I just got a new laptop and I’ve been wanting to learn how to use Unreal 5. Earlier today I tried running it with the third-person template and after messing around for a while I noticed the fans on my laptop were going crazy and the bottom of the laptop and keyboard were getting very hot. I shut everything down and waited for a while for it to cool off before turning the laptop back on. Currently I’m thinking of looking into a cooling pad for the laptop, but I was wondering if there’s anything else I could do to have Unreal 5 run and not worry about overheating until I get the cooling pad. I’m not sure there’s any settings I could change or something.
My new laptop has the Intel Core 17. This laptop was a gift to me, so I’m not sure of all of its specs yet. Thanks for any help or suggestions.
The easiest immediate solution is just UNPLUG the power cable and let the laptop run off BATTERY power for now. So that the laptop falls back on the built-in OS / Bios settings which should lower overall laptop performance across all hardware / devices. After that, see similar threads like the one below, that cover capping-frame-rate / turning off real-time in all editors:
Hey there @ConidiArt! Welcome to the community! UE5 is actually quite intensive for many laptops. Knowing the specs could definitely let us know the severity of what you’re working with.
That said some general tips are:
Cooling pad - As you already know, a good cooling pad is imperative for anyone working with a heavier product, so do your research for the best one!
Keep the Laptop on a Hard, Flat Surface - Make sure your laptop is on a hard, flat surface when you’re running the engine. This allows for better airflow and cooling, and can keep the heat off of you as a bonus.
Keep vents clean and dusted - This doesn’t apply much to you right now since you just got it new, but good to keep in mind.
If you must use the charger while working, make sure you set up your laptop’s power settings to NOT swap to high performance mode. We want the throttling to lower temps, while being slower it can keep you from frying eggs.
Unreal Specific Tips:
Lowering the scalability as much as possible can reduce graphical overhead and drop temps substantially.
Disabling all the fun new UE5 toys like Lumen, disabling virtual shadow maps, disabling Anti-Aliasing, turning off real time rendering or capping framerate as low as your eyes can handle. It will not be pretty to work in, but with enough precaution (and a cooling pad) you can push it a bit and monitor the temps. If you can consistently keep it low, you can start reintroducing the more intensive features until you know how effective your cooler is.