I’m thinking of buying Unreal Engine 4 to make/develop stuff and I was wondering how well I can run all of the stuff in engine.Do I need to upgrade anything? My PC’s specs are:
Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit
Intel Core i5 3570 4.3Ghz
8GB DDR3-1600mhz
Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2GB GDDR5
Samsung 840 EVO 120GB SSD
Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM HDD
Also where can I buy a license for the engine? I can’t find it on Steam.
Unfortunately it’s not on steam, but go to site - sign in - click onto the “get unreal” button 
I dont know the GPU, but the rest is perfect for the UE4 
Um well if it makes any sense to you my GPU is equivalent to a HD 7950 or GTX 760. Does that make any sense as to GPU performance?
As far as I know the UE4 shoud be abel to run the UE4 very well with a GPU like the GTX 760
Btw, here you can find a thread about system specs -> https://forums.unrealengine/showthread.php?20643-Official-Hardware-Performance-Survey
Your computer should run it well, most example content will run at 60 FPS, with some drops below to about 45 FPS. An i7 would improve some baking/rendering/compiling speed, and a better GPU will improve FPS, but your PC is more than enough to have good performance working with the engine.
Would only having 2GB GDDR5 VRAM be an at all when working with complex high resolution textures and anti-aliasing or is it enough?
Also, am I right in thinking that once I pay $20 for an UE4 license the engine is mine to use without paying anymore but if I don’t pay $20/month I won’t get any updates for the engine past the first month? Is the only downside of not having an active subscription not being able to install updates or is there something else as well?
2GB is more than enough. Paying $20 and canceling is the best way to do it if you are on a budget, there isn’t any drawbacks I can think of. Just pay $20 again when you feel like there’s a big update that you need to try out.
Your system is very similar to mine, all the way down to the SSD manufacturer. Only differences are that I have an i5 4670k (overclocked to 4.2ghz), and I just recently upgraded to a ASUS STRIX GTX 980, but I have alos used the same system with a GTX 660 ti. My new setup works extremely well for what I do, I plan to add another 16gb kit to bump it up to 24gb, and then keep an eye out for a good deal on one of the recent i7’s. On the 660 I was getting around 50-60 fps depending on the scene complexity, but the 980 usually maxes out at 120fps due to UE4’s frame limiter, it is a beast of a card, loving it so far!
If I was you, I would go for the same setup except replace the video card with a GTX 970, it might cost a little more, but it is the leader the cost to performance ratio currently.
2gb Vram is the base requirement for UE4, but there are a lot of people out there developing games without any problems whatsoever. The more Vram you get on a card, the longer you can go before needing to upgrade.
The best way to set yourself up is plan for the future. I decided to go with an i5 as the price point was reasonable, but I also knew that my motherboard could handle the new i7’s, so now I have a clear path to upgrade
Hope that helps!
I’ve already owned my PC for almost a year so I have no intent to change out any part at least until 2016, and since I live in Australia the GTX 970 is expensive (running between $450-500). My upgrades will probably be in 2016 when Nvidia Pascal GPUs are out but it also depends on how long my 270X lasts. Seeing as my GPU has 2GB VRAM according to ZacD I should be fine with running UE4 decently at 40-60fps. A GPU capable of 120fps would be pointless as my 1080p monitor caps out at 60hz.
If I need to I could always upgrade to an Intel i7 Skylake but that shouldn’t be necessary I think. Is there a massive difference in performance in UE4 between a 6/8 core Intel i7 and an Intel i5? I’m just kind of thinking ahead for when I intend to upgrade which would be mid-late 2016 or even early 2017 for the refined GPUs.
i5 vs i7 There should only be a massive performance boost in CPU heavy and multi-threaded tasks like baking lighting, compiling materials, and generating distance field meshes, etc. There probably won’t be in difference in FPS in most situations.
For GPUs and working with game engines, I always like trying to keep up with sets more than getting the best possible GPU, that means I’ll get the newest mid range card, just so I can try the latest and greatest tech, and not get stuck will and expensive GPU that can’t do everything a new mid range newer series GPU can. I’m sticking with my GTX 760 until there’s a actually a reason besides FPS to upgrade, the 1000 series from Nvidia might be that time, but it might not.
I think Unreal engine 4 will run pretty good on your system. I say mediumish settings.