Fortnite's new Performance Mode boosts framerates on potato PCs

[midian182]

What just happened? Despite a market that’s fast becoming oversaturated with Battle Royale titles, Fortnite remains one of the most popular games in the world today. Part of the appeal is its ability to run on even the most potato-like of PCs and laptops. Now, those ancient computers will not only be able to play the game but do so at a respectable framerate.

Epic Games’ new Performance Mode launched today, boosting Fortnite’s FPS count on those PCs that only just meet its minimum spec requirements. The company writes that the option, selectable through the in-game settings menu, works by lowering the visual quality, thereby lightening the load on the GPU and CPU. It notes that players using older hardware will be prompted to try out Performance Mode.

Performance mode with high-resolution textures disabled at 720p

Epic gave examples of the type of gains users can expect to see with the new feature enabled. An Intel i5-8265U (1.6 GHz) with 8GB of RAM and integrated UHD Graphics 620 will see Fortnite’s framerate jump from a creaky 24 fps to an impressive 61 fps. Further down the ladder, an AMD A10-5745M APU (2.1 GHz) with 6GB RAM and an integrated Radeon HD 8610G moves from 18 fps to a respectable 45 fps. Epic still recommends using at least 6GB RAM and an SSD for the best experience.

Along with the launch of Performance Mode, Epic is now allowing players to opt-out of installing the game’s high-resolution textures, saving themselves 14 GB of storage space. Without the pack, Fortnite Core and Battle Royale take up around 17 GB.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/87971-fortnite-new-performance-mode-boosts-framerates-potato-pcs.html

 

[Irata]

Nice - and business smart at the same time.

 

[veLa]

It's a great move by the developer.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Tested on 8th gen Intel? We need something creakier than that on the Intel side. I'll try installing it on my 6 year old Haswell Dell office laptop and see what it can do.

But then I'll have to play Fortnite. Choices...

 

[Lew Zealand]

Dell Latitude E6440
Core i5-4300M 2c4t @3.2GHz all core boost
Intel HD Graphics 4600 (GT2, the 2014 version of Intel UHD 630) @1366x768
16GB 1866 MHz CL10 DDR3
-.05v undervolt on CPU & GPU, ran at 85C in-game

Gets about 45 fps average with 15fps 1% low, though I was trying to get worst case scenario by swinging my FOV around the whole map with long views while dropping in. Didn't have much time to get a feel for in-game fps yet (cuz I suck at the game) but it seems to be around 45, with regular drops to the 30s. In the wait area it was 55fps with regular drops to the 30s when swinging FOV around a lot.

Surprisingly usable on an old POS office machine.