I found the previous ones a bit laggy in the editor even with the settings turned down low.
Is the Unreal 4.3 much faster? Is it worth another $20 or whatever to get the update?
I have a HP laptop DirectX 10 corei3 which is supposed to be pretty fast. It runs Unity3D fine, no problem at all.
The Core i3 will kill you performance wise it is a low-end dual core processor with no Hyper-Threading and no Turbo Boost. I don’t know what graphics you are running integrated or dedicated, but I could only assume that if you have an i3 you also have low-end dedicated or integrated graphics. Unity3D is a completely different beast, but I would certainly stick with Unity until you are able to acquire a more powerful setup and then take a look at UE4.
Edit: The newer i3’s do have Hyper-Threading, but if you’re running a machine that is only DirectX 10 capable I would only assume it’s an old i3.
Unfortunately most laptop’s out there don’t have as much power as the desktops, the i3 isn’t necessarily the problem, it’s more the video card in your laptop that will limit you, as you have an i3, you most likely don’t have a higher end video card, and if Directx 10 is the highest it will run, I don’t think it will have enough power to get good performance within UE4. As well Unity3d does not really compare well to UE4 as the engine is more powerful, a better comparison is between Unity3d vs UDK (UE3).
Do you know what video card model is in your laptop?
I have an i5 4670K and a nVidia 660ti and did notice a large increase (+ 15-20fps), but it is hard to say whether you would also see a performance increase.
How old is the machine? and can you post any other specs?
As already said, laptops dont run so well with the UE4. Here you can find a list with many pc setups -> search for one with nearly the same spec and check how many fps he gets: https://forums.unrealengine/showthread.php?20643-Official-Hardware-Performance-Survey 
It has Intel HD Graphics 3000.
In the Unreal Engine 4.2 it has trouble even with just the empty grid. I mean it’s a very nice grid which vanishes subtley into the distance… But, you know, some ordinary lines would have done just as well. :rolleyes:
It’s only a 6 month old laptop. Very new with Windows 8. It can run other 3D game just fine. Like Spore for example. Or the Asphalt 7 racing game. Or Batman: Arkham City.
I heard they are trying to make it run better on laptops. So maybe I’ll wait until 4.4 if they are still doing that.
I like to do my game development on my laptop with a cup of soya hot chocolate in Starbucks. Keeping it real. 
I am using Unity at the moment but I am tempted by Unreal because of the blueprint system and the inbuilt geometry editing and the speed at which new features are being added. But at the moment the editor just isn’t fast enough.
The Intel HD 3000 is oollldd, that is your primary bottleneck more than anything else you’ve said/listed. There are even threads specifically about that video ‘card’ on the unreal forums (generally it was disabled for Mac for a while, dunno if it’s not now) but even the 4200 (directly mentioned in another thread, on answerhub) is below the minimum specs listed by Epic.
You need a new video card, the one you have is not going to have its performance improved dramatically, it’s very old (tech) and very underpowered. Otherwise you’re basically going to be developing for mobile (quality wise) or dealing with possibly single digit FPS in the editor.
I also wonder why the editor with an empty level needs such power. I wanted to work on some blueprints while i am not at home. At least the Blueprint editor without displaying a preview should perform better.
I realize that. But my question is why it costs so much?
I don’t know, but I would guess there’s some fancy filter like full screen blurring or transparency or shadows that they are using on the UI that has to be emulatated on lower GPUs or CPUs. Just to make the UI pretty! Obviously its important that the UI is pretty rather than fast. :rolleyes:
Have tried you changing all the graphics options to low?