Fortnite is already playable on a wide range of PCs but Epic is putting efforts into making its user base as broad as possible. From today it is making available a mode that is designed to be the best choice for low spec PCs, hoping to broaden the game's appeal and platforms upon which it is viable to play. Performance Mode introduces not only better in-game performance but it can reduce the game's storage requirements significantly by opting out of high-res texture pack downloads. Please note this is labelled as an 'Alpha' feature and supports only the Battle Royale and Creative modes for now.
Above you can see the Performance Mode activation option among Fortnite's graphics rendering mode choices. Epic says that you can enable/disable this mode at any time, it just needs a restart to apply the settings. Though this mode cuts the requirements for smooth gameplay somewhat, Epic still stresses that a minimum of an SSD and 6GB of RAM will help a lot in preventing 'hitches and stutters'. So what kinds of FPS figures might you expect on your entry level hardware? Epic provides a table with two PC laptops running in the existing low scalability mode, and in performance mode – please check the table below.
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Hardware Example 1: |
Hardware Example 2: |
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CPU: Intel i5-8265U @ 1.60GHz |
CPU: AMD A10-5745M APU @ 2.1GHz |
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Memory: 8GB RAM |
Memory: 6GB RAM |
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GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 620 |
GPU: AMD Radeon(TM) HD 8610G |
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FPS Before: 24 fps |
FPS Before: 18 fps |
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FPS After: 61 fps |
FPS After: 45 fps |
Epic implies these are 720p gameplay fps comparisons
In the intro I mentioned Performance Mode being able to reduce game storage usage. Epic says from today users will be able to opt-out of high-resolution textures through the Epic Games Launcher installation options page, for Performance Mode gaming.
The options switch will allow users to remove around 14GB of data, making the final game install as low as 17GB. This is another good choice from Epic - to encourage a wider audience to try out its big hit money spinning game.
