UNREAL ENGINE 4 - A HOBBYISTs Perspective - Seriously Slow. Worth keeping sub going?

Hi Guys,

First I am a hobbiest. I dont have cutting edge systems. I own a desktop with 8GB Ram, 2GB GeForce GT 640 & Windows 8.1. My laptop is a newish Inspiron 7 7000 with 6GB Ram & dual Intel / Nvidia card ( 2GB ).

On Both systems UE is getting to be painfully slow and unusable - taking ages to load projects from market etc. When loaded some are slow also.

It seems - unless you have a serious system with loads of resources - you are wasting your time with UE as a hobbiest.

I am going to drop my sub this month - might check back in in a few months see if things have improved.

There’s some scalability settings you can adjust to lower the graphical quality to improve performance, but it mostly comes down to your GPU. GT640 is just not very powerful. I’ve used systems in that range and they have performance issues with any 3D stuff.

You can get workable performance if you can find even a GTX 460-470. They are really cheap now. I dont know what CPU you have on desktop though so that may also be another troublemaker.

Im using that system with Blender, Modo, Zbrush etc - no problems.

I realise what UE4 is - needs huge resources. My point is that hobbyists in particular need to call a spade a spade and realise its either spend lots on a huge system OR just bite the bullet and drop UE4. Thats the reality of it.

I am not dissing UE about this - their software needs a system with huge resources, in many cases a system beyond most hobbyists - thats just the way it is and best of luck to UE.

BTW - i tried the scalability settings. While in project it did help but loading is still just too long.

Core i3 on desktop, Core i5 on laptop. YES - that is probably another bottle neck on desktop. I will eventually upgrade but for now all my other software works fine. As i said I am a lowly hobbyist :smiley:

Oh ok, that i3 is the problem with loading times. CPU is needed most while compiling shaders and building lights and shaders get compiled when you open a project for the first time. For future reference you dont need to worry about the RAM. 8GB is plenty for a hobbyist, so you’ll have to upgrade the CPU and GPU whenever you are able to if the editor performance doesnt get any better.

Those programs work in a very different way than game engines work. For instance Zbrush depends greatly on the CPU and RAM, it hardly needs the GPU. And 3D content creation programs aren’t designed for gaming cards. There’s a lot more graphical features going on in a game along with having to run lots of gameplay elements.

Also, a SSD is nice too.

SSD isn’t going to help as much as a faster processor and GPU

Although the desktop with the i3 & the GT640 seems to work better than the laptop with the i5 & the GT750M - Because the laptop has dual vid card ( other is an Intel ) this might be the cause of that.

Yes - a CPU / GPU upgrade is required BUT I still reckon Hobbyists should be realistic where UE is concerned - with great hope alone shelling out €19 a month while having an under par system is not the best idea.

I also notice on my laptop the fan goes mental when UE starts to load up …

Cooling is always an issue with laptops. By the way, even after you unsubscribe you can still use the version you paid for, you just won’t get any updates.

Yip. That was what I was going to do originally. Subscribe every 2nd month or so :smiley:

Not rubbing anyones face in it BUT I must try UNITY and see if that performs any better …

Unity starts out with almost no graphical features, so it will perform better by default, since many things are better by default in UE4 and you have to turn them off to match that level.

Now that would be a good thing where UE is concerned - Let the user set the graphical features BEFORE launch. Some sort of preload setup. That might keep everyone happy:D

I wonder is their any way of adding to or adjusting the BaseScalablity.ini OR any other ini file to make loading up / using UE easier on less spec’ed systems??

To be fair, there is a recommended system requirement, & Epic do emphasis the need for a powerful PC.

Having said that, I am running half decent with the sample projects & simple level I made with my 2 year old laptop.

16mb system ram, i7 2630QM 2.0GHz, AMD 6980 Raedon HD 6970M.

I do intend to get a breasty desktop soon, which also double as my gaming rig, when I start proper development. Now I am just picking up stuff, & learning mostly, so its still fine.

They could set the default to a low setting, or if they really wanted to they could make a system analyze your hardware and adjust, but most people are using the engine for the graphical capabilities so having them turned on is what people are coming for.

I hate threads like this, people causing drama about a v12 engine not being able to fit into their 10 year old 4 cylinder civic.

I have an i7, 8Gig RAM and only a 570Ti GFX. Unreal runs perfectly smooth for me and this is not a highend machine. It just has a fast CPU, but the whole machine is almost three years old.
I was actually surprised at how well everything runs, considering the beauty you get. I will never drop my sub to U4, and if your machine can’t handle it, it won’t be able to handle Unity 5 either. So go figure, either use an old engine, or buy a new PC.

I don’t see what the problem is. His/Her PCs don’t have the grunt, so (s)he will try something else. I saw no hissy fits or foot-stamping. Careful you don’t let your love for UE blind you to its weak-points, and try and pretend it’s the OP at fault. That way lies fanboy-ism.

I wish a lottery win on both you and aidanodr, so you can afford all the computers. :slight_smile: