I am building new desktop for Unreal Engine, Blender and similar software so I can create a game with a large world.
I can’t decide which processor to invest my money in. What processor are you using?
I thought I would buy AMD Ryzen Threadripper 9960X or 9970X. Then I saw the comparisons with AMD Ryzen 9 9950x3d2, Ryzen 9 9950x3d or Intel Core Ultra 9 285K and for example the rendering time in the test didn’t differ that much even though the Threadripper has more cores etc. Few seconds (DaVinci Resolve - Threadripper 9960X vs Ryzen 9 9950x3d2).
Do you have any experience? Which processor would you recommend?It may be completely different from those mentioned here.
The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D remains the superior choice for active asset creation and editor navigation. However, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 9960X (or 9970X) becomes highly valuable if your large world requires massive asset cooking, packaging, or heavy C++ code compilation.
For Unreal Engine and Blender, it depends on your workload. Threadripper is excellent for heavy rendering, simulations, and large builds, but Ryzen 9 X3D CPUs often give better value for game development due to strong single-core performance.
I’d prioritize GPU, RAM, and storage as well. Go Threadripper if you truly need lots of cores; otherwise a high-end Ryzen 9 X3D is a solid choice.
AMD has an advantage over intel because of the multiple cores. Think about the motherboard as much as the CPU as you will also need a lot of memory for an unreal rig and that means a higher grade motherboard to support the Qty of memory which pairs well with your higher grade CPU. But be careful - because of the AI data centre boom memory is really expensive at the moment.
Thank you for your responses. My situation is that I’ll be creating the entire game and everything that goes into it. So I’ll be handling both the game development and the rendering etc. Ideally, I’d like to have just one computer.
I mentioned these two processors, but if you have another or a better recommendation, I’d appreciate it.
Food for thought: Does anyone use an older processor that is compatible with DDR4 memory and offers performance comparable to the processors mentioned above? Does such a processor exist?
Yeah, memories are problem. Or rather, absolute hell… I’m trying to find a processor with DDR4 support, but it likely won’t offer the similar performance as the processors mentioned above or it has a 128 GB RAM limit.
From a workstation-support point of view, I would not chase Threadripper just for the core count unless your cooking, shader compiles and packaging runs are regularly leaving you waiting for a long time. For a solo developer doing a bit of everything, a strong mainstream Ryzen 9 is usually the better-balanced buy, and it leaves more budget for GPU VRAM, 64GB or more of RAM and a fast NVMe drive, which you will feel every day in the editor and in Blender. The older DDR4 platforms can still make sense on a tight budget, but you are buying into a dead end for upgrades and memory will only get harder to source at a fair price. Whatever you choose, budget properly for cooling and a good power supply, because these chips will only hold their boost clocks if they are not thermal or power limited. In short, buy for the bottleneck you actually hit most often, not for the highest number on the box.