on the Unity forums there are people using them but I have been using a Power Book with 512MB and its slow to develop with. New Mac (probably the 2nd one above) will be on its way soon I hope.

Windows is coming, I saw it running last week and it looks exactly the same as the Mac version/. The release will probably be version 2.5 which really should be Q1-Q2 next year - its already pretty stable, UT are just trying to ensure that they don't give dates they may miss, so watch this space!

Mousey will tell you - he checked out some old PC laptop (I think) running a demo I sent him, and it ran pretty well too - it was a simple demo mind, but it shows you can have a powerful engine without the obvious overheads bringing the system to a halt on olde technology.

IPete2.

hey Ipete..what version of PowerBook you using?? Im using PowerBook Pro and its extremely fast..I had scene with 1.2 mil polys and its running like a charm...

It was an old PC desktop (with onboard graphics... yuk), but yeah, I was shocked at how well it ran.

The boss is really excited for iPhone dev. :) So that guarantees my mac then. Thank you so much for the info IPete2.

Well I wasn't excited before but I am now, can't wait!!!!

@(tu) Sinu ha ha ha! Hey there Sinu ! I cant wait to see what you do with it man! Lerpz - move over...lol.

@Mortiis - not a problem, I got really excited and then found out the Mac I had didnt want to run the Xcode stuff for iPhone dev! Wah Wah!

@Naughty - Sorry I think I was misleading there - I'm using one of the older 1.67Ghz PowerPC G4 laptops - with only 512 MB Ram and 128MB video memory.

IPete2.

Yeah, if only I could get more than 5 minutes to do anything leisurely ie a hobby these days.