“Texture Streaming Pool Over Budget” in Unreal Engine 5 (Fix)

Table of Contents

Works in Unreal Engine 5.0 to 5.8. Updated November 2026.

Quick answer: your textures need more video memory than Unreal reserved for them, so it shows blurry textures and a red warning.

  1. Quick test: open the console (**** key) and type r.Streaming.PoolSize 3000` (in MB). If the warning goes away, the pool was just too small.
  2. Make it stick: add r.Streaming.PoolSize=3000 under [SystemSettings] in Config/DefaultEngine.ini.
  3. Don’t go above your GPU’s memory. For a lasting fix, shrink the biggest textures (Step 3).

The message

				
					TEXTURE STREAMING POOL OVER 512.00 MiB BUDGET

You may also see textures stay blurry, or sharpen and blur as you move the camera.

Why it happens

Unreal keeps a fixed amount of video memory, the streaming pool, for textures. When the textures in view need more than that, it loads lower-quality versions and shows the warning. Big 4K and 8K textures from asset packs are the usual cause.

Step 1: Raise the pool size

Use a value that fits your graphics card:

GPU memoryReasonable pool size
6 GB1500–2000
8 GB2000–3000
12 GB or more3000–4000

Test it in the console first, then add it to Config/DefaultEngine.ini:

				
					[SystemSettings]
r.Streaming.PoolSize=3000

A bigger pool only helps on your PC. Players with smaller GPUs still need smaller textures, so do Step 3 before you ship.

Step 2: Find the textures using the memory

  1. Open Tools > Audit > Statistics (or Window > Statistics in older versions).
  2. Switch the view to Texture Stats.
  3. Sort by Current Size or Max Dimension to see the largest textures.

The console command stat streaming also shows how far over budget you are while you play.

Step 3: Shrink the textures that matter

For each large texture that doesn’t need to be huge (ground clutter, props far from the camera, UI backgrounds):

  1. Open the texture.
  2. In the Details panel, set Maximum Texture Size to 2048 or 1024, or raise LOD Bias by 1.
  3. Save.

Each step down cuts that texture’s memory by about 75%. Most props look the same at 2048.

FAQ

Will a bigger pool hurt performance? Not if it fits your GPU memory. Set it higher than that and the GPU starts swapping, which causes stutters.

I only see it in the editor. The editor uses extra video memory for thumbnails and tools. Check in a Standalone or packaged build before shrinking everything.

Does Nanite fix this? No. Nanite handles geometry. Textures still use the streaming pool.

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