Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Talking from experience here...
Most devs think they need a drawer full of old Android phones and budget laptops to test low-end performance scenarios.
They don't.
There's a better way than wasting money and letting old hardware rot:
If you need to optimize for lower-powered hardware but don't have all the devices you need, stop that eager finger from opening amazon/ebay.
Instead: use your existing hardware as a proxy for a lower-tier hardware... by simply choking it.
- Want to simulate a lower-tier CPU? On Windows, just go to Power Settings › Advanced Power Settings › Maximum processor state. Drop that percentage. Suddenly, your 3GHz beast becomes a 1.5GHz potato
- Want to simulate a lower-tier GPU? Trickier because vendor-specific, but logic still the same. E.g. on AMD: AMD Adrenalin, MSI Afterburner, Ryzen Master, or G-Helper or even BIOS. They all let you limit GPU wattage and/or frequency.
Not perfect simulation.
But who cares about perfection? You should care about being pragmatic.
Full transparency: this is one of the cases where I don't follow my own advice most of the time, but that's because I fix the performance of dozens of VERY different projects.
But I bet you don't have to go that hardcore. So just be pragmatic & stop wasting money. Don't keep a shelf full of old laptops you only used once. Just have a couple of very flexible laptops and apply my trick.
Extra tips from uncle Ruben:
- Only buy laptops with switchable graphics (both iGPU and dGPU). Then switch GPU on a per-project basis. Like a 780m iGPU + 5070/5080/5090 or whatever works for you.
- Use Parsec/RDP for your ultimate, scalable performance lab. This setup lets you measure and fix performance on multiple devices in parallel. To iterate on min vs recommended vs max tier specs. Extra points if you automate this like we do.
These tips will get you far, but if you need my hand on your Unity project, apply for my consulting & let's fix that:
https://thegamedev.guru/unity-consulting/?utm_source=cg&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=don-t-buy-test-hardware-you-ll-only-use-once
Ruben (TheGameDev.Guru)
Talking from experience here...
Most devs think they need a drawer full of old Android phones and budget laptops to test low-end performance scenarios.
They don't.
There's a better way than wasting money and letting old hardware rot:
If you need to optimize for lower-powered hardware but don't have all the devices you need, stop that eager finger from opening amazon/ebay.
Instead: use your existing hardware as a proxy for a lower-tier hardware... by simply choking it.
- Want to simulate a lower-tier CPU? On Windows, just go to Power Settings › Advanced Power Settings › Maximum processor state. Drop that percentage. Suddenly, your 3GHz beast becomes a 1.5GHz potato
- Want to simulate a lower-tier GPU? Trickier because vendor-specific, but logic still the same. E.g. on AMD: AMD Adrenalin, MSI Afterburner, Ryzen Master, or G-Helper or even BIOS. They all let you limit GPU wattage and/or frequency.
Not perfect simulation.
But who cares about perfection? You should care about being pragmatic.
Full transparency: this is one of the cases where I don't follow my own advice most of the time, but that's because I fix the performance of dozens of VERY different projects.
But I bet you don't have to go that hardcore. So just be pragmatic & stop wasting money. Don't keep a shelf full of old laptops you only used once. Just have a couple of very flexible laptops and apply my trick.
Extra tips from uncle Ruben:
- Only buy laptops with switchable graphics (both iGPU and dGPU). Then switch GPU on a per-project basis. Like a 780m iGPU + 5070/5080/5090 or whatever works for you.
- Use Parsec/RDP for your ultimate, scalable performance lab. This setup lets you measure and fix performance on multiple devices in parallel. To iterate on min vs recommended vs max tier specs. Extra points if you automate this like we do.
These tips will get you far, but if you need my hand on your Unity project, apply for my consulting & let's fix that:
https://thegamedev.guru/unity-consulting/?utm_source=cg&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=don-t-buy-test-hardware-you-ll-only-use-once
Ruben (TheGameDev.Guru)
