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Epic CEO Blames Devs for Unreal Engine 5 Performance Problems

Originally posted on Total Apex Gaming | By Mollie Dominy | Last updated Aug 29, 2025 5:00 AM ET

Unreal Engine 5 has been catching heat for performance issues on lower-end hardware, but Epic CEO Tim Sweeney isn’t having it. According to him, the engine’s not the bottleneck—developers are. And if you’re building for ultra-high-end rigs and only testing on potato-tier machines at the eleventh hour, well… that’s on you.

The Callout

During a media roundtable at Unreal Fest in Seoul, Sweeney addressed the growing complaints about UE5’s performance. His take? The engine’s fine. The workflow? Not so much.

“Many developers develop games for high-end hardware, then perform optimization and testing on lower-spec devices in the final stages of development.”

Translation: devs are building for RTX 4090s and hoping it magically scales down to integrated graphics. Spoiler: it doesn’t.

The Tech Behind the Trouble

UE5’s flagship features—Nanite (for high-detail geometry) and Lumen (for dynamic lighting and ray tracing)—are absolute beasts. They’re designed to push visual fidelity to the edge, but they’re also processor-hungry. If you’re not optimizing early, they’ll chew through your frame rate like it’s launch day on Steam.

Sweeney didn’t pretend optimization is easy. He called it “very challenging,” especially with how complex games have become. But he made it clear: waiting until the final sprint to optimize is a recipe for disaster.

Epic’s Two-Part Fix

Image of a Computer screen running a program, Courtesy of Mollie Dominy

Epic’s not just pointing fingers—they’re rolling out solutions:

Automated Optimization Tools: UE5 will soon include features to help devs streamline performance tuning across devices. Less manual grunt work, more scalable results.
Developer Training & Support: Epic plans to ramp up education around optimization best practices, including direct intervention from engineers when needed. Because sometimes, you need someone to say “please stop baking 4K textures into your UI.”

The Fortnite Factor

Sweeney also mentioned that Epic is baking in lessons learned from servicing Fortnite. That game runs on everything from high-end PCs to dusty laptops, and the optimization tech behind it is being folded into UE5. So yes, your indie roguelike might benefit from battle-tested scalability.

The Bigger Picture

Compared to a decade ago, game complexity has exploded. Optimization isn’t just a checkbox—it’s a full-time job. And with UE5 pushing boundaries, devs and engine teams need to collaborate more than ever. Sweeney’s message is clear: Unreal can handle the load, but only if you treat optimization like a core part of development—not an afterthought.

Final Word On Unreal Engine 5

Unreal Engine 5 isn’t broken—it’s just being misused. If you’re building for the bleeding edge and ignoring the rest, don’t blame the engine when your game chokes on mid-tier GPUs. Optimize early, test often, and stop assuming your players all have liquid-cooled supercomputers.

Epic’s stepping up with tools and training, but the real shift has to happen in dev culture. Because in 2025, performance isn’t optional—it’s survival.

This article first appeared on Total Apex Gaming and was syndicated with permission.

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