Unreal Engine 5.6 significantly improves graphics performance compared to version 5.4

Launched on April 5, 2022, Unreal Engine 5 has revolutionized the video game industry. Promising breathtaking graphics, some users are using it to revive old blockbusters, such as the cult first-person shooter that was hugely successful in the early 2000s. But a few weeks ago, Unreal Engine 5.6 was released, offering much better CPU and GPU performance than its predecessor, Unreal Engine 5.4. 

This new version was unveiled to the general public during Unreal Fest. And with good reason, as it offers major improvements in hardware ray tracing, which optimizes the performance of Lumen Global Illumination. But that's not all, because geometric streaming is faster, allowing for smoother loading of massive static worlds. Not to mention that an intuitive overhaul of trails has also been implemented, as shown in this presentation video with The Witcher IV.

Compared to its predecessor, Unreal Engine 5.6 is much more powerful. And it's in a comparative video, shared by MxBenchmarkPC, that we can see the difference.

This video presents the Paris Tech demo from Scans Factory. In both versions, an RTX 5080 is put to the test with default settings on this software and a hardware Lumen in limited CPU and GPU mode. 

Looking at performance, the GPU is estimated to perform 25% better. This is due to the new version of the engine, which uses it more efficiently but consumes more energy. As for the CPU, it benefits from the greatest improvement. It is estimated to be 35% faster, with more stable frame rates. In terms of image quality, a clear improvement can be seen thanks to better Lumen lighting. 

So, if this is a simple comparison, it's possible to imagine what it would look like with the latest generation of video games. And there's no doubt that the graphics and visual rendering will be breathtaking, if you have hardware capable of supporting such configurations.