Is it Worth Upgrading to Intel Core Ultra 200S Processors for Unreal Engine?

Introduction

In the tech world, especially when it comes to computer hardware, there’s always something new on the horizon. Staying up to date with new software and workflows is difficult enough, so many artists don’t spend time keeping up with every single CPU or GPU launch. At Puget Systems, our aim is to break down these advancements and explain what they mean for different industries. This can get pretty complex, so we recommend speaking with one of our consultants if you’re considering a new computer and need advice tailored to your specific needs. In this article, we’ll dive into Intel’s latest Core Ultra 200S processors and their potential impact on Unreal Engine workflows, specifically game development and virtual production.

Intel Core as a brand has been around for 18 years, and they recently launched their latest product line, officially named Intel Core Ultra Desktop Processors (“Series 2”), but they are also known as Intel Core Ultra 200S, Intel Core Ultra Series 2, or the pre-launch code name “Arrow Lake”. These processors use Intel’s new naming conventions, moving away from the popular Core i3/i5/i7/i9 designations. While there are many models already released and more likely to come in the future, the primary CPU models that will matter to most 3D artists are:

• Intel Core Ultra 9 285K 24 Core
• Intel Core Ultra 7 265K 20 Core
• Intel Core Ultra 5 245K 14 Core

There are also “KF” versions of the 265K and 245K, although those models lack an iGPU (integrated GPU) and are typically not as popular.

These new processors have several improvements over the previous generation, as well as some specialty features like the addition of an NPU (Neural Processing Unit). If you want a full breakdown of what is new with these CPUs and a detailed performance analysis for a range of applications (including Unreal Engine), we have an in-depth technical article available: Intel Core Ultra 200S Content Creation Review.

However, in this post, we want to keep it high level and answer how much performance these new processors may give you if you are considering upgrading from a fairly recent system (~1 – 2 years old), or an older system (3+ years). Since we are talking about this from the perspective of multiple applications and workflows, there is a LOT of text in this article. However, we have it divided up, and we recommend jumping right to the section covering your primary workflow.

If you want to see how your system stacks up directly, we used the publicly available benchmarks from Cinebench, V-Ray, and Blender, which you can run on your own system.

A Note on Performance

Our Unreal Engine benchmark is still a work in progress. Given the many and frequent updates to Unreal Engine, we don’t have numbers that can be directly compared across numerous generations of CPUs. What we can do is look at the relative performance increase we saw in each generation in our previous testing. This is by no means the most accurate way to do this, but it should be accurate enough to give us a general idea of how performance has changed in recent years. 

When talking about performance in Unreal Engine, it’s important to consider how often some of these tasks are performed. Not everyone will compile the source code for their engine or package the finished game. Everyone experiences shader compilation, while some may have daily builds, while others might only experience this on a project’s initial load. How much “better” any particular piece of hardware is will be different for every user. Hopefully, the sections below can help clarify that.

Performance vs Recently Released Hardware

While we can’t directly compare results on older systems, these charts are based on the percent increase we saw with each generation in previous articles. So for example, we saw about 8% from the 14900K to the 285K, 1% from the 13900K to the 14900K, and a 24% increase from the 12900K to the 13900K. Based on these gains, it would be hard to justify upgrading from either the 13900K or 14900K. Even if you currently spend an hour a day waiting for shaders to compile, this would only save you 5 minutes.

Performance vs. Older Hardware

Now, if we look at older systems, we see a major uplift in performance. Going back this far, Intel has fewer CPU cores on the highest-end chips. Both Intel and AMD were on an older DDR4, compared to the much faster DDR5 used today. Newer systems can even support larger RAM capacity due to the greater density possible with DDR5. There are also a whole host of other upgrades that don’t directly impact performance.

In terms of performance in Unreal Engine, upgrading from a 3-year-old 12900K can be 1.4x faster, and if you have an older Core i9 11900K, the performance gain is nearly 3x! For context, if you currently have that CPU and spend an hour waiting for shaders, an upgrade to the Core Ultra 9 185K would drop it down to just 20 minutes. 

Intel Core Ultra 200S for Game Development

When it comes to Game Development, there are many different workflows that all have different demands on the CPU. Every Unreal Engine user is familiar with the pain of waiting for shaders to compile. Some may experience this occasionally, while others might face it daily. Large projects may take hours, while small environments may take minutes. There are also numerous ways that this can be optimized, such as on-demand shaders that only compile when needed, Shared DDC for teams, etc. 

The same can be said for compiling source code or baking lighting. Both are time-consuming tasks, but they may be infrequent or happen daily. This means there is no one best option for game development. The Core Ultra 9 285K is really good at all these tasks but doesn’t come close to what a 32 or 64-core Threadripper is capable of. However, most artists probably don’t need to spend the extra money just to save themselves a few minutes a week. Conversely, a dedicated build server that is doing nightly builds is exactly where an investment into a very high-core count system would pay off. 

The ideal use case for this CPU is for an artist in a studio where shared or network DCC is implemented. This does require a newer version of Unreal, as older versions (5.0 and earlier) did not include shared DCC in the engine. The DCC can be a very large file, meaning the artist would either need to download all this data or recompile it themselves.

They are also a great option for those doing programming and paired with a dedicated build server. Smaller iterative changes could be made on the workstation, which only takes a few moments. Then, when the day’s work is done, it is submitted to the build server, along with everyone else’s changes, and recompiled overnight for the next day’s work. 

Intel Core Ultra 200S for Virtual Production

Much like Game Development, Virtual Production is a broad umbrella with numerous different roles. It can involve anything from an artist making assets in the VAD to a cluster of nodes powering massive LED walls with real-time graphics and motion tracking. 

Typically, LED nodes would be built on Threadripper Pro, EPYC, or Xeon purely for RAM and PCIe needs. Theoretically, a node could be built on Core or Ryzen; however, they have much more limited PCIe capabilities. If the node needs to have multiple GPUs plus a SYNC card, Bluefield NIC, capture card, etc., Core and Ryzen don’t offer enough physical PCIe slots, let alone bandwidth. 

However, Core is a great option for someone in the Virtual Art Department or a more simple greenscreen shoot. Often in these cases, shaders aren’t compiled all that often, compiling source code is not something they do, and light baking can be done on the GPU if needed. Instead of spending a lot more money on a workstation/server CPU and motherboard that could be used on the GPU. 

A Note about GPU Performance

One thing to note is how reliant Unreal is on GPU performance. Regardless of workflow, Unreal is a real-time engine, making the video card very important. A lot of users still look at gaming benchmarks when looking at CPU performance, but the issue with this is that to get the high frame rates that show a big difference, the games are being run at low resolutions, such as 720p or 1080p, and have graphical settings turned down to low. This sets up a scenario where the GPU is generating hundreds of frames per second, and the CPU becomes a bottleneck. 

However, this doesn’t have any workflow benefits in Unreal Engine. If you are building a game world, you are more concerned about what your target audience will be experiencing. In virtual production, the goal is often to get the visual quality so high that they are extracting every bit of power from the GPU as they can. When that happens, the bottleneck is in the GPU, and the CPU waits for the next frame. 

In our previous testing, we showed how the difference between CPUs becomes negligible as the resolution and graphical quality increase.

Who is the Intel Core Ultra 200S for?

The Intel Core Ultra 200S is undeniably a good CPU for all sorts of Unreal Engine use. It might not be worth upgrading from a system built in the past couple of years as the modest few percent increase in speed may not directly improve productivity. However, for those who currently have a system that is 3+ years old, this does make for a good opportunity to upgrade. 

The question really is, who is this CPU for when it comes to workflows based around Unreal Engine? There are a lot of development tasks that can benefit from higher core count processors such as AMD’s Threadripper and Threadripper PRO. However, that cost may not be worth it for all users. Artists and world builders in either game development or virtual production don’t have to worry about compiling the source code and may not recompile shaders too often, which makes these new Core Ultra CPUs a much better fit.

Overall, the Core Ultra 200 series is currently the fastest option in this class of CPUs, but it is likely only worth it to upgrade to is you have a system that is already more than a few years old.

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Finding the perfect workstation doesn’t have to be complicated. Explore our solutions page for a curated selection of recommended systems for a multitude of applications and workflows, or visit our custom configuration page if you already know the ideal hardware for your needs. If you need assistance with tailoring a system to a unique workflow or have any other questions, we encourage you to reach out to our dedicated technology consultants.