CPU for Game Development? (Unreal Engine)

[pentotark]

I need to build a pc to make 3D environments with the unreal engine. Do anyone of you know if the UE favors intel or amd? I was considering between a 1700X and a 7700K.

It is very difficult to find comparisons between the two different architectures when it comes to game development with UE. Will you guys help me out with this ?

[Energycore]

Well first off, don't grab a 1700X grab a 1700. The only difference is clockspeed and you can fix that by overclocking even on the stock cooler.

 

Second off I'm unsure about UE. But compilers are generally very well threaded recently and Ryzen will do amazingly in there.

 

Also take a look at literally every workstation CPU test conducted by Anandtech. http://www.anandtech.com/show/11170/the-amd-zen-and-ryzen-7-review-a-deep-dive-on-1800x-1700x-and-1700/15

[Thue500]

If the programs are happy for high clocked cpus take the Intel. If the program benefits for more cores take the AMD even though it maybe runs a bit slow now they will probably optimize the programs for more cores. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

Ryzen, on the presumption that UE4 has a multi-core compiler which mean faster iteration times.

[crzyces]

Always go for the cores with things like this (within reason. Don't throw two $15 xeons in a mobo just because you'll get 32 cores . Also, remember the gpu you are working with, as they make a huge difference. Basically I am saying go for the AMD and a gpu aimed at creating, not just gaming.

[pentotark]

27 minutes ago, Energycore said:

Well first off, don't grab a 1700X grab a 1700. The only difference is clockspeed and you can fix that by overclocking even on the stock cooler.

 

Second off I'm unsure about UE. But compilers are generally very well threaded recently and Ryzen will do amazingly in there.

 

Also take a look at literally every workstation CPU test conducted by Anandtech. http://www.anandtech.com/show/11170/the-amd-zen-and-ryzen-7-review-a-deep-dive-on-1800x-1700x-and-1700/15

What I will do is mostly handling heavy scenarios in real time, and that I guess is task of the GPU to keep up with it.

Then Light map bake, and compiling shaders. Here is where I cannot find info how Ryzen can handle this.

[Energycore]

27 minutes ago, pentotark said:

What I will do is mostly handling heavy scenarios in real time, and that I guess is task of the GPU to keep up with it.

Then Light map bake, and compiling shaders. Here is where I cannot find info how Ryzen can handle this.

Sounds like you'll really like the 8 cores then

 

[crzyces]

28 minutes ago, pentotark said:

What I will do is mostly handling heavy scenarios in real time, and that I guess is task of the GPU to keep up with it.

Then Light map bake, and compiling shaders. Here is where I cannot find info how Ryzen can handle this.

That's why you want something like a radeon pro wx 5100 or wx7100 or a quadro. The Radeon pros are much better at gaming than the quadros (unless you get into the $2k usd + model quadros, but that's way more than you need right now unless you are planning a career change to Pixar).

[pentotark]

Some people from the UE4 forums are testing intel and ryzen:

https://forums.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?138575-UE4-intel-7700K-or-AMD-1800X/page3&highlight=pc+build

[shashidharreddy]

I am a beginner game engine programmer ue4 source code is available freely. As much as i know ue4 is optimised for multithread.

The "i3 has 2cores 2Threads", "i5 has 2cores 4Threads", "i7 has 4cores 4Threads and it has higher cores and higher threads also".

But PRICE to THREADS comparison Ryzen will win, and keep in mind that UE4 use as many threads as possible to work fast. In UE4 you cannot see better performance with high clock speed but you can see in higher number of threads.

I can suggest that Ryzen 5 1400 it have 4cores 8threads. It is enough for cpu work in UE4 and invest in GPU, because UE4 compute high graphical contents.

To give cinematic look to your trailer you need bigger better graphics card.

[Nena Trinity]

Ryzen 5 or 7 gets my vote.

[pentotark]

Finally someone tested it!

 

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Unreal-Engine-4-16-CPU-Comparison-Skylake-X-Kaby-Lake-X-Broadwell-E-Skylake-Ryzen-7-984/

 

UE is version 4.16 so, not the latest (4.17) but its still the one most developers are using.

Seems like 7700k has a small margin over ryzen, not too big tho. Ryzen is a bit better at engine compiling and light bake and intel a bit better with the rest.

So I guess anybody can choose their favourite between 7700k and 1700x. I will personally go with intel since it has a small margin, lots of overclock potential and the platform is overall a bit more mature.

 

[zberry7]

I got into UE4 Dev a little while back, I'm a programmer though so 3D modeling (especially making textures) are not my strong suit. I started a multi/single player Command and Conquer style game mainly using c++. Got to the point where you can build bases and train units, and you could add new buildings/factions/units easily via blueprints. The path finding AI was eating way too much time because the built in path finding system doesn't (unless updated) work with vehicles so I had to design my own from scratch. If you need any help with something feel free to let me know

 

Anyway, to your question I would go with Ryzen for the core counts as most have said. It will really help with compile times. If you have money to burn, a good high core count intel would work great too.

[jaysangwan32]

On 4/13/2017 at 5:37 PM, pentotark said:

I need to build a pc to make 3D environments with the unreal engine. Do anyone of you know if the UE favors intel or amd? I was considering between a 1700X and a 7700K.

It is very difficult to find comparisons between the two different architectures when it comes to game development with UE. Will you guys help me out with this ?

 

Personally, I'd wait for Coffee Lake unless you're positive you need more than 6 cores. Coffee Lake is supposed to have 6 cores on the flagship with faster clocks than an equivalent Ryzen.

I'm not saying the Coffee Lake WILL be better than Ryzen for the task, but if you're aiming for 6 cores it might be worth sticking around a little and waiting to see the multi threaded performance on the chip. Additionally, Kaby Lake will be most likely dead after Coffee Lake so you wouldn't have an upgrade path.

If you need more than 6, go with Ryzen or TR.

Hope this helps!

[pentotark]

On ‎8‎/‎27‎/‎2017 at 11:41 PM, jaysangwan32 said:

 

Personally, I'd wait for Coffee Lake unless you're positive you need more than 6 cores. Coffee Lake is supposed to have 6 cores on the flagship with faster clocks than an equivalent Ryzen.

I'm not saying the Coffee Lake WILL be better than Ryzen for the task, but if you're aiming for 6 cores it might be worth sticking around a little and waiting to see the multi threaded performance on the chip. Additionally, Kaby Lake will be most likely dead after Coffee Lake so you wouldn't have an upgrade path.

If you need more than 6, go with Ryzen or TR.

Hope this helps!

I Cannot wait for coffee lake, a 7700k will be fine for my budget =)

[jaysangwan32]

1 hour ago, pentotark said:

I Cannot wait for coffee lake, a 7700k will be fine for my budget =)

For the price you might be better off with an 8 core ryzen, as it seems UE4 will use as many cores as it can on the developer side.

 

 

Sources:

https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/13101/what-pcworkstation-spec-has-been-used-in-developin.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/unrealengine/comments/61raes/what_does_unreal_engine_prefer_lots_of_cores_or/

https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/182966/more-cores-or-faster-clock-speed.html

[pentotark]

27 minutes ago, jaysangwan32 said:

For the price you might be better off with an 8 core ryzen, as it seems UE4 will use as many cores as it can on the developer side.

 

 

Sources:

https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/13101/what-pcworkstation-spec-has-been-used-in-developin.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/unrealengine/comments/61raes/what_does_unreal_engine_prefer_lots_of_cores_or/

https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/182966/more-cores-or-faster-clock-speed.html

The use will be set dressing and 3d environment and as you can see from the benchmarks I posted before the 7700k does a better job for me considering my budget.

[jaysangwan32]

3 hours ago, pentotark said:

The use will be set dressing and 3d environment and as you can see from the benchmarks I posted before the 7700k does a better job for me considering my budget.

Oops! Must've missed that post my bad!

Yeah then 7700k seems like a solid pick!

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

[Zodiark1593]

On 4/13/2017 at 3:51 PM, crzyces said:

That's why you want something like a radeon pro wx 5100 or wx7100 or a quadro. The Radeon pros are much better at gaming than the quadros (unless you get into the $2k usd + model quadros, but that's way more than you need right now unless you are planning a career change to Pixar).

Why the heck would you need or even consider workstations video cards for a bloody game engine?! A 1080 TI or even a Titan would be far better choices for UE4 development as well as the associated 3d modeling.

 

Also, this thread had been reanimated.

[pentotark]

On 8/31/2017 at 11:42 PM, Zodiark1593 said:

Also, this thread had been reanimated.

Yes, Finally someone tested UE 4.16 with modern cpus and I posted it!

Before that It was so hard to find benchmarks for that specific scenario, and I wonder why since game development is more popular than ever before...

 

On 9/1/2017 at 0:06 AM, Erik Sieghart said:

The only benefit to a workstation card is that it's got more memory and stuff that you don't care about for game development.

I went for a gtx 1080ti. It is really helpful because allows to be a little bit lazier, leaving optimization for later. the system is working really good so far!

[jubbyju]

On 4/13/2017 at 4:42 PM, Energycore said:

Well first off, don't grab a 1700X grab a 1700. The only difference is clockspeed and you can fix that by overclocking even on the stock cooler.

 

Second off I'm unsure about UE. But compilers are generally very well threaded recently and Ryzen will do amazingly in there.

 

Also take a look at literally every workstation CPU test conducted by Anandtech. http://www.anandtech.com/show/11170/the-amd-zen-and-ryzen-7-review-a-deep-dive-on-1800x-1700x-and-1700/15

Sorry to contradict you but games  a part, using professional software and overclocking is never a good idea. You want a safe and stable system running on certificated and default frequencies, you can't blame developers because your system crashes when you use an OC system...

I haven't seen professional workstation sold with an overclocked cpu with memory running over the default frequencies.

Sometimes if you have no idea what you are talking about is better to keep silence.

Anyway for now ryzen cpus are really bad in UE editor, even a cheaper new intel cpu is faster for opening files and lights generations, a bit better for compiling but the 7820x is the best cpu for price/performance in UE4.

 

On 9/1/2017 at 0:06 AM, Erik Sieghart said:

Agreed. Even when I'm doing actual workstation stuff I use gaming video cards.

The only benefit to a workstation card is that it's got more memory and stuff that you don't care about for game development.

You don't need a quadro or a ati pro for game development, these cards are used generally on software like photoshop to reach a true 10bit color depth and in cad softwares like SolidWorks because they have better performance in the OpenGL Views and overall they are certified to work with.

Even if you need a card for GPU rendering these cards are generally worst than a "consumer" card an they cost 6X the price.

[System Error Message]

personally i'd pick AMD over intel for game dev. More cores, cache helps in the development process of running unoptimised code and compiling it. The other bit is that it is cheaper too.

 

as for GPU it really depends what you do. If you make content AMD has their vega fe which allows different drivers and a lot of vram for you to stuff a lot of resources into the GPU. For testing the game however both CPUs and standard consumer GPU brands are recommended. I would suggest getting all 3, intel, amd and nvidia, its what i did for my game dev. You use all 3 for development, prioritising the machine like AMD ryzen for better compilations, titans and vega fe for developing graphical content, testing on mediocre machines like mid to entry level CPUs and GPUs. Make sure to get older GPUs from both brands which you want as the minimum to run your game to make sure it runs well on them.

 

Hardware requirements with any game engine is really just dependent on the content to be rendered and the code you have put in.

[jubbyju]

3 minutes ago, System Error Message said:

 

We can talk forever but you can just search: "unreal engine cpu comparison"...

[System Error Message]

Just now, jubbyju said:

 

i know, but developing and running are 2 different things. For code compilations, more cache and more cores win here no argument. For running however currently intel's kaby lake does better due to the older ring bus architecture many game engines still use rather than the new p2p/mesh based architecture that newer and manycore CPUs use. This will soon change however as game engines update to make use of newer CPUs.

 

Hence why i still stand by my decision. Ryzen/threadripper for dev rig, mediocre CPUs for test rigs.

[jubbyju]

4 minutes ago, System Error Message said:

i know, but developing and running are 2 different things. For code compilations, more cache and more cores win here no argument. For running however currently intel's kaby lake does better due to the older ring bus architecture many game engines still use rather than the new p2p/mesh based architecture that newer and manycore CPUs use. This will soon change however as game engines update to make use of newer CPUs.

 

Hence why i still stand by my decision. Ryzen/threadripper for dev rig, mediocre CPUs for test rigs.

I have no idea what you are talking about... A guy asked for the best cpu for UE4 editor and ryzen is really bad for that stop arguing.

The Threadripper 1950x is "a bit" oversized for UE4 but it's a good cpu if you make cpu renderings or scientific simulations and overall i don't think a guy searching for 7700k will spend 1600$ for a mobo+cpu only...