Troubleshooting low frame rate (FPS) in Fortnite

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.

• Verify your system meets Fortnite requirements
• Verify your game files
• Fortnite performance mode (Beta)
• Keep your computer cool!
• Update your graphics drivers
• Disable background programs
• Defragment your hard drive

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

1. Open the Epic Games Launcher.
2. Go to your Library.
3. Click the three dots next to Fortnite.
   
   
4. Click Verify.
   
   

Fortnite performance mode (Beta)

Starting on December 15th, this new mode in Alpha 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 performance mode do the following:

1. Open Fortnite.
2. Click on the menu icon in the top right corner.
3. In the Video options under Advanced Graphics, change Rendering Mode to Performance (Beta).
4. Click on Apply.
5. 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.

1. Open the Epic Games Launcher.
2. Click on Library.
3. Locate Fortnite and click on the three dots next to it.
   
   
4. Click on Options.
   
   
5. 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.

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:

1. Navigate to the following directory: C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\FortniteGame\Saved\Config\WindowsClient
2. Right click on GameUserSettings.ini and click on Properties.
3. Uncheck the Read only box and then hit Apply.
4. Try to launch Fortnite and change to DirectX 11 from the in-game settings menu.

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:

• Nvidia
• AMD

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.

• Intel

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: 

1. Click on Start and type Add or Remove Programs then press Enter. 
2. Search for any of the programs you disabled that you don’t need.
3. 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.

1. Click on Start.
2. Type Defragment and Optimize Drives and press Enter.
3. 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.
4. 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.