Want to work on Unreal Engine, what specs should I have?

Development Getting Started & Setup
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1

Hello everyone! I have a gaming PC, a Lenovo Legion, with an RTX 1660 Super GPU and 16GB of RAM. Recently, I’ve been really excited to dive into Unreal Engine for cinematic creations involving Metahumans and other creative projects. However, I encountered an issue when trying to bring my Metahuman into the scene. I received the following error message:

“Out of video memory trying to allocate a rendering resource. Make sure your video card has the minimum required memory, try lowering the resolution and/or closing other applications that are running.”

I understand that I need to upgrade my computer specifications to ensure a smoother experience without frequent crashes, especially when working with projects like uploading Metahumans. I was wondering if GPUs like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series (such as RTX 3060 or RTX 3090) or the AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series (such as RX 6600 XT or RX 6700 XT) would be sufficient. Additionally, I’m considering increasing my RAM to either 32GB or 64GB.

I would greatly appreciate any advice or recommendations on the GPU and RAM upgrades that would allow Unreal Engine to run smoothly without crashing every 10 minutes while being on a budget. Thank you in advance for your help!

2

Hello,

My general advice with System RAM, is to open the task manager (CTRL + SHIFT + ESC) and see if your RAM is getting maxed out when opening a UE project.

I’d consider 32GB to be my minimum, but you could get away with 16. Opening a blank UE 5.2 project looks to take 2G of system memory.

So I’d consider upgrading GPU first.

It looks like the 1660 super has 6GB of RAM (and is a cute little boi)

The Nvidia 40 series has a new architecture, so I’d figure out how much you want to spend on a GPU and get a 40 series card. (I don’t follow AMD, so not sure of their offerings) Just make sure your Power Supply can support the extra wattage.

3

Thanks, I’ll definitely do some research on GPUs. I’m assuming the higher the gigabytes like 8gb, 12gb etc the better.

4

You’re welcome,

Nvidia has received criticism for releasing a card with 8GB of VRAM (since most modern games require about 8GB) but on the low end there is a 16GB version of the 4060ti.

Of course the higher the VRAM the harder you can push UE before running into that ‘Out of video memory’ warning.