Similar to other software developers, Unreal Foundation keeps track of the Unreal Engine system requirements, which you can use to make sure your computer's hardware is compatible with their software. But most "system requirements" lists simply address the minimum amount of hardware needed to run the software, not what will truly perform at its peak. In addition, these lists occasionally include substandard hardware on them, are out of date, or display obsolete hardware versions.

One of the most important parts of an Unreal Engine development workstation is the processor, sometimes known as the CPU. The CPU is the central piece of hardware that powers everything you do, even though many other components of the system also have some effect on performance. We have selected only a select selection of the hundreds of CPUs that are available as the best options for working in the Unreal Editor, based on our thorough testing of CPUs in the program.

Intel's Core i9 13900K and 14900K are excellent options for the majority of consumers. While the newer 14900K is only a few percentage points quicker, both CPUs work well for most users and score similarly in our Unreal Engine benchmarks.

Depending on your budget and the performance required for these jobs, we offer a variety of high-core CPUs for individuals who require the greatest possible performance for heavily threaded operations like designing lighting and compiling the engine from source. When it comes to compilation speed, the AMD Threadripper 7970X is roughly twice as quick as the Core i9 models. Depending on your budget, you may also consider the Threadripper 7960X and 7980X, which both offer excellent performance. However, as all of these CPUs are significantly more costly than ordinary models, we usually only suggest one of them to users who construct lighting or compile content for extended periods of time.

Your specific project and whether you perform RAM-intensive operations like constructing lighting will determine how much RAM you require. However, as a general guideline, we advise for most users to have 32GB of RAM. While 64GB+ of RAM is required if you plan to create lighting that requires more than a few hours,. Remember that this just addresses the minimum RAM requirements for the Unreal Editor on its own; they are merely guidelines. You might wish to have even more RAM in your machine if you frequently work with other programs open at once in addition to Unreal, as each one will require its own amount of RAM.

The main purpose of the video card in Unreal Engine is to display visuals on the screen. Though the Unreal Editor is just now beginning to incorporate this, many other programs have started to use the GPU for other functions as well. As such, a faster video card will probably not increase your productivity for other work, but it will give you a higher FPS in the viewport or in a stand-alone game.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GPU is a powerful graphics processing unit (GPU) that delivers outstanding performance at an affordable price. It can easily manage multiple monitors.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 24GB: If you intend to create VR content, the RTX 4090 is our top pick for a GPU because of its amazing performance and 24GB of VRAM. It is also ideal for Virtual Production and Architectural Visualization. Workstations with three or even four 4K screens can benefit from the large VRAM capacity, and games that haven't been optimized will love the extra power.

Primary Drive: OS/Software (SSD/NVMe): Includes your operating system and the base Unreal Engine installation. An SSD is highly recommended as it will greatly improve how fast the OS and programs startup, but you can also upgrade to a faster NVMe drive for a small performance benefit. Unreal Engine projects can consist of thousands of files and grow very quickly. It is common for projects to be 30 to 40 GB in size, with some exceeding 100 GB

Since the primary drive will primarily be used to store Windows and software, including all software (except large Game), it doesn't need to be that large for the majority of users; a 500GB SSD will be enough for Drive C.

Secondary Drive: Project Files (Platter/SSD/NVMe) Having a second storage (either SSD or HHD) for storing assets and effects is a wonderful alternative if you have additional money to spend or keep a lot of them around for use on different projects. Of course, an internal or external hard drive is a more cost-effective option than a high-capacity SSD if you need more mass storage and preservation.