Your computer requires maintenance to run at its peak performance, just like your air conditioner or a car.
Remember that your experience in Fortnite is entirely dependent on what type of hardware you’re using, and the steps below may only improve your performance slightly or not change anything at all.
If you are experiencing a low frame rate (FPS) due to a sudden drop, please refer to this article first.
- What are the system requirements for Fortnite on PC and Mac?
- Verify your game files
- Fortnite performance mode (Beta)
- Keep your computer cool!
- Update your graphics drivers
- Disable background programs
- Defragment your hard drive
- Change the Power Mode for Windows PC
- Use upscalers to boost FPS
Verify your system meets the requirements to run Fortnite
Making sure that your computer meets the requirements to run Fortnite is important before trying any steps below. If you don’t meet the requirements, then none of the steps below will improve your experience playing Fortnite. Check out this article to learn the requirements for Fortnite and how to check if you meet them.
Verify your game files
- To verify the installation of game files, navigate to the game in your Library and click on the three dots or right-click on the game icon.
- On the drop-down navigation, click Manage.
- Once open, click 'Verify' from the list of options
Depending on the size of the game it may take a few minutes to verify all your files. Once it completes click Launch to start your game.
Performance - Lower Graphical Fidelity
This mode will allow players who are on low scalability settings or less powerful hardware to run the game better than ever before and maintain a smooth framerate.
To enable do the following:
- Open Fortnite.
- Click on the menu icon in the top left corner.
- In the Display options, change Rendering Mode to Performance - Lower Graphical Fidelity.
- Click on Apply.
- Restart Fortnite and enjoy!
Saving hard drive space
If you're running Performance Mode, you have the option to remove high-resolution textures from your Fortnite installation which will save you over 14 GB of space and making the total size of Fortnite's install to 17 GB.
- Open the Epic Games Launcher.
- Click on Library.
- Locate Fortnite and click on the three dots next to it.
- Click on Options.
- Uncheck the box next to Use High Resolution Textures.
Recommended Hardware
While Performance Mode will offer improvements for all users that opt-in, there are certain hardware requirements that can offer a significantly smoother experience. For users on older machines, having the game run from an SSD or providing 6GB of RAM or higher will allow the game to better fit in memory and reduce overall hitches and stutters. A dedicated GPU is not required but will also help balance system load and give a much smoother experience.
What to Expect
Below are a couple of examples of the typical FPS values seen by laptops running with the existing low scalability mode in a standard Squads match, compared to the same match running in Performance mode using 720p during both runs.
| Hardware Example 1 | Hardware Example 2 |
| CPU: Intel i5-8265U @ 1.60 GHz | CPU: AMD A10-5745M APU @ 2.1 GHz |
| Memory: 8GB RAM | Memory: 6GB RAM |
| GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 620 | GPU: AMD Radeon(TM) HD 8610G |
| FPS Before: 24 fps | FPS Before: 18 fps |
| FPS After: 61 fps | FPS After: 45 fps |
Note: If you're unable to get out of or enable Performance Mode your GameUserSettings.ini file is set to read-only. To fix this do the following:
Keep your computer cool!
If you notice that you’re able to play games fine for a few hours before you start seeing issues, this is a sign that your computer may be overheating. If your computer can’t cool itself, it may damage your hardware or make it inoperable in extreme cases.
If you suspect this could be happening, look at your computer’s fans and vents to be sure they are clean of any dust or blockages that could prevent air flow. Use a can of compressed air to clean out the inside of your computer and keep it looking brand new to ensure you don’t run into a heating issue. Go ahead and do an image search for a dirty PC if you don’t believe what this can do!
Graphics driver updates
A graphics driver is software that allows your graphics card to communicate with the operating system. As graphics technology advances in both hardware and software, the manufacturers of graphics cards update their drivers regularly to improve performance and fix bugs. You should always make sure that your graphics drivers are updated to the latest version to ensure the best experience with Fortnite.
If you are unsure what graphics card manufacturer you are using, you can find out by running a DirectX Diagnostic outlined here.
Use the links below to download the latest graphics driver from your manufacturer:
It's a known issue here that performance drop may be experienced while playing Fortnite™ with Multithreaded Rendering and DirectX® 11 API on some AMD Graphics Products such as the Radeon® RX 6900 XT Graphics.
Disable background programs
If you are running several background programs this may result in poorer performance in Fortnite. Check out our article here for how to disable these.
If you notice your performance improved after you do this, then there are some programs taking up resources that Fortnite could use to run better. You can remove these programs from your computer by following these steps:
- Click on Start and type Add or Remove Programs then press Enter.
- Search for any of the programs you disabled that you don’t need.
- Select the programs, and then click on Uninstall.
Defragment your hard drive
Fragmentation happens when a file is split up to fit on a hard drive. This naturally occurs because files are constantly being moved, deleted, and written to your hard drive. Here are steps on Windows 10 to defragment your hard drive.
- Click on Start.
- Type Defragment and Optimize Drives and press Enter.
- Select the hard drive that you have Fortnite installed on and click on Optimize. Depending on how fragmented your hard drive is this may take a few minutes.
- Once finished, close the window and launch Fortnite.
Note: We do not recommend doing the above on a Solid State Drive (SSD) as this can reduce the lifespan of the drive.
Disable Fullscreen Optimization
To turn Fullscreen Optimization off for Fortnite:
- Click on the Yellow Folder icon in the toolbar in the bottom left corner of the screen
- Navigate to your game files:
Fornite is typically located at: C:\Program Files\Epic Games\Fortnite\FortniteGame\Binaries\Win64 - Right click on each of the EXE files
These files should have a white F in a blue square logo (Fortnite Logo) if you do not have extensions tuned on - Select Properties
- Select the Compatibility tab
- Check the Disable Full Screen Optimizations box
- Click the OK button
Change the Power Mode for Windows PC
When changing your power mode, you should see a slider in the control panel.
Pulling the slider to the left will save energy so that your battery lasts longer. This will slow down your games and graphics.
Pulling the slider to the right will eat more power shortening your battery life. This will improve the performance of your games.
Most PCs are set to balanced which is a good mix of battery life and performance.
To change your power mode please visit the Microsoft Help Article, Change the Power Mode for your Windows PC.
Use upscalers to boost FPS
Upscalers render images at a lower resolution and then upscale them to native resolution. This provides a near-perfect image quality while costing less memory which means your PC will have more memory to generate more frames.
To turn on upscalers:
- Open your settings in Fortnite
- Go to the Video tab. Under GRAPHIC QUALITY, you will see Anti-Aliasing & Super Resolution
- Switch the setting to TSR low/medium/high/epic or Nvidia DLSS (supported by RTX 2000 series and above). If you choose DLSS, there is also an option to select Quality/Balanced/Performance
- Experiment with different options and see which one works the best for you