While the hype for battle royale has subsided a bit, the same cannot be said for Fortnite , which has more than 350 million registered players. Obviously, Fortnite is not alone , and faces stiff competition from titles that managed to stand the test of time, or that exploded overnight. But all of those games have one thing in common: They get updates that make them heavier , and they put additional pressure on more humble hardware configurations. If you want to know how to optimize your PC for Fortnite and other games (whether online or not) , maybe this guide will be useful.
Table of Contents
- Understanding the situation
- How to optimize your PC: less is more
- Video drivers… up to date?
- Hardware acceleration in Discord
- “Standby List”
- Specter / Meltdown Mitigations
- Virtual memory
- Modified Windows 10
- How to optimize your PC: Conclusions
Understanding the situation
Online games seek to attract as many users as possible, and one of the most effective ways to achieve that goal is by optimizing your hardware requirements. However, we have seen many projects start from an opposite position, prioritizing stability and gameplay and then improving performance.
Now, we’ve also noticed that many games known to be “light” originally today demand additional firepower. CS: GO is the first title that comes to mind: Its current version is more demanding compared to the 2012-2013 builds . And the same happens with Fortnite. Its performance has deteriorated with each new “season” and update, to the point where Epic had to enable “Performance Mode” to balance the scale.
“Performance Mode” is a shortcut rather than an optimization
Developers often speak of “evolution” , although in practice everything is more a matter of “necessity . ” Games require new content constantly, but the hardware does not respond at the same speed, and with the prices that some components register (I do not know when you will read this, but in my space-time coordinates we are going through the “Age of Crypto Chaos”, with GPUs worth thousands of dollars) , upgrading computers is not entirely possible.
If you are part of that group of users who want to enjoy online games but cannot make upgrades in the short or medium term, you only have one option: Make the most of what you have, and learn how to optimize your PC for Fortnite and others. games.
How to optimize your PC: less is more
How many things do you really need to have open? That is the first question you must answer.
As obvious as it may seem, our previous experiences teach us that it is necessary to repeat this recommendation at every opportunity: A less loaded computer works better . A lower number of processes leads to lower RAM consumption, fewer background operations, and fewer chances of lag, spikes, crashes, and memory leaks . Optimizing your PC for Fortnite and other games demands that “software discipline” be excellent . Replace applications with lighter variants, and close both browsers and messengers when playing (where possible) .
Video drivers… up to date?
The latest drivers are always recommended… but not necessarily required. Depending on your hardware, maybe a previous build will serve you better.
There are different arguments against constantly updating drivers. One of the strongest suggests that the optimal controller is the one that allows us to get the best GPU performance in our favorite games, and not necessarily the last one . However, the latest optimizations from manufacturers almost always focus on new and / or popular games, therefore downloading and installing the latest video drivers for your GPU is still a correct starting strategy . In case of detecting a very deep regression in the FPS, it is enough to perform a DDU sweep , and go back to previous versions.
Hardware acceleration in Discord
Do you think Discord causes problems? Try this.
Discord became the de facto standard for the vast majority of gamers , and you most likely have a copy running in the background. At the same time… Discord is not the most efficient piece of software in the world , and many users point to its hardware acceleration as a point of conflict. In fact, Discord itself recommends disabling its acceleration if you notice a drop in frames.
To do this, go to User Settings , and visit the Advanced section in Application Settings . Disable acceleration, and restart Discord . The suggestion makes perfect sense: Some hardware configurations are not completely balanced, and if the CPU has a bit more “back” so to speak, it is not a bad idea for it to take over from Discord to free up GPU resources . If you notice the opposite effect or Discord’s performance deteriorates too much, turn throttle back on.
“Standby List”
There is a manual purge method, but it is better to use a tool here
There are few users who swear to suffer an increase in stuttering within their favorite games with Windows 10. Memory management in the operating system would be responsible, due to the behavior of the cache known as “standby list” . Now, the latest builds of Windows 10 aren’t supposed to have that problem, but if you don’t think Microsoft deserves the benefit of the doubt, you can always use Intelligent Standby List Cleaner to automate the standby list purge .
Specter / Meltdown Mitigations
InSpectre is safe, although it does not work on all systems
The trade press wrote endlessly about the Specter and Meltdown vulnerabilities discovered in early 2018. However, what matters most to gamers is the impact of their mitigations on game performance . Some platforms (among which the older generation Intel chips stand out) took a pretty hard hit, but there is the possibility of disabling those changes , giving up a bit of security to regain performance.
Two extra keys in the registry would be enough
The process does not offer any guarantees , but I think it is worth a try anyway. The easiest way is to download a copy of InSpectre , and disable the options that the program enables, followed by a restart of the computer. The advanced form requires editing the registry :
- Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management
- Create a DWORD value called FeatureSettingsOverride, and assign a value of 3 .
- Create another DWORD value named FeatureSettingsOverrideMask, and repeat the value of 3 .
- Restart the computer.
Virtual memory
In essence, what about and what is not missing. Remember to use your fastest drive.
Some users insist that this parameter should remain automatic for Windows 10 to take care of its management. But by setting manual values, we are relieving the operating system of that responsibility, and saving some operations along the way. If your computer has 8GB of RAM or less , you will need a generous amount of virtual memory to avoid potential conflicts. Start with a 1: 1 or 1: 2 configuration, and try to save virtual memory on your fastest drive.
Modified Windows 10
Finally … there is a more extreme option which is to adopt a modified version of Windows 10 . We recently talked about Ghost Specter , one of the most popular Windows 10 optimization projects on the web, which offers builds with multiple built-in tweaks, and several rooted out Microsoft programs / services. Another route is Windows 10 LTSC , which is based on build 1809. LTSC is “gutted” out of the box, but not available to end users, so it requires a bit of “creativity” on our part.
How to optimize your PC: Conclusions
The fight is not limited to the virtual battlefield: you must fight with your computer to get everything from it.
A constant struggle, a job that never ends . If you really want to optimize your PC for Fortnite and other similar games , you will have to get your hands dirty . As if that were not enough, we cannot lose sight of the possibility that our final gains in FPS will be very modest, or directly nil . But we cannot lower our arms: A good management of our software, adequate drivers , and a reduction of operations are steps in the right direction. Remember: Less is more . Good luck!