Building a PC for Unreal Engine 5 development (GPU, SSD, or CPU focus?)

Community Community & Industry Discussion
1

With the RTX 3000 series just announced, the time for me to build a new PC has finally come!
Usually I built a new one every 2-3 years, but with my trusty GTX 1080 from 2016, I only now see the opportunity for a real upgrade.

Now the question is quite simple, for which components would you focus on getting the best possible ones?
And where is it possible to safe some money, without a framerate hit in the final built UE5 game?

I realize that this is getting dangerously into get out your crystal ball territory. But I think with the information from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roMY…u.be&t=656 it’s possible to make educated guesses.
If there is better information available than the Unreal Fest video, I’m all ears.

My main decisions will be:
RTX 3800 (700€) VS RTX 3700 (500€)

Intel i7 10700k (360€) VS AMD Ryzen 7 3800X (290€)

Which is directly linked to SSD choice due to Intel only supporting PCIE 3.0…

PCIE 3.0 Samsung 970 Evo Plus (170€) VS PCIE 4.0 Corsair MP600 (170€) VS PCIE 4.0 Samsung 980 Pro (TBD 300-400€)

The idea is that both Nanite and Lumen will be enabled in our RPG game and the PC should support this with at least 1440p60FPS.

The main surprise for me is, that it’s not looking so great for Intel CPU with these options. In my head I’m still used to Intel dominating the gaming market.
Are there any known issues with AMD Ryzen 7 3000X + Unreal Engine?
Like AMD CPU being less stable, or performant, like it used to be in the past.
If not, I’m leaning more towards a Ryzen 7 3800X. Especially since it was said in the video, that Nanite is not particularly CPU heavy and relies on the GPU.

My main internal conflict right now is that it just feels super weird to combine a high-end RTX 3800 GPU with a “cheap” AMD 3800X CPU.
But it would be required, if I want to build a high end machine with a PCIE 4.0 Samsung 980 Pro for ~2300 € that’s good for 4 years.

An alternative would be to build a more “budget” version now: RTX 3700 + Ryzen 3800X + Corsair MP600 for ~1500€.
Then build a new PC 2-3 years later, again at a “budget” version for ~1500€.
The biggest risk factor I see there is, that this more “budget” PC may not be able to handle our RPG in UE5 at 1440p60FPS…

Anyways, enough of my rambling, what are your thoughts / plans for a Unreal Engine 5 development PC?

2

Get the 3080, the 3070 doesn’t have the faster GPU memory, I think the 3080 is a better value
As far as CPU, right now I’d go for AMD
And for the SSD, just get the Corsair SSD, you can always upgrade that easily later. I think it’ll be worthwhile to get a system that has PCIE4.0

3

For work, AMD CPUs win out in almost all tests. They may be cheaper, but they are not cheap. I’m still using a 8700K on my rig, but if I was building today I’d definitely go AMD. Also, not sure how bad you need the new computer, cause the next-gen Zen CPUs are coming later this year (maybe October or November) so not sure if you want to wait. If you get a good motherboard, it may support the new chips, you might have to check on that.

In terms of the GPU, the 3080 is looking pretty nice. May be worth it for the better performance, though the 3070 is still looking decent (we’ll have to wait a few weeks for the full benchmarks).

From what I understand, the real world performance on PCIE4 is not crazy, with a PCIE M.2 drive you’ll be getting great performance either way, but why not get 4 if you can. I’ve used Corsair, they are pretty sold, that second Samsung seems like too much money.

4

For Intel CPU I would get an i7-9800X (Socket LGA2066) in that price range which features Quad-Channel DDR4 memory.

5

UE5 is still far away. So my plan is simple: to wait and see. Decisions are based on price/performance and since prices change significantly in the space of 3~6 months, discussing which parts one should get based on current prices and informations about UE5 is somehow counter-productive.

6

Typical system used at Epic probably need an update

7

I really like this setup idea!
It seems like it would be a pretty decent balance between value for money and high end performance.

With this I think I could do the main development.
Then switch to a new PC in ~3 years like I usually do. For the Ultra Settings 4K60FPS promo footage recording during the final year of development of the RPG.
I have a feeling that will not be possible with any current hardware, which is why I‘m trying to find a decent UE5 performance / price option right now.

8

I don’t think the requirements for UE5 will be all that much higher, the Lumen lighting system for example does dynamic GI that’s not a fully raytraced solution so it should run really well. So I would think if you made a game designed for PS5 for example, that it would work just fine at 4K60fps on something with today’s hardware.

9

Get PCIe 4.0, which is far more prepared for various things than 3.0 in emerging technologies. I just got a 2070 Super with an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (not X), and a Samsung 6 Gb/s 3D NAND SSD…also 32 GB DDR4 RAM in a dual channel configuration. And it was approximately the 1500 budget with everything else I needed, such as keyboard / mouse, and Windows 10 Home.

One thing to check into is the HDMI specification of the monitor. I discovered that HDMI 2.1 makes 4K/120 Hz available, but I was thinking that it was available before, and still unsure. I saw a 240 Hz non-4K monitor for around / under $300, but wasn’t sure if that’d be better or worse than a 4K capable one. I opted to get a 4K monitor, but am going to see if it stands to reason yet. It’s simply essential to ensure all components are matched up for display output.

11

Since I dropped some dollars on a recent build that uses the Ryzen 3950x, I have to say, after recent light builds using this computer I would not be recommending going the AMD route. I wish someone could change my mind and prove me wrong and say it is just a setting or something but we have seen this issue on multiple machines using Ryzen. I am posting this to help others who find this thread in the future while looking for advice on a computer build for Unreal.

https://forums.unrealengine.com/deve…n-and-intel-i7