Alright so Ive started to get sick of seeing every single day like 5 or 6 new posts about FPS drops and overall performance losses, and a lot of comments about "The game is poorly oPtiMiZeD" and so forth. Half the folks don't even bother listing their specs, very helpful (not)
The truth is a double edged sword here.
One being that, it really isnt as bad as people think (read why later), and two, people forget all the time that this is THE Unreal Engine demo-game, that all the new features of UE are tested on before getting put out for use in other new game releases that use the engine. This game is always going to be on the bleeding edge as they rapidly advance game technology and innovate. All things considered, it really is pretty impressive it still even runs on the decade old PS4 and similar devices.
Now there are a few specific folks on here who CONSTANTLY are complaining about "game optimization" and yet they are on ancient hardware that was low end when Fortnite came out 7 years ago, one guy literally has a GTX 870 that predates this game by a good 3 years (March 2014 release date), over a decade old now. People, you know who you are, stop complaining.
Now onto the next points, addressing both why people think its worse than it is (and what created this problem) and then how to fix things for the most part on your system, aside from external variables out of my control such as crap software like antivirus RGB perhipheral software game launchers etc.
The first problem of how we got here, is mostly due to the lack of good information, and the spread of information that is just wrong. Most of this is top down in a viscous cycle as follows:
Pro playestreameetc doesnt know much about hardware, just plays the game, thats why they're good.
Said player starts to have problems with FPS etc
They then reach out to a "tweaker" on like Twitter to get their PC "optimized"
This is because player has money and can pay for services rather than learn this stuff himself.
Tweaker doesnt really know what he's doing or what impact certain settings have
Tweaker changes a bunch of stuff that he probably shouldn't, stuff that hes copying from other "tweakers"
System seems better to placebo affect, player promotes tweaker on socials, "Thanks to X for fixing my FPS!"
FPS boost YT kids scavenge and investigate thru like stream vods to see what changes were made
FPS boost YT kids then, also not knowing what these settings do, turn this into content
Content, that makes them money, regardless of whether it actually does anything meaningful
This information of supposed "fixes" then gets circulated around, via other YT kids or Reddit or etc
These "fixes" really just make things worse overall because they disable proper functionality of the OS
Now you have lots of players all doing the same "fixes" by their favorite FPS boosters
They all do these tweaks because they trust the person with a microphone
And now you have a bunch of people running settings and tweaks that are overall detrimental to performance
And then everyone, including the FPS YT kids (who dont know anything) all say "The game is poorly optimized"
This goes for people even like Jerian, Codelife, Marrentm, Lestripez (his site is straight up malware, avoid) etc
You know these guys dont know anything when they say that free space on your disk equates to more FPS, which is why they always tell you to delete temp files and stuff, it doesnt matter unless the disk is full.
If you watch these guys streams too, you can see their FPS is usually all over the place, because their "fixes" dont actually do anything beneficial.
I see a lot of times too where someone gets their PC "optimized" and then weeks later is getting BSODs, because the tweakers messed with a lot of stuff that they didn't know how it works, but saw from someone else, such as changing lots of registry values, dangerously unstable overclocks, and so forth.
I can stand behind my work because I have a youtube channel for gameplay, and my FPS is at a LOCKED 240 the entire time in 1440p DX12 on high settings, its linked in my reddit profile if you care to see for yourself any of my recent videos.
The "oPtiMiZaShUn" of Fortnite is relatively fine, and Epic certainly can't fix a problem they didn't create, a problem that has been created by these FPS boosters.
ANYWAYS now that we have the backstory for the major half of the problem, lets tackle the other side in regards to the hardware itself, assuming the configuration of the game is fine, Ill address configuration next.
Now I have spent quite a long amount of time the past few years deep diving into what really makes this game run well and what holds it back in regards to performance, and when it comes down to just raw hardware, assuming the configuration is fine and not full of snake oil, the game, like other Unreal Engine titles and multiplayer games in general, is very memory bottleknecked. That is the throughput and bandwidth of your RAM affects the games overall performance significantly.
This is why you can get low CPU and GPU utilization, and the game still runs poorly, aside from the utilization metrics being very skewed with how modern hardware works, its not perfect measurement, but still illustrates a point for the most part, but essentially your ram bandwidth is saturated or the ram latency is high and holding reduntant tasks up because it takes longer than it needs.
The reason for this is that in a BR type multiplayer game, you not only have a large open world map with a diverse destructible enviroment, but then you throw 100 players on to it that all are doing lots of things, making changes to said enviroment thru activities, construction, destruction, combat, etc.
All this information about what these players are doing (at least the ones in your render distance) has to get stored and read in and out of system memory as stuff happens in real time, this is why FPS tends to be low in stacked endgames with lots of players in a concentrated area, its saturating your memory bandwidth trying to keep up with all the constantly updating information about all the players and what theyre doing.
This is why AMDs line of X3D CPUs are super strong in games like this, because the cache is essentially turbocharged RAM running at almost a terabyte a second. having fast access cache for redundant tasks can speed the process of all this constant transfer up significantly.
Its also the kryptonite for why older Intel CPUs like 8th 9th 10th Gen etc, all really struggle these days, because they have significantly less cache than their AMD counterparts from the same time periods.
And its also the principle of how a certain special device that is now becoming more known technically works, its called Direct Memory Access because its reading the location and info of the players from your RAM and sending that to another device whether PC, Rasberry Pi, etc.
Ill have more information at the bottom for more specific stuff in regards to RAM, but the cliff notes is that enabling XMP is important, but it does leave a good bit on the table, and too many generic kits, especially DDR5, are really bad on the settings they come with out of the box. This is why people think the game runs bad on high end PCs, that come with generic DDR5 kits that have atrocious timings.
Again, more info on this aspect of things at the bottom.
BUUUUT leaving all that aside for now, lets get into what you can do right now that should fix a lot of your FPS problems, no overclocking or any BS snake oil tweaks, just proper configuration thats surprisingly close to stock, you'll be surprised at the amount of settings that don't actually matter.
Ive spent over a year now doing consulting with numerous people thru either Reddit DMs or Discord, helping many peoples game go from zero to hero, some rags to riches stories for sure. (most of it is undoing snake oil from FPS booster kids) and thru that I have developed a shotgun approach that generally is the gist of what needs to be done, and its had a pretty solid success rate.
DISCLAIMER, I am not telling you to do things that I wouldn't or have not already done countless times on all of my many test machines, but you still do this at your own risk and so obviously be precautious, but rest assured I know what all this stuff does.
So obviously starting off things, you probably wanna do some basic housekeeping
Get rid of any garbage software you dont use and stuff that just runs in the background, like
RGB software, ASUS Aura Sync/Armory Crate are HOGS
Extra Anti-Virus software aside from Defender (Especially Norton and MCaffe
(You dont need it, just get a adblocker and dont go to sketchy sites, the antivirus companies sell the viruses to malware companies, and then sell you a solution to the problem they create, classic marketing, dont buy into it)
Double movement software *can* also be a hog in some cases, use ingame diagonals if possible
Controller interfacing/overclocking software can be a massive offender of bogging things down
High polling rate mouses and keyboards like 8000Khz, 4000Khz, eat up CPU cycles, just use 1000.
Also undo any existing exotic FPS booster tweaks, if youve made a lot of changes over the past years it may be a good idea to install fresh windows from USB, I reccomend Windows 11 22H2, its generally performed the best on all my numerous systems, you can get an ISO from the internet archive, but do whatever you want for OS.
Its also beneficial to turn off Virtualization/SVM in the BIOS, with it on windows sandboxes the OS and it does create a mesuarable hit to performance.
Next thing is basic windows changes, starting with HAGS. Most GPUs support it so if you have it it is beneficial to turn this on. Search "Graphics settings" in the settings search and click the first result. Then once in there hit the link for Change Default Graphics Settings. Once there enable Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling.
https://preview.redd.it/5radxkbud65d1.png?width=477&format=png&auto=webp&s=f29927b28c6516abf4a245cf08311e1a62ecb33c
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The second option is also beneficial for if you want to run a stretched resolution that requires you to be in Windowed Fullscreen mode, as this uses Flip to give you the same input delay as if you were on Fullscreen.
This leads into the next thing, which is DONT have the "Disable Fullscreen Optimizations" box checked for your Fortnite EXE file, this disables Flip functionality for Fullscreen on modern games especially DX12 that dont use old Exclusive fullscreen, so you get more input delay as the game runs in bad window fullscreen, and your alt tabbing takes longer too, Flip offers much lower latency than old exclusive fullscreen with faster alt tab support.
Like if you read it, it litterally says your disabling optimizations, dont listen to boneheads on youtube who think this does anything, your just giving yourself more input delay.
https://preview.redd.it/1b6u8wf2f65d1.png?width=692&format=png&auto=webp&s=10d0ed514e0017df7a2e814998db09f7e57e3f3b
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Now into graphics drivers, its always a good idea to run DDU or Display Driver Uninstalller from time to time, to clean everything out with the shader caches and reset settings. There also is the fact that a lot of the newer drivers from Nvidia are a dumpster fire right now, its never a good idea to constantly update them. Now AMD can be the same way too, but in most of my consults Ive not experienced any problems just running DDU and installing the latest once supported by the card. You can always run DDU again and install a different driver and find one that works best for you.
On Nvidia I tend to prefer 537.58 or 551.86, the former is a bit older than some of the 4060 and Super variants of the 40 series so you may need a slightly newer one but 4070 and older are just fine with this.
For downloading specific versions just google it, make sure you get the right one for either desktop or notebook variants depending on what your on.
https://preview.redd.it/f4wxqa7jm65d1.png?width=1217&format=png&auto=webp&s=7d870e469c0d9b18e6fb874d1f5024ff4c84286f
I get the best lows on 537.58 but 551.86 has slightly better average FPS and feels a bit snappier at times, but of course you can DDU and try as many as you like till you find one you like.
The DDU tool itself is pretty self explanatory, select on the right GPU and then the appropriate option for your GPU whether it be Nvidia or AMD (or Intel for ARC and iGPU users), and then hit clean and restart. Once back on the desktop install fresh drivers.
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From there on the Nvidia side of things, the only settings in here that really matter (aside from setting your monitor refresh rate of course) is setting your Shader Cache size to Unlimited, and setting PhysX to your graphics card instead of having on auto select. On auto this can sometimes run physics on the CPU and give you nintendo switch framerates when builds are breaking and etc.
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All that other crap doesnt make much of a difference if at all, lets move on to your Epic launcher.
Now in your library go to your Fortnite install options. The big thing is dont have High Res textures installed, doesnt look any different, and have the DX12 Shaders and Cosmetic Streaming disabled, it sometimes is called Predownloaded Assets or something.
https://preview.redd.it/tu3iis8th65d1.png?width=634&format=png&auto=webp&s=925381e11d6df3fe47f1df46c9569006beace36c
Fun fact about the Pre-download Assets option, I am partially the reason it exists, as back during the May 4th update for Chapter 4 Season 2 last year, they removed the old settings and fuctionality for texture streaming, forcing the game to constantly hog internet bandwidth downloading textures on the fly as players were in your render distance, creating constant packet loss if you werent on 10 Gig Fiber.
Through a handfull of reddit posts, a video detailing the behaivour, and emails, I was able to get thru to the developers and ask them for this option to download everything ahead of time, because SSD storage is cheap whereas fast internet isnt even available in a lot of places.
Everyone has theyre own mark on this game, mine is a setting that everyone uses because its so beneficial.
ANYWAAYYS so now we got that done, lets go to the manage page.
In here you really only want the -NOTEXTURESTREAMING command, this is different from the assets one as this affects game textures like map roads grass buildings etc, not the player skins like the other one does. Having this in there essentially cuts down on CPU and memory traffic by loading everything into your RAM ahead of time rather than constantly move it around, this helps with pop in and hitching.
The other ones litterally dont affect shipping releases of the game, only content cooking on dev builds.
https://preview.redd.it/lz9ordoyi65d1.png?width=662&format=png&auto=webp&s=1ef859766dda0e241d28e6fb9ec48c1c0e8c68b1
Alright so now assuming youve done everything correctly, lets get into building a shader cache for your game. A lot of this has been moved to be done during loading screens, so if your loading in on DX12 with fresh drivers, your CPU is gonna be working hard.
If your not on DX12, just switch it and restart, most GPUs these days run DX12 anyways, DX11 is not worth using at all, and Performance mode is held back by crappy DX11, but if you must use it just change your settings on DX12/11 pages and then load performance mode back up.
For this though were assuming your using DX12 cause it really is just built better, especially for Radeon cards, so let get into shader caching.
Now a big thing here is turn off Nvidia Reflex, because its only beneficial if you are completely GPU bound, which is impossible if you run low settings and or cap your frames. It manages your frame buffer by slowing the CPU to prevent the GPU from getting behind, but if your not GPU bound your game will just feel like crap. You also will get much more consistent input delay with it off, and stuff like shotgun not shooting twitchy framerate generally goes away as well.
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Just cap your FPS right below whatever you average around, even a 3060 with DLSS balanced can run 144 on High DX12 1440p, which leads into the next thing, being that higher settings help with better caching. Obviously after a few rounds once the stutter from caching is done you can put it on low, but run something like this to start. Cap FPS, fullscreen, DX12.
https://preview.redd.it/zhi5lodvk65d1.png?width=1163&format=png&auto=webp&s=4d4811030aa4abb2121b5054dd3f287adab3fcfe
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This runs even like 70 FPS at native 1080p on a 1660. Just drive around for a few games visiting all the biomes and POIs till it evens itself out, then switch back to low or whatever you want for settings once its cached.
If you want DX12 to look like performance mode, put render distance on Low, that runs a locked 160 on a 2060 laptop GPU with a 9th gen i7.
The big thing is setting your cap below what your averaging for frames because consistent frames are better than high frames, and youll get less delay if you arent GPU bound. You may need to play with it to find what works best for you.
Assuming im not forgetting anything this should be close to about it for what you gotta do, lmk how this goes for you, if its still running bad you can always try different nvidia drivers and a windows reinstall if you feel ambituos.
Otherwise yea this should get you a fair bit of improvement, now onto extra stuff.
Now in regards to RAM overclocking, I spent months heavily studying memory tuning and overclocking because of the difference it really makes having good ram with all the timings tightened down, theres a reason on my main system I run DDR5-8000 with all the timings and subtimings tightened way down, its not for everyone but for a hardware enthusiast like me I like that last extra bit, and it results in great dividends on the 1% lows.
https://preview.redd.it/aawjma6o565d1.png?width=415&format=png&auto=webp&s=7905b36fbb477712457ec89c0ca86830a4b0f2a3
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This of course has spent a lot of time on rigorous stress testing to ensure its absolute stability, dont OC memory if you dont know how to stabilize it, it will slowly corrupt your OS and will make your game run like crap as modern ram has a lot of error correction built in that comes at a performance hit.
My lowly 5800X has no problem maxing out a 3080Ti at a steady 300 FPS on DX12 thanks to its tuned Samsung B Die ram, putting good ram on my 5900X nearly doubled my FPS over the garbage that was on there.
If you want to dive into the world of learning how to identify what ram you have and overclock it properly, theres github guides and plenty of existing resources on the overclocking subreddit, as well as youtube content by guys like Actually Hardcore Overclocking AKA Buildzoid, I learned so much from watching his videos of reacting and critiquing other peoples ram timings, and then diving into his own ram overclocking content.
He even has a great guide for DDR5 on Ryzen 7000 with Hynix memory (almost any 6000 CL30 2x16 kit) that offers some timings that should work for most kits just fine and offer much improvement over stock, just ignore the part about 2033 FCLK as that was simply a bug with AGESA that made the ram run at 6100MT/s which is why it WAS faster, just run 2000 FCLK for DDR5 6000.
It is a valuable skill to learn how to tune ram as it can breathe new life into a underperforming system, but you cant teach a bird how to fly as it is an acquired skill, so if you want to really make this game fly, you should learn how to tune your ram.

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Those pussies 🚫 banned me for this 🤣 All I said was "We are gaming the system and they don't like the game that we are playing 😈"
You are a God 💪 💚💰🦍@deepfuckingvalue

I have gotten some great advice from yall in the past and that has really helped me progress so I want to ask again, who should I start up? Currently: GR I - lvl 17 (cleared) GR II - lvl 18 (cleared) GR III - lvl 15 (cleared)

WTH? I got flagged

It says I'm promoting a stock, isn't this entire thread about FFIE! Isn't that the reason we are all here?