I’ve been making games in unity for a while, I recently started using unreal. I’m finding that ue5 uses a lot more processing power than my macbook pro can handle. With unity it’s not great but manageable, with unreal it’s almost unusable.
Is it reasonable to get a pc for ue5, unreal and probably also csgo for less than 1000? How much would I need to spend to get a pc that can run ue5 well?
Thanks
You’ll need a computer with a dedicated GFX card. The best card you can get is one that uses Ray tracing, like an Nvidia RTX or AMD equivalent.
It’ll be quite difficult to get a viable pc for under $1000. Ensure there’s a minimum of 8 cores, preferably dual cores, so a total of 16. An RTX card or equivalent, and minimum 16 / 32 GB RAM. There’s not enough emphasis I can place on a great monitor that is compatible with the engine and with the hardware you buy. Research and know before buying. This is not all for graphics either, it’s also for internet, audio, multi-tasking, and staying up-to-date with current and future technologies.
“Dual cores” is just two cores. I believe what you’re referring to is multithreaded.
Thanks. Guess I need to start saving.
If you are OK with buying used, $1000 may get you a bare bones i7 from 5 years ago.
But given the current market for gfx, I don’t think a gfx would make it in the budget.
A more realistic price tag that you can do OK with is around $3000.
There’s also availability on some pre-built stuff that includes 3070s.
But let’s be clear about this:
The engine is also at fault.
Currently, it can barely run off of a 1080ti.
Unless you get a real gfx like a 3080/3090, it will always have problems when developing/level editing.
Most of them can be lived with (and one can argue they actually promote good coding/optimization). But you’ll always hit some limit at some point that prevents you from developing until you adjust whatever it is / asset / texture etc. that causes the issue.
Yeah PC prices so bad right now. I upgraded last CyberMonday to a Ryzen-5 5800X and Radeon RX6800 for around $1800 pre-built with tax and shipping. Can’t get anything pre-built in that ballpark now for less than $2400. 
When pricing out machines I usually compare CPU and GPU to price using the Tom’s Hardware CPU and GPU charts:
GPU Benchmarks Hierarchy 2021 - Graphics Card Rankings | Tom’s Hardware (tomshardware.com)
That gives relative performance rank for all CPUs and GPUs so when you are price comparing you can know if you are getting ripped off or not.
It’s 2021 and there’s a chip shortage.
You are always getting ripped off no matter what.
That said, the new i9 looks good, but since the chip shortage you can’t buy DDR5 even if you wanted to pay 1k just for that…
It’s not a really good time to buy, even with the supposed sales of cybermonday…
@eSki,
For Unreal Engine 4.27 the requirements are not so high and you can get started now (maybe add memory or an external SSD to the Macbook Pro?). You can also turn off features and plugins to increase performance in UE5 but then why use UE5 alpha now? So how can you win against the forces of greed today and get a computing environment you can be successful with in the future?
The state of the hardware side of the computing world and How you can win!
A fast replacement 16GB kit
Crucial Ballistix 3200 MHz DDR4 DRAM Laptop Gaming Memory Kit 16GB (8GBx2) CL16 BL2K8G32C16S4B $ 88.35 (A great first replacement for a laptop you bought with 8GB RAM) It is fast but requires 1.35V
A Decent 64GB kit
Crucial 64GB Kit (32GBx2) DDR4 3200 MT/s CL22 SODIMM 260-Pin Memory - CT2K32G4SFD832A $248.62 and only uses 1.20V stock so saves on power and gives you 4 times as much RAM.
When I started in computing I always wondered how to compare memory so…
For memory comparisons remember for DDR4 3200 MHz, CAS 16 is 10 nano seconds to refresh the memory. The lower the CAS the faster the response of the memory and the quicker your refresh, the quicker you can work. The formula is CAS / (MHz/2) if you are interested. The lower CAS at a given speed rating, the faster the memory.
Faster speed ratings require higher CAS and power so if you want CAS 16 @ 3200 10ns equivalent RAM but want the new higher bandwidth 3600MHZ you would look for CAS 18 @3600MHz which is also 10ns. This comparison works for all PC memory. In general, less than 10ns is fast, 10ns is a good speed for DDR4 today.
All the memory will use the slowest installed speed so keep them all the same. If you always buy them in kit pairs like (2X8GB, 2X16GB, 2X32GB, or 2X64GB), you will be fine.
For desktop … each component requires research but to narrow the search based on processor platform and save you some time and frustration in render times here are the ones I would choose for a modern working graphics professional with a 5 year replacement profile.
AMD 5950X or 5900X, Intel 12900 or 12700 … not really worth it to get anything else going forward.
12600 is future proofed if you start there and can get DDR5 … for certain applications would be fine if paired with decent PCIe4 or PCIe5 graphics card maybe in a year upgrade to 12900K for ~47% better Cinebench R23 for net ~$300.00 after selling your old 12600K. But that’s roughly the same differential now so comparing usefulness and efficiency of time it’s better to get the 12900K now and pay the extra ~$300 and whatever. Even at my estimates for higher future inflation adjusting the time value of money the productivity gains are still in favor of the 12900K and in second place for overall value the 5950X.
My goal in purchasing is to try to target
It doesn’t take long to see that getting any job and paying for the performance to be more productive in rendering and artistry is worth it to make more wonderful somethings.
Good luck on your journey with Unreal Engine!
Great post.
But there’s really no winning when the only way to get a GFX is a month long wait off a pre-built that comes with literally nothing you would ever put into a PC…
Unless you are on the EVGA waiting list, than maybe some day you get that secret email allowing you to buy a gfx at msrp.
Either way, perhaps you could share your ideas on motherboards.
Because of personal experience, I usually buy high end Asus ROG. They have literally never broken down across 12 PCs. Granted, they range from $300 to $1400 just for a mobo. Last thing you’d expect is failures due to bad solder at those prices…