I have been inside enough computer labs in institutes and colleges to understand what a typical one looks like – the same desktops lined up, all configured to perform the same functions, meant for writing assignments and browsing the web, not for designing a 3D image or training a model. What do you think will happen if you put a student wanting to design AAA games or AI in there?
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Game Designing, Visual Effects, 3D designing and AI are fields where one needs specialized equipment rather than just an average laptop to excel in. Rendering a scene, executing a game engine with enough frames per second, training a machine learning algorithm takes more from a graphic card than a basic classroom computer can give. One can surely study the theories of game design with just any computer but cannot practically learn to design games using it.
CyberPowerPC India is making its way into this field by partnering with educational institutions like Karnavati University in Gandhinagar and Whistling Woods International in Mumbai. The interesting part is not the hardware offered but the sequencing in which the hardware is provided. Instead of entering into the picture once a course is already underway and finding out the requirements for the lab, they are entering while the courses are still being designed, understanding the use cases before purchasing anything. Hence, a game designing lab need not require 40 computers with similar configurations but perhaps only six powerful computers for the rendering process and another set of average computers for other purposes.
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After you set up a lab based on certain configurations, it becomes impossible to upgrade it without causing too many disturbances. The cost of tearing down and setting up afresh will be borne by someone who did not have it in his budget and will affect a semester that does not need any disruptions. It is important to plan before procurement because otherwise, you might end up building an out-of-date lab.
As per Dr. Kusum Agarwal, the Dean Academics at Karnavati University, the university has been moving ahead aggressively in the direction of emerging technology and the creative arts. Agarwal stated that the university’s objective was to provide its students “with the environment and opportunities to excel.” In other words, the importance of your tech stack can equal that of your curriculum.
Whistling Woods International, however, opted for the more hands-on approach of creating a gaming room in collaboration with CyberPowerPC. The H.O.D of Game Design at Whistling Woods, Jaydev Dhakan, justified this by stating that the rapid pace at which the Creative Arts industry evolves was sufficient cause to bring classrooms up to speed with it. The institute bases its program on creativity, business sense, and technical knowledge, with the gaming room there to fill the chasm between classroom learning and real-world shipping.
None of this is an isolated case; India’s gamer demographics have truly evolved. According to Niko Partners, women now account for 49% of all India’s gamers compared to 43% in 2023, and non-battle royale mobile gaming titles are surpassing battle royale ones with 62.8% revenue share in mobile gaming. Combine this with expected 2 million jobs in the AVGC industry in 2030, and you get something that is beyond a college experiment anymore.
No, this wasn’t ever a case about PCs. This is about the Indian educational system catching up with the reality its students know perfectly well – that gaming, AI, and VFX are jobs now with their exact hardware requirements. Those colleges which today take high-performance computing seriously are those that prepare professionals for studios tomorrow. All others only educate on theory, using hardware unable to support it.
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