Unreal Engine 5 Performance Problems and the Development Process
According to Epic Games CEO Sweeney Tim, the highly reported performance problems in games using Unreal Engine 5 are mainly down to the development process in question, and that is, to postpone optimization for lower-end hardware until the last moment.
Sweeney's Evaluation of the Optimization Problem
During an interview with this Korean outlet called This Is Game in the context of Unreal Fest 2025 here in Seoul, Sweeney spoke about the engine's optimization hurdles. He said many developers build their games using high-end hardware, thus postponing unto the end of the development cycle the headache to optimize and test pattern on less powerful systems.
"Optimization is always a very difficult thing," Sweeney said. "Even at a very early stage, optimization should be brought into the game design process."
He added, for modern complexity in games, such problems are best solved by the collaboration between game developers and engine creators and could no longer be fixed at the engine level alone.
Epic's Plans To Improve the Engine's Optimization In UE5
In line with these measures, Sweeney noted that there are other measures now under planning by Epic. The strategy has two folds:
- Improved Engine Support: Automating a lot more of Unreal Engine 5 for various devices to speed things up and make it easier for developers in optimizing the workflow.
- Improving developer training on optimization: Those who do optimization will therefore receive training needed in order to recognize and comprehend the need to begin at much earlier stages the optimization process.
Engine-Level Improvements Underway
But that's not the end of it, since Epic is even still working on engine-level performance. In fact, very serious improvements have already been made in the latest versions of the engine.
For example, within just a few months, Unreal Engine 5.6, also, has already stretched the legwork and in actual fact, this upgrading was deemed one of the most important in-profit GPU and CPU performance improvement by as much as 25 up to 35%, estimated along with other advancements. This goes to show that even Epic has not given up solving performance issues from their end.
