Epic CEO: Unreal Engine 5 Performance Issues is Mainly Due to Devs Not Optimizing Properly
Written by admin on August 29, 2025
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William D’Angelo
, posted 17 hours ago / 1,730 Views
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney in a media roundtable interview during the latest Unreal Fest event in Seoul, South Korea suggested the reason for the performance issues with some games using Unreal Engine 5 is due to the developer not optimizing properly.
“The primary reason why Unreal Engine 5-based games don’t run smoothly on certain PCs or GPUs is the development process,” said Sweeney (via VideoGamesChronicle and Korean website This is Game). “Many developers develop games for high-end hardware, then perform optimization and testing on lower-spec devices in the final stages of development.
“Of course, optimization is by no means an easy task, it’s a very challenging one. Ideally, optimization should be implemented early in development, before full-scale content build begins. We are preparing two major solutions to address this issue.
“One is to strengthen Unreal Engine support. Optimization requires significant manual effort, so we plan to provide automated optimization features for various devices, making the process faster and easier for developers.
“The other is to strengthen developer training. In addition to providing education on the overall testing and optimization process, it’s crucial to raise awareness of the importance of early optimization. If necessary, our engineers can provide direct intervention to raise awareness of optimization techniques and provide technical assistance.
“However, compared to a decade ago, the complexity of games themselves has significantly increased, making optimization at the engine level a challenge. Consequently, game developers and engine developers like us are increasingly required to collaborate to solve these issues.
“We are actively incorporating the optimization technology and expertise we’ve accumulated while servicing Fortnite into Unreal Engine, and are working diligently to ensure the game runs smoothly even on low-spec PCs.”
A life-long and avid gamer, William D’Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
