21 Ways to Make Fortnite Run Better on Computers, in 2023

The battle royale trend in this generation of video games is still alive and well.

Sure, the novelty has worn off for many people, but that hasn’t stopped Fortnite from being one of the most popular games of this generation.

It’s easy to see why it’s free-to-play and is available on almost every platform, even on mobile.

Is it Still not working for you?

If the game is having issues and isn’t running smoothly, this guide should help you.

Even if the game works fine for you, stick around and see if you can squeeze some extra performance out with these tips and tricks.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• #1: Lower In-Game Settings
• #2: Disable Replays
• #3: Disable Background Programs
• #4: Set Fortnite to High Priority In Task Manager
• #5: Increase The Size Of Virtual Memory
• #6: A Quick Tip For Nvidia Users
• #7: Delete your Temp Files
• #8: Set your PC to High-Performance Mode
• #9: Update Your Drivers
• #10: Restart the Windows Explorer
• #11: Change Settings in the Game Files
• #12: Adjust Windows For Best Performance
• #13: Defragment Your Computer
• #14: Using Discord? Here’s a Quick Tip
• #15: Re-Install Fortnite
• #16: Low On Ram? Use This Tool For Better Stability
• #17: Settings Changes for Best Framerate
• #18: Clean Out Junk Files
• #19: Check for Faulty Hardware
• #20: Look Out For Malware & Viruses
• #21: The Last Resort [Upgrade]
• BONUS TIP: Video Guide

#1: Lower In-Game Settings

Your first order of business should be making your way to the “Video” section in Settings and then adjusting the in-game settings per your needs.

There is a lot of customization available here, but don’t worry; we’ll quickly walk you through it all.

Quality Presets

Like many other games, Fortnite also has different image quality presets you can use.

If you’re playing at epic settings on a really old graphics card, consider dropping down to medium or low.

Of course, this will hinder the image quality a bit, but at least the game will be playable.

Drop the resolution

Before you go in and change the resolution, make sure you are playing in fullscreen mode. Playing in windowed mode will hinder your performance quite a bit, as is the case in other games.

Moving on, if you’re playing at your native resolution, consider dropping it down a bit.

(For example, if you’re playing at 1440p, lower it to 1080p.)

Fortnite is a competitive game, and framerate matters more than image quality here.

At 1080p or 720, most video cards should give you a solid 60fps or above.

3D Resolution and Framerate Limit

We highly recommend you toggle the framerate limit to unlimited.

Fortnite annoyingly automatically toggles this depending on your Gaming Monitor Refresh Rate and video card.

If you leave it at unlimited, you’ll be able to achieve the actual performance your PC puts out.

Lowering the 3D resolution is the easiest way to increase performance.

This changes the resolution at which the game is rendered.

So while your native resolution might be set to 1080p, you can drop the rendered image quality slightly to improve performance. (However, this does have a horrible effect on visuals.)

Other Quick Changes

If the presets aren’t giving you the desired results, you’ll have to tweak some things yourself.

View Distance: View distance represents impacts the distance at which objects are rendered, but it doesn’t affect the rendering of the players/characters. (So it doesn’t significantly impact gameplay if you turn it up.)
However, if you drop it down a bit, you might be able to spot players from a distance.

Vsync: First, ensure Vsync is turned off because we don’t want any input lag. (Shadows won’t matter much in a competitive game, so you can turn that off.)

Textures: Lowering the overall texture quality doesn’t have an effect on the framerate for a lot of games. The same remains true for Fortnite as well.
(But you still might get an extra frame or two from dropping these down too low.)

Shadows: High-quality shadows are impressive to look at, even in a competitive game. (Despite that, if you turn them off completely, you’ll see a major performance improvement.)

Anti-Aliasing: Anti-Aliasing removes the jagged lines that come across your view during the game.
(This happens when the framerate of your monitor can’t keep up with the framerates your GPU is putting out. We wouldn’t recommend turning this down too much because the impact on performance isn’t drastic.)

Effects: This makes explosions and rocket propulsions look sharp and impressive.
(It has a minor impact on performance, but if you’re struggling, you can drop them to low.)

Post Processing: Post-processing is only noticeable when you’re in the storm, i.e., outside the play area.
(Turning it off doesn’t impact visuals much, but you’ll appreciate the slight performance difference.)

After going through all of that, you’ll want to restart the game.

Hopefully, you’ll see some performance gains.

#2: Disable Replays

If you’re still reading, then you might not be satisfied yet and want even more performance out of your system.

Well, this trick should work on both consoles and PC.

Unless you want to sit there and watch all of your kills and wins, you should consider turning off replays.

Saving every single kill, or even team kills, could potentially be a bit demanding for your PC.

Gamers on Reddit states that:

They are facing big FPS drops while playing Fortnite with replay mode enabled. (To eliminate the stutters, just disable replay mode, which is enabled by default.)

If you want to turn off the replay mode:

1. Go to settings, then click on the gear icon.
2. Scroll down until you find all the replay options, turn them off, then click apply.
3. Restart the game and enjoy that extra performance.

#3: Disable Background Programs

This isn’t exclusive to just Fortnite.

If you’re playing any game and want more stability, you should turn off apps running in the background.

Many apps like Steam, Chrome, Discord, and others might run in the background even after you close them.

1. Press the Ctrl+Shift+Esc keys on your keyboard simultaneously to bring up Task Manager.
2. From here, look at what’s hogging all the processing power or memory, and terminate these programs.
3. To do this, right-click on the program and click “End Task.”

#4: Set Fortnite to High Priority In Task Manager

Forget what we said above for just a second.

You can’t disable all background apps in the task manager if you are a streamer or using a recording program for video clips.

However, if you don’t want to close all your programs, you can still get some extra performance with this simple tip.

You’ll want to have the game running for this one. Press the Ctrl+Shift+Esc keys simultaneously on your keyboard.

1. When the Task Manager pops up, find the program labeled as “FortniteClient-Win64-Shipping.exe”.
2. There should be two programs with a similar name; we’re looking for one with more memory.
3. Right-click on it, choose set priority, and set it to “high” or “above normal,” depending on your use case.

That’s it!

#5: Increase The Size Of Virtual Memory

If you don’t have a decent amount of RAM in your system (We recommend 16GB these days for a newer system), then your performance obviously won’t be up to par.

However, there is a way to go around this.

Virtual memory compensates for actual physical memory by transferring data from the physical memory to disk storage.

If you have a good Solid State Drive or SSD, you will benefit more from this than a traditional HDD (hard disk drive).

But the amount of virtual memory used is automatically determined by Windows itself, so you want to go ahead and change that.

Steps to Increase The Size Of Virtual Memory

• Search for advanced system settings in the start menu.

• Go to the advanced section, and click the settings button under the performance tab.

• Click Advanced, and then click on change.

• Deselect “Automatically manage paging size” option isn’t selected [A].
• Select your system drive [C], then click on the Custom size option [B].
• Then, set the Initial and Maximum size for your virtual memory [D].

• Click on Set, then OK.

Use the recommended size for the initial option set by Windows.

You’ll want to set the maximum option to 1.5 times more than the physical memory.

For example, if you have 8 gigabytes of RAM, then set this to 12GB, no more than that.

Restart the game to see actual results.

#6: A Quick Tip For Nvidia Users

If you are using one Nvidia GTX or even an RTX series of graphics cards, we’ve got a trick that is exclusive to you.

There isn’t an equivalent option like this for AMD users, so if you’re one of them, skip this one.

To select a Low Latency mode:

• Right-click on your desktop and open the Nvidia Control Panel.

• Once you’re here, click the “manage 3D settings” option on the left menu.
• Click on Global Settings, then navigate down to Low Latency Mode and set it to Ultra for the best performance.

As the name implies, this mode greatly improves latency and lowers input.

This manages to make the game feel more responsive.

You might not see a major difference in the framerate department, but the game feels better.

If you are a beginner, then we have also written an in-depth guide on how to get better at Fortnite.

#7: Delete your Temp Files

In 2023, I always recommend people to use more than 8GB of RAM if they can.

Sure, 8GB is more than enough for Fortnite itself, but if you have apps like Chrome and Discord open in the background, performance will take a hit.

If you don’t have sufficient memory, your PC might run out of space to save temporary files while you’re in the game.

For a quick boost in performance:

• Press the Windows+R keys on your keyboard. (This should bring up the Run program.)

• Type in “%temp%,” and a folder should pop up showing all of your temp files.

• Select all of the files and delete them.

After that, relaunch your game, and hopefully, the problem should be solved.

#8: Set your PC to High-Performance Mode

By default, some gaming PCs might be set to a balanced or power-saving mode.

This feature automatically lowers performance in favor of power efficiency.

This is the opposite of what we do while gaming, so go ahead and change this setting.

• Open the start menu and launch the control panel.

Click on Hardware and Sound, then click on Power Options.

• From here, change the power plan to high performance if it’s set to balance or power-saver mode (which you don’t want).

The procedure to change the power plan is different in gaming Laptops!

#9: Update Your Drivers

We know what you’re talking about; you’ve probably heard of this solution a thousand times before, and basically for every other game in existence, but it’s hard to overlook an actual tried and true solution.

Sometimes newer versions of Fortnite can have many bugs, which greatly hinder performance.

On top of that, you won’t be maximizing your PC’s actual performance if you’re running older GPU drivers.

If you want to update your Nvidia or AMD drivers, you do so with their respective software, like the Nvidia control panel.

However, we recommend doing a clean reinstall for the drivers to avoid problems in the future.

Steps To Perform A Clean Driver Installation

For the best results, you’ll have to wipe away any traces of the previous drivers completely.

We recommend Display Driver Uninstaller or, simply, DDU.

With DDU, you can clean all previous driver installations from your PC for good. You have a few options here, such as “Clean and restart” or “Clean and shutdown” if you want to install a new graphics card.

It is also recommended to use DDU in safe mode while uninstalling and turning off Wi-Fi or removing the internet for good measure.

Our Other Guide: Best Budget Gaming Router 2023

This ensures all files for the previous drivers are deleted, and turning off the internet ensures Windows doesn’t automatically install new ones.

After that, installing new drivers is pretty simple. Just go to Nvidia or AMD’s website and find the latest drivers for your video card, install them, and you should be good to go.

Always keep your drivers up-to-date.

#10: Restart the Windows Explorer

If you’re getting a stable framerate but facing freezes and crashes, this should be a quick little trick to fix that problem.

To restart windows explorer, follow these steps.

1. Press the Ctrl+Shift+Esc keys on your keyboard, which should open up the task manager.
2. Click on the “more details” option so that you can view all of the current open processes.
3. In the processes list, scroll down to find the process named “Windows Explorer,” which should have a little folder icon next to it.
4. Right-click on this, then select restart.
5. This terminates the graphical user interface and restarts it, which might help in some cases.

After that, relaunch your game, and hopefully, the stuttering and lag issue should be cleared up.

#11: Change Settings in the Game Files

We’ve got the solution if you are struggling during gameplay and are even willing to sacrifice all clarity just to make the game run for you.

However, remember that this will make the game look incredibly blurry and sacrifice graphical fidelity.

• Press the Windows+R keys on your keyboard simultaneously, which should open the Run program, and type in “%appdata%” which should open the AppData folder.

• From here, follow this path: \AppData\Local\FortniteGame\Saved\Config\WindowsClient
• In this folder, you’ll be presented with the game files and their included settings.

• Open the file called “GameUserSettings.ini”.
• Change the “Resolution size X” value to 800, and set the “Resolution size Y” value to 600.
• Do the same for the “Last User Confirmed Resolution Size” below these two values.

As you’ve probably guessed, this will drop the resolution quite a bit.

So while your game might be a blurry mess, at least you can run it.

#12: Adjust Windows For Best Performance

If you have a low-end PC, then you’ll see some improvement with this solution.

However, if you have a decent processor, a good graphics card, and an ample amount of RAM, you can skip this one.

Steps to adjust windows for best performance:

1. Open the file explorer and open This PC.
2. Right-click inside this Window and click on properties.
3. Go to advanced system settings, and open the advanced tab in the window that opens.
4. Now open the settings under the Performance tab.
5. From here, you want to select the option labeled to adjust for best performance.

This will give you the best performance possible during the game. Although this does turn off animations in Windows, so turn it on if you want to afterward.

If this step does not solve your problem, we have written another guide on optimizing Windows 10 for gaming.

#13: Defragment Your Computer

As complicated as the title of this tip might sound to some of you, it’s pretty simple.

If you’ve had your PC for a while now, and haven’t done this before, then this might help with performance a tad bit.

Steps to Defragment drives:

• In the start menu, search for a program called “Defragment and Optimize Drives”.
• From here, select the main drive or system drive for your system. This is usually the C: drive.
• Click on optimize, then let the program take its time.
• This can take a while, so we recommend doing this when you’re not planning on doing anything important.

Defragmenting the drive organizes all the files, so your computer can access them more quickly. It also ensures that all the files are in place and nothing is missing.

#14: Using Discord? Here’s a Quick Tip

Discord might seem like an innocent little program that you use for voice chat, but it can eat up a considerable amount of performance.

Still, if you don’t want to turn it off completely, there is a workaround to increase performance.

Hardware acceleration uses GPU performance to render images or animations in discord. To turn it off:

• Go to the user settings page.
• Open the appearance tab.
• From here, you’ll want to Uncheck Hardware Acceleration.

You can do this for Chrome as well, although we recommend turning off your web browser completely for actual performance gains.

#16: Low On Ram? Use This Tool For Better Stability

The Intelligent Standby List Cleaner, or ISLC for short, is a very useful program.

What it does is it clears the memory standby list whenever it exceeds 1024MB, and resultant, the apps in the background won’t use more than 1 gig of memory.

So basically, you have a higher amount of free memory that can be used in Fortnite.

Just download the latest version of the application and set it up.

Once installed, you can run the program and be greeted with many complicated terms.

Well, most of the complicated stuff is to the right; what we need is to the left.

ISLC displays your total system memory at the top, and the standby list and free memory below, respectively.

The program is set up by default to clear the standby list when it exceeds 1024 MB and when free memory drops below the 1024 Megabytes threshold.

You can change these values as needed.

• Just press the start button, and ISLC should start its magic.
• Minimize the program, and it will run in the background.
• Now fire up Fortnite, and enjoy a stutter-free experience.

NOTE: You’ll only see a benefit if you have 8GB of RAM or lower.

If you have 16GB of memory or more, then you probably have a bit of unused RAM in your PC anyway.

#17: Settings Changes for Best Framerate

We can’t exactly vouch if this one is going to give you an FPS boost, but if it is your last resort, it’s still worth a shot.

What you want to do is find the installation folder for the game.

Usually, the path is:

C:\Program Files\Epic Games\Fortnite\FortniteGame\Binaries\Win64

There should be an executable file here called FortniteClient-Win64-Shipping.exe.

• Right-click on this file and then select properties.

• Click on the compatibility tab and click on “Change High DPI settings”.

• Find the option called “Override High DPI Scaling Behavior,” make sure the box is checked, and the scroller is on “Application,” and then click on “OK.”

• Apply the Settings and hit “OK” one last time.

Relaunch the game to see hopefully see some performance gains.

If you are wondering what this does, it disables Windows scaling and lets the game handle it on its own.

That’s about the gist of it, we could go in-depth, but you’re probably just here for the fixes themselves.

#18: Clean Out Junk Files

As your PC ages, it will end up collecting a lot of cache and junk files.

Over time, this can accumulate into a considerable amount.

If you haven’t really cleared them up before, or haven’t done so in a while, you might suffer from poor performance.

We recommend the app called CCleaner to clear up any useless junk files and cache.

This doesn’t delete any important files. It just scans your PC and files all the extra stuff, and cleans it out.

As the name suggests, it sort of cleans up your PC and does a good job at it.

#19: Check for Faulty Hardware

We know this isn’t exactly a “fix” per se. But if you believe your hardware isn’t up to par, or the game just isn’t playable for you on a high-end PC, that might be due to faulty hardware.

There are a lot of things to check here, so we’ll narrow it down for you.

We recommend using MSI Afterburner to monitor GPU and CPU thermals if you can run the game.

This way, you can determine if your graphics card or processor is overheating, hence hindering performance.

If you think the fault is in the graphics card, you might want to stress test it to see if it’s working properly.

Use a program like Unigine Valley or FurMark to stress test the GPU.

As for the processor, you can use the Prime95 stress test tool to see if there is a problem there.

Fortnite isn’t a graphically intensive game, so if your high-end PC has trouble with performance, faulty hardware might be in play here.

#20: Look Out For Malware & Viruses

These last few tips might not significantly impact the performance itself, but we’re just focusing on people with older PCs with these.

Maintaining your PC is important, and a lot of people overlook this simple fact.

Especially if you’ve had your PC for a while.

Over time, you might have downloaded a lot of sites from unsafe sites.

Viruses and Malware can cause a lot of problems, which can affect performance during the game.

We recommend using Malwarebytes or Norton for actual security.

Although Windows defender works quite well too.

BONUS: The Video Guide

8 Tips to Make Fortnite Run Faster & Better

Video Time Stamps:

• Tip 1 – 0:28 Video Settings
• Tip 2 – 3:32 Priority Setting
• Tip 3 – 4:53 Windows File Edit
• Tip 4 – 6:03 Best Performance Option
• Tip 5 – 6:44 Power Options
• Tip 6 – 7:24 Cleanup Computer
• Tip 7 – 8:39 Defrag Computer
• Tip 8 – 9:41 Computer Maintenance

Conclusion

We tried to only include fixes that are known to work, there is a lot more exploring you can do in the files to tweak stuff even more.

But at the end of the day, you won’t be magically seeing three times the framerate.

Still, we’re optimistic that this guide helped you out in one way or another.