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Reviewed by Benjamin Barr
Even with new heavy hitters like Apex Legends and CoD Warzone, Fortnite still holds the #1 spot at today’s premiere battle royale.
Streamers like Ninja and Tfue brought tremendous popularity to the game, and it continues to go from strength to strength. Unfortunately, it can get a little disheartening to watch the pros slay when you’re still having a difficult time breaking into the final ten.
If that’s the case, it may be that you aren’t getting enough FPS (frames per second). Framerate drops in competitive gaming — and Fortnite, in particular — can all but destroy your chances at a victory royale. Why? Because your display will be missing critical split-second moments of the action.
Fortunately, we have a solution. And don’t worry — you don’t have to be a tech savant to know how to get better FPS in Fortnite. While the instructions might differ depending on whether you play on PC, PS4, Xbox One, or Nintendo Switch, we’ve got you covered. You shouldn’t have any trouble learning how to boost FPS in Fortnite with this simple step-by-step guide.
How to Increase FPS in Fortnite PC
One of the great things about gaming on a PC is that you have many more options for hardware and software customization. This guide will show you both!
Upgrade Your Graphics Card
It only makes sense that you want the beefiest GPU you can get your hands on. After all, it’s doing most of the heavy lifting when it comes to processing games and generating images. Anything above an NVIDIA GTX 1660 should easily get Fortnite up to a perfectly respectable 144 FPS.
This is the most direct and effective way to raise your FPS, but unfortunately, it’s also the most expensive. GPUs have always been the priciest component in a good gaming PC. Professional tech reviewers often recommend that builders allocate 50% of their budget to graphics, but they’re even more expensive now due to recent events (pandemics and bitcoin, oh my).
An upgrade may be the only path forward for some systems. But before you shell out hundreds, there are a handful of other paths to give you a little extra push without the price tag.
Try Overclocking
You might want to think about overclocking your current GPU if buying a replacement isn’t in the cards.
Overclocking is an excellent option when your GPU is close to the performance you’re looking for, and you’re just trying to squeeze out those last few frames to get you where you need to be. It’s a lot safer than it used to be, though you should know that it will still void a product’s warranty in most cases. It’s up to you to decide if the risk is worth the free boost in performance.
There are many different ways to do it, but you should check out MSI Afterburner if you’re looking for something simple. It’s a pretty straightforward software that allows you to increase the frequency of your GPU and RAM. This gives them the juice they need to work harder and pump out those sweet, sweet frames.
Update Your Software
This one is simple, but it has to be said. Updates exist because they solve problems in the software. Sometimes those problems slow down your FPS.
Make sure to update Fortnite, Windows, and your graphics card drivers to their latest versions. It’s quick, simple, and it might solve issues you didn’t even know you had.
Plug In
Not all lag-related issues stem from your computer. Your game can easily suffer from a poor internet connection. Hardlining your PC into your router with an ethernet cable is the simplest and best thing you can do to increase your performance.
If it’s still too slow, you may have to consider upgrading your speed or switching providers.
Best Fortnite Settings for FPS
Maybe you’re not interested in messing with your GPU? You like the one you have, and you don’t want to tinker with power settings or potentially void a warranty. That’s totally okay!
You can boost your FPS by as much as 200% just by tinkering with a few settings!
Display Settings
Boot up the game and go into video settings. Scroll down to where it says Display Settings, then set it up to look like this.
Window Mode: Fullscreen
Windowed modes can cause a whole host of problems, not least of which is frame loss.
Resolution: 1920×1080
This is the big one. I know it can be tempting to game at maximum resolution if you have a 4k or 1440p monitor. You paid for all those pixels, so you want to use them, right?
Well, I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but higher resolutions are a lot more taxing on your GPU. Think of it this way: an image that’s twice the size takes twice as long to make. Lowering to 1080p may give you the extra performance you need.
You can even set it to a lower resolution if you want to see more FPS. That said, anything below 1080p is no longer high-definition, and you will start to see noticeable drops in image quality.
Frame Rate Limit: Refresh rate of your monitor, i.e., 60 FPS, 144 FPS, 240 FPS
This is an interesting one. Basically, your monitor can only show you so many images per second, no matter how many your GPU produces. This is called the monitor refresh rate.
Check your monitor’s specs and set your frame rate limit to match your monitor’s refresh rate. Doing so means your GPU won’t try to produce excess frames needlessly, thus boosting your performance. Not only that, but going above your monitor’s refresh rate can cause stutters and FPS drops.
Incidentally, we have an article describing how to overclock your monitor for gaming if you’re interested in boosting your refresh rate.
Graphics Settings
Next, we’re going to scroll down to your graphics quality settings. You don’t want to use the auto-set quality option. That would optimize your settings based on what Epic thinks is best based on your computer’s hardware, not what would give you a competitive advantage.
Instead, we’re going to do this manually.
3D Resolution: 100%
3D resolution refers to the resolution of objects in the game. Technically, lowering this would raise your FPS, but that might do more harm than good. It’s best to keep it where it is for now. You can always come back and lower it later.
View Distance: Epic
You could gain some FPS by lowering this, but it’s not worth the tactical advantage you would be sacrificing.
Shadows: Off
This is a big one! Shadows are one of the most taxing resources that your GPU has to contend with. Turning them off will give your card a significant boost without any real cost to your gameplay.
Anti-Aliasing: Off
This smooths the edges on 3D objects so that you can’t see the pixels. That said, you’re unlikely to notice a difference unless you like to play with your nose an inch from the screen.
Textures: Low
Extra details on flat objects might look nice, but they don’t do anything to improve your score. You probably won’t even notice them if you’ve got your head on a swivel, looking for enemies. Might as well trade ’em in for a few extra frames.
Effects: Low
Turning this down trades a few details on objects for raw frame rates.
Post Processing: Low
Post processing cleans up an image after it’s been rendered. You probably won’t even notice it’s missing honestly. Might as well get some frames for it.
Advanced Graphics Settings
Now to advanced graphics!
Vsync: Off
Vsync works to prevent screen tearing, but it lowers your FPS. Turn it off for now. You can always come back and turn it on if screen tearing becomes an issue.
Motion Blur: Off
Motion blur doesn’t hurt your FPS, but it doesn’t help your gameplay either. It’s also been known to cause nausea in some players. Better to turn it off.
Show FPS: On (at least for now)
This will be how you monitor your new and improved FPS! You should turn it on for at least a couple of rounds to make sure the numbers are where they need to be. You can always turn it off afterword if it bothers you.
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
Leave this guy alone unless DirectX 11 isn’t working well with your system for some reason.
Allow Multithreaded Rendering: On
Keeping multithreaded rendering on will relieve a lot of the stress on your processing units unless you have ancient hardware.
Use GPU Crash Debugging: Off
Only turn GPU crash debugging on if you’re experiencing crashes. Otherwise, it’s just taking up processing power.
The Last Step
There should be a gear icon at the top of the screen. Click that and then scroll to the bottom section where you’re going to turn off record replays.
I know this is a tough one. Who doesn’t want evidence of that time you wiped six guys in under a minute. I get it.
But what if turning it off means you could get seven?
How to Increase FPS in Fortnite PS4 & How to Increase FPS in Fortnite Xbox One
Our console gaming compatriots don’t have nearly as many options, though there are a few things you can still do to boost your game.
First, make sure that your system is connected to your internet router via an ethernet cable rather than WiFi. A hardline connection will ensure faster speeds and more stability.
Then navigate to settings in Fortnite. Make sure the section marked 60 FPS is turned on.
Both Playstation and Xbox cap at 60 FPS, so this will bring the systems to their maximum capacity.
How to Increase FPS in Fortnite Nintendo Switch
Sadly, Nintendo has an even lower cap, punching in at 30 FPS. The best and only thing you can do to improve Fortnite FPS on the Switch is to go into the game settings and lower the resolution from 1080p to 720p.
This won’t raise the FPS above 30, but it will keep it from dipping below that cap.
Related Reading
- Best Fortnite Settings
- Best Keyboard for Fortnite
- Best Mouse for Fortnite
- Best Headset for Fortnite
- Best Controller for Fornite
Hey there, there’s a new option available (I think)! It’s called Performance mode (as seen at the DX version) and although it’s still in Alpha, it works pretty damn quick!