The purpose of this article is to dive deep into the system and GPU requirements for Unreal Engine 5 (UE5).
Topics Discussed:
- Unreal Engine 5 System Requirements
- Will My Processor Handle Unreal Engine 5?
- Will My Graphics Card Handle Unreal Engine 5 Game Development?
Unreal Engine 5 System Requirements
This article is meant as an analysis for developers, not gamers. You should read more here if you’re a gamer and want to see if your graphics card will handle UE5 games. The system requirements for Unreal Engine 5 can be found here and below:
- Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit version 1909 revision .1350 or higher, or versions 2004 and 20H2 revision .789 or higher.
- Processor: Quad-core Intel or AMD, 2.5 GHz or faster.
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics Card: DirectX 11 or 12 compatible graphics card
- RHI Version: DirectX 11 (Latest Drivers), DirectX 12 (Latest Drivers), Vulkan: AMD (21.11.3+) and NVIDIA (496.76+)
The system requirements for Unreal Engine 5 that are listed are a little vague compared to what we see for game system requirements. Therefore, we will go through a list of compatible processors, and graphics cards that would meet these requirements. Before diving into that, let’s review a typical system at Epic that a game developer would use:
- Windows 10 64-bit (Version 20H2)
- 64 GB RAM
- 256 GB SSD (OS Drive)
- 2 TB SSD (Data Drive)
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER
- Xoreax Incredibuild (Dev Tools Package)
- Six-Core Xeon E5-2643 @ 3.4GHz
This system spec is very beefy. It has 64 GB of RAM, a separate SSD drive just for the operating system, a GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER, and six-core Xeon processor at 3.4Ghz. By separating the OS drive from the data drive, they are maximizing IOPS (input/output per second) for game rendering. That is also the purpose behind the 64GB of RAM, high-end graphics card, and high-end workstation-grade processor. Most of this hardware is to help the developer with faster rendering times. The GeForce RTX 2000 series graphics card is used for performance and has the technology for raytracing.
Will My Processor Handle Unreal Engine 5 (UE5)?
The system requirements call for a quad-core Intel or AMD, 2.5 GHz or faster. There are a lot of processors on the market and it’s pretty easy to tell if they would meet this requirement. The important thing to look for is how it will compare to the Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2643 listed from the Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) system requirements list. 10th generation or later i5 and i7 processors are good comparable processors to the Xeon E5-2643. Any of the processors listed below will have good performance for Unreal Engine 5 (UE5):
- 9th Generation Intel® Core™ i5 Processors Product Specifications
- 9th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 Processors Product Specifications
- 9th Generation Intel® Core™ i9 Processors Product Specifications
- 10th Generation Intel® Core™ i5 Processors Product Specifications
- 10th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 Processors Product Specifications
- 10th Generation Intel® Core™ i9 Processors Product Specifications
- 11th Generation Intel® Core™ i5 Processors Product Specifications
- 11th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 Processors Product Specifications
- 11th Generation Intel® Core™ i9 Processors Product Specifications
- 12th Generation Intel® Core™ i5 Processors Product Specifications
- 12th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 Processors Product Specifications
- 12th Generation Intel® Core™ i9 Processors Product Specifications
It is only when you get into 8th generation processors that you start to see below 4 cores. These processors are denoted with i5-8XXX, such as the Intel® Core™ i5-8310Y Processor. This processor only has two cores, so it would not work well with developing games on Unreal Engine 5.
Will My Graphics Card Handle Unreal Engine 5?
| NVIDIA Graphics Cards | Will My Graphics Card Handle Unreal Engine 5 Development? |
| NVIDIA GeForce 700 Series | Yes, these graphics cards do support DirectX 11 so they should work. They will not be able to support raytracing, however. |
| NVIDIA GeForce 800M Series Graphics Cards | Yes, these graphics cards do support DirectX 12 so they should work. They will not be able to support raytracing, however. |
| NVIDIA GeForce 900 Series Graphics Cards | Yes, these graphics cards do support DirectX 12 so they should work. They will not be able to support raytracing, however. |
| NVIDIA GeForce 1000 Series Graphics Cards | Yes, these graphics cards do support DirectX 12 so they should work. They will not be able to support raytracing, however. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 1650 | Yes, these graphics cards do support DirectX 12 so they should work. They technically support raytracing, but may lack the RT cores for performance. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 1660 | Yes, these graphics cards do support DirectX 12 so they should work. They technically support raytracing, but may lack the RT cores for performance. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 1660 Ti | Yes, these graphics cards do support DirectX 12 so they should work. They technically support raytracing, but may lack the RT cores for performance. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 1660 Super | Yes, these graphics cards do support DirectX 12 so they should work. They technically support raytracing, but may lack the RT cores for performance. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 | Yes, the GeForce RTX 2060 meets the system requirements and will support raytracing. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 | Yes, the GeForce RTX 2070 meets the system requirements and will support raytracing. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super | Yes, the GeForce RTX 2070 Super meets the system requirements and will support raytracing. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super | Yes, the GeForce RTX 2080 Super meets the system requirements and will support raytracing. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | Yes, the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti meets the system requirements and will support raytracing. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 | Yes, the GeForce RTX 3050 meets the system requirements and will support raytracing. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | Yes, the GeForce RTX 3060 meets the system requirements and will support raytracing. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | Yes, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti meets the system requirements and will support raytracing. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 | Yes, the GeForce RTX 3070 meets the system requirements and will support raytracing. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti | Yes, the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti meets the system requirements and will support raytracing. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 | Yes, the GeForce RTX 3080 meets the system requirements and will support raytracing. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | Yes, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti meets the system requirements and will support raytracing. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | Yes, the GeForce RTX 3090 meets the system requirements and will support raytracing. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti | Yes, the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti meets the system requirements and will support raytracing. |
| AMD Radeon Graphics Cards | Will it support Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) Games? |
| AMD R5 M330 | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX but not raytracing |
| AMD R7 240 | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX but not raytracing |
| AMD R9 280 | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX but not raytracing |
| AMD Radeon RX 520X 2GB | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX but not raytracing |
| AMD Radeon RX 550 | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX but not raytracing |
| AMD Radeon RX 560 or 560D | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX but not raytracing |
| AMD Radeon RX 570 | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX but not raytracing |
| AMD Radeon RX 580 | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX but not raytracing |
| AMD Radeon RX 590 8GB | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX but not raytracing |
| AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX but not raytracing |
| AMD Radeon 5300 XT | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX but not raytracing |
| AMD Radeon 5500 XT | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX but not raytracing |
| AMD Radeon 5600 XT | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX but not raytracing |
| AMD Radeon 5700 XT | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX but not raytracing |
| AMD Radeon 6400 | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX and does support raytracing |
| AMD Radeon 6500 XT | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX and does support raytracing |
| AMD Radeon 6600 XT | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX and does support raytracing. |
| AMD Radeon 6650 XT | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX and does support raytracing |
| AMD Radeon 6700 XT | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX and does support raytracing |
| AMD Radeon 6750 XT | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX and does support raytracing |
| AMD Radeon 6800 & 6800 XT | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX and does support raytracing |
| AMD Radeon 6900 XT | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX and does support raytracing |
| AMD Radeon 6950 XT | Yes, it meets the requirements for DirectX and does support raytracing |