Is the unreal engine 5 heavier than Unity?

Question

I read on the internet that the minimum RAM for Unreal Engine 5 is 16GB and some say the minimum is 8GB

Meanwhile, my laptop's RAM is 8GB, will it lag?

Answer 1

RAM is not the only factor. Check the other requirements too (64bit system, graphics card, DirectX drivers).

https://docs.unrealengine.com/5.0/en-US/hardware-and-software-specifications-for-unreal-engine/

They mention a typical development machine with a configuration of 64GB RAM. So even if you meet the minimum requirements, with 8GB you should not expect stellar performance.

Answer 2

It will not lag, but sometimes, it will be slow. Note that I said "sometimes" because the slowness will only be noticed during

1. the first time you start a project and the engine generates initial setup files

2. The time you previously make huge changes to the project and it's ready to be built

Other than this, everything should work as a normal person would expect ... You can try it out to verify my point

Answer 3

I doubt an empty project will exceed 8GB.

If you make a big project and keep adding more and more assets onto the world, then sure it could exceed that easily. But for a small project, should be okay.

You can view your RAM usage by:
Control + alt + delete -> Task manager -> Performance -> Memory.

Gives an idea of how RAM is used.

I would recommend sticking to low poly. Unity may have more low poly options.

This was ~highest RAM usage I got from the engine when running (not editing):

Unity (v2021.3.8; low poly project, but many assets): ~2.4GB
Unity (v2021.3.8; Empty project): ~740MB
Unreal (v5.1; Vehicle sample template, not many assets): ~2.0GB

I had all 3 open at once with 16GB RAM.

BUT I use Visual Studio as the IDE. Could be an extra ~2GB. May want to close other unneeded things (e.g., browser).

NOTE: max RAM you have doesn't matter as long as its not exceeded. Performance doesn't care about how much RAM you have remaining. Don't go too close to it though, encase of jumps.

Answer 4

From what I understand, unreal engine will start using about 2-3gb of ram however it can very easily (depending on the project) reach up to 18gb.