gtx 960 4gb fortnite fpsHaving the best FPS possible on Fortnite can be the difference between victory and defeat, especially if you’re playing on PC. To give you a helping hand, we’ve put together the ultimate guide to the best Fortnite PC settings to boost your FPS.
It’s kill or be killed in Fortnite, and every little advantage you can have over your opponent could be the difference between celebrating a Victory Royale or heading back to the lobby.
For PC players, having the right settings is incredibly important. Whether it’s making sure your game doesn’t stutter, or boosting your settings to give you maximum visability, they truly can make all the difference.
With Fortnite Season 4 now well underway, we’ve put together the comprehensive guide to the best Fortnite PC settings for both low-end and high-end hardware.
Contents
- Fortnite system requirements
- How to update graphics drivers
- How to use NVIDIA DLSS in Fortnite
- Best Fortnite graphics settings for low-end hardware
- Best Fortnite graphics settings for high-end hardware
- Is 60 FPS good for Fortnite?
- Recommended Fortnite FPS
- Why is Fortnite so laggy on PC?
- How to use Fortnite performance mode
Fortnite system requirements
Thanks to Epic Games, we know which PCs will run Fortnite.
The minimum requirements are low, but you likely won’t get great visuals or be able to hit high FPS. Still, it should run well enough for you to enjoy the game.
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If you intend to run the game at the maximum settings, you’ll need a beefy gaming rig complete with a good graphics card.
Minimum System Requirements
- Video Card: Intel HD 4000 on PC or Intel Iris Pro 5200 or equivalent AMD GPU on Mac
- Processor: Core i3-3225 3.3 GHz
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- OS: Windows 7/8/10 64-bit or Mac OS Mojave 10.14.6
Recommended System Requirements
- Video Card: NVIDIA GTX 960, AMD R9 28,0 or equivalent DX11 GPU
- Video Memory: 2 GB VRAM
- Processor: Core i5-7300U 3.5 GHz
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Epic Quality Presets Specifications
- Video Card: NVIDIA GTX 1080 or equivalent GPU
- Video Memory: 4 GB VRAM or higher
- Processor: Intel Core i7-8700, AMD Ryzen 7 3700x or equivalent
- Memory: 16 GB RAM or higher
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
How to update graphics drivers
To get the optimal performance from your system and make sure Fortnite runs as smoothly as possible, you need to make sure your graphics drivers are up-to-date.
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Here’s how to update your graphics drivers on NVIDIA and AMD GPUs.
How to update NVIDIA graphics driver
If you have an NVIDIA graphics card, the GeForce experience app will handle this for you.
- Download GeForce experience through NVIDIA.com
- Open GeForce experience
- Select the ‘Drivers’ tab
- Click ‘check for updates’ in the upper right corner
- If an update is available, follow the steps
How to update AMD graphics driver
If you have an AMD GPU, you can use the Radeon Settings to update your drivers.
- Right-click on your desktop
- Select AMD Radeon Settings
- Click on the Home icon
- Click ‘New Updates’ on the bottom left
- Select ‘check for update’
- If an update is available, follow the steps
How to use NVIDIA DLSS
What is NVIDIA DLSS?
NIVIDA DLSS (or Deep Learning Super Sampling) is a clever technology that allows players with an NVIDIA RTX Series graphics card to run Fortnite at high resolution while still maintaining a solid frame rate.
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DLSS sets your game to a lower resolution, giving a higher frame rate, but uses the technology to give the appearance of high resolution. It perfectly combines visuals and performance.
How to turn on NVIDIA DLSS in Fortnite
You can find the DLSS settings in the Advanced Graphics section of the Video tab, right at the very bottom.
From here, you can set DLSS as either Performance, Balanced, or Quality. You’d only need Performance if playing at 4K, otherwise Balanced or Quality would suit a 1440p resolution.
Best Fortnite graphics settings for low-end hardware
On a low-end system, you want to shoot for 60 FPS. This will give you smooth and stable performance, but you can take it higher by changing certain settings.
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We’ve picked out the settings that will have the biggest impact on Fortnite’s performance, and given you the optimal options to select for high FPS.
Display
- Window Mode: Fullscreen
- Resolution: e.g 1920 x 1080 (it should match your monitor’s native display resolution)
- Frame Rate Limit: Unlimited
Graphics Quality
- 3D Resolution: 100%
- View Distance: Epic
- Shadows: Off
- Anti-Aliasing: Off
- Textures: Low
- Effects: Low
- Post-processing: Low
The only setting you want to have on High or Epic is View Distance. Seeing players, builds, and loot in the distance is vital and worth losing a few frames for.
If your PC is struggling with View Distance set to Epic, experiment with lowering it.
Advanced Graphics
- V-Sync: Off
- Motion Blur: Off
- Rendering Mode: DIRECTX11
- Nvidia Reflex Low Latency: On + Boost
- Ray Tracing: Off
Ray Tracing can be found at the very bottom of the Settings tab, but you want to have it all turned off. It will make your game look great, but will absolutely tank your performance.
Best Fortnite graphics settings for high-end hardware
High-end systems can take advantage of a combination of stunning graphics and high FPS. We’ve got the best settings to take advantage of your high-end gaming rig.
Display
- Window Mode: Fullscreen
- Resolution: e.g 2560 x 1440 (it should match your monitor’s native display resolution)
- Frame Rate Limit: Shouldn’t be much higher than your monitor’s refresh rate as this can cause screen tearing
Graphics Quality
- 3D Resolution: 100%
- View Distance: Epic
- Shadows: Off
- Anti-Aliasing: Medium
- Textures: Medium
- Effects: Low
- Post-processing: Medium
The only setting you want to have on Epic is View Distance. Seeing players, builds, and loot in the distance is vital and worth losing a few frames for. We’ve recommended medium settings for high-end hardware, but feel free to experiment if your system can handle it.
Advanced Graphics
- V-Sync: Off
- Motion Blur: Off
- Rendering Mode: DIRECTX11
- Nvidia Reflex Low Latency: On + Boost
- Ray Tracing: Off
Ray Tracing can be found at the very bottom of the Settings tab, but it’s unnecessary. Even if your rig can handle it, it’s not worth sacrificing frames for in multiplayer games like Fortnite.
Is 60 FPS good for Fortnite?
A good FPS number is hard to define, as it depends on the hardware you are using. Generally, 60 FPS would be considered on the lower end of the FPS scale, with 120 FPS and up considered high.
Recommended Fortnite FPS
The recommended Fortnite FPS is a tricky question to answer and really is based on your existing monitor and its refresh rate. The refresh rate is how many frames your monitor can show per second, and is measured in Hertz, or Hz.
If you have a monitor that has a 60Hz refresh rate, there’s no point running your game at 120 FPS, as you’re wasting your PC’s performance on frames your monitor can’t show.
If you know your refresh rate, we recommend going 10 FPS over that number, which should give you optimal performance without wasting too much processing power.
Why is Fortnite so laggy on PC?
There are a number of reasons your Fortnite game might be laggy on PC, from slow internet connection to bad graphics settings. Here is a full list of possible causes:
- Your FPS could be too high, so lower your FPS to see if it stops the stuttering
- Check your internet connection, and restart your router if they are lower than usual.
- Check your ping and make sure you are on the right matchmaking server.
If your game continues to lag, try restarting the client, or perform a full reinstall if nothing seems to fix it.
How to use Fortnite Performance Mode
If you’re playing on an outdated PC or want to squeeze every last frame out of your system, perhaps performance mode is for you.
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This offers “significant performance gains” by reducing the visual quality of the game. This will lighten the load on your GPU and CPU, making Fortnite run at much higher frames. Fortnite won’t look as pretty, but you’ll see a massive boost in FPS.
To set Fortnite to Performance Mode:
- Open settings in Fortnite
- Scroll down to ‘Rendering Mode’
- Select Performance (Alpha)
- Restart Fortnite
Try out these settings on Fortnite Battle Royale for PC, and you will see a marked improvement in the game’s performance.
Now that you’ve optimized your PC settings, check out our other guides to set up the best Fortnite keybinds and mouse settings, or our tips on getting the most from your controller.
Image Credit: Epic Games