Thanks to a cool comparison video from the YouTube channel MxBenchmarkPC, we get a close look at the Paris Tech Demo by Scans Factory, running on an RTX 5080 with Unreal Engine 5.6 and 5.4 side by side, both with hardware Lumen turned on. This gives us a clear peek at the hardware upgrades Epic Games has packed into the latest version. In GPU-heavy situations, the improvement shines right away, with frame rates jumping up to 25% thanks to smarter use of graphics power—though it does pull a bit more energy from the card. When the CPU takes over as the limiter, Unreal Engine 5.6 really steps up, smoothing out frame-time hiccups and boosting performance by up to 35% compared to the older version. On top of that, the new release polishes Lumen’s visuals—lighting looks more realistic, and reflections are sharper, all while keeping the shadow and ambient occlusion details developers love.
Unreal Engine 5.6 officially dropped earlier this month, right after Epic Games’ Unreal Fest keynote where they hinted at these upgrades. The hardware-accelerated ray tracing now shifts more of Lumen’s global illumination work to modern GPUs, and a new Fast Geometry Streaming plugin makes loading huge, static worlds smooth and stutter-free. Animators will enjoy the updated motion trails interface, which makes keyframe tweaks quicker, and new device profiles automatically adjust settings to hit target frame rates on consoles and high-end PCs. To show off what’s possible, Epic partnered with CD Projekt Red for a The Witcher IV tech demo that runs a steady 60 FPS with full ray tracing on the PlayStation 5. If you’re eager to try it, you can download the Unreal Engine 5.6 Paris – Fontaine Saint-Michel Tech Demo today and check it out on your PC!
What do you think about this performance leap? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Source:Â via Wccftech
