How to play Fortnite on a low end PC or Mac

Fortnite has become a phenomenon since Epic Games launched the Battle Royale portion, and today is the most popular game on the planet. Available for free on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android, Windows and MacOS, the game is a lightweight and well-optimized title that runs on virtually any device.

So much so that it is possible to run Fortnite on a PC or older Mac, theoretically “weak” and with more limited configurations, when compared to the gaming computers of the market or to the consoles of table.

In this post, you will learn how to run Fortnite on a weak PC or Mac, in addition to learning what the minimum and recommended game settings are; so you can tell if your computer can handle it.

What are the minimum specs for running Fortnite?

Every developer stipulates a set of limit specifications that a computer must have to run a game in the minimum settings, just enough to say that it is playable. Of course such machines will never run the game with great visual quality, but you can still enjoy them.

Epic Games did a good job with Fortnite, since on PC and Mac it is not very demanding; so even very weak computers are able to run the title. The minimum specifications, recommended by the studio are:

Processor: Intel Core i3, clocked at 2.4 GHz;
Memory RAM: 4 GB;
Video Card: Integrated Intel HD 4000;
Available disk space: 15 GB;
Operating system: Windows 7 64bit or MacOS Sierra.

As explained above, these settings are the least possible for Fortnite to be able to run, but they are not those recommended by Epic. Such specifications are the most balanced, to allow a game to run acceptably. Luckily, even these are not so demanding:

Processor: Intel Core i5 clocked at 2.8 GHz;
Memory RAM: 8 GB;
Video card: nVidia GTX 660, AMD Radeon HD 7870 or equivalent, as long as compatible with DirectX 11;
Available disk space: 20 GB;
Operating system: Windows 10 64-bit or MacOS Mojave (Epic Games recommends Windows as the best platform).

Broadly speaking, a Windows computer with a dedicated graphic card, launched from 2012 is able to run Fortnite satisfactorily. Still, the most limited are not totally excluded from the game; just the user make some sacrifices. If your computer has below minimum specifications, the game will hardly be playable even with effort.

How to optimize Fortnite to run on a weak PC

If your PC or Mac is relatively weak, but is within the minimum configurations supported by Fortnite, it is still possible to enjoy the game by changing the settings of the game, reducing the settings of some of its parameters to allow the game to run and be minimally playable, even with graphic limitations.

Accessing and Changing Fortnite Settings

This is where we will do the heavy lifting. Although the game is not very demanding, some Fortnite settings may be too much for your old war computer; then it’s time to access the menu and put your hand in the dough:

In the game’s main screen, click the menu button in the upper right corner (the three parallel lines);
Click on the gear to access the game settings.

Once inside, you’ll find a number of options that you can tweak to adjust the quality of Fortnite to your PC or Mac:

Window Mode: Contrary to popular belief, running a game in window mode makes the computer consume more features because it needs to render the game screen and the desktop. This even applies to the Full Screen Window option, so select the Full Screen option;
Monitor resolution: no need to move if you have a dedicated graphic card; if it is integrated, it is advisable to reduce the resolution to a minimum of 1280 x 720;
Frame Rate Limit: This option controls how many frames of movement (or frames ) the game is capable of executing per second. The advised is to leave at 60 fps so as not to hinder the gameplay, but if your PC is very weak, reduce it to 30 fps. Less than that and Fortnite becomes unplayable;
Quality: This option offers predetermined adjustments for each situation, from low settings to weak to maximum computers, for NASA PCs and Macs Pro. Since we are doing everything manually, ignore it;
3D resolution: this takes care of the actual resolution of the game, and the more powerful the graphic card, the better. In some cases, you can turn with a resolution of 720p, but in extreme cases, reduce to 480p;
Vision Distance: This parameter regulates the rendering of distant objects. If your PC is very weak, put it low; if reasonable, leave it on average;
Shadows: This option is important because shadows define light effects. In general, reducing the quality or completely turning off the option reverts to relevant gains, and with Fortnite the shadows are not so essential, turn it off squarely;
Anti-aliasing: This option is used to correct jagged edges, smoothing jagged angles. It is possible to leave in the middle without major problems, but if your PC asks for water, turn it off;
Texture: it is the control of how realistic the Fortnite elements look on the screen, but since the game has a cartoon design, here it has little importance. Leave in medium or even low;
Effects: This option regulates effects of explosions, particles and the like. Here, it is possible to leave the bass without compromising anything of the game itself;
Post-processing: it’s the set of options that apply effects after the graphic card has already done the heavy work (hence the name), things like HDR, Depth of Field and Motion Blur (in Fortnite, you can see the post-processing during the storm, with change of brightness and diffused lights). This is one of the characteristics of a game that consumes more resources, so leave it low;
VSync: the horizontal vertical integration serves to synchronize the frames of a game with the refresh rate of your monitor. Generally, it is important to force the hardware not to generate more frames than it should, so let it on;
Lack of Clarity of Motion: keep it off, it does not make a difference in performance;
Show FPS: to user’s liking.