The latest version of the Unreal Engine – Unreal Engine 5.6 – brings noticeable improvements in both performance and rendering quality. Thanks to testing conducted by the YouTube channel MxBenchmarkPC, we can clearly see the differences between version 5.4 and the newest 5.6 build, using the impressive “Paris – Fontaine Saint-Michel” tech demo created by Scans Factory.

Better Performance Across the Board

The tests were performed on an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 with Hardware Lumen enabled. In GPU-limited scenarios, Unreal Engine 5.6 delivers up to 25% higher framerates by utilizing graphics resources more efficiently. Even if the GPU draws slightly more power, the performance uplift is clearly visible.

Things get even more interesting when the CPU becomes the bottleneck. In such situations, Unreal Engine 5.6 can achieve up to 35% better throughput than version 5.4, eliminating frame-time spikes and offering a much smoother gameplay experience.

Improved Lumen and New Features

Lumen – the real-time global illumination system – has received significant updates in UE 5.6. Reflections are crisper, lighting feels more natural, and all this is accomplished while maintaining high-quality shadows and ambient occlusion.

Other notable improvements include:

• Hardware-accelerated Lumen GI – more of the lighting workload is offloaded to modern GPUs, improving scalability on new hardware.
• Fast Geometry Streaming Plugin – allows for seamless, stutter-free loading of large static environments.
• New Device Profiles – automatically adjust settings for specific hardware targets (PCs, consoles).
• Animation Tooling Upgrades – the revamped Motion Trails interface allows faster and easier keyframe editing.

The Witcher IV Demo and UE 5.6 Capabilities

At the recent Unreal Fest conference, Epic Games showcased a tech demo developed in collaboration with CD Projekt Red, based on The Witcher IV. Thanks to the engine’s improvements, the demo ran at 60 FPS with full ray tracing on PlayStation 5, highlighting just how much optimization work has gone into the latest release.

Try It Yourself

If you’d like to test Unreal Engine 5.6 yourself, you can download the free Paris – Fontaine Saint-Michel tech demo today and explore its capabilities on your PC.