FPS stands for frames per second, which is how many frames a PC game displays each second. Your PC’s FPS is important when playing battle royale shoot ‘em ups like Fortnite. Low frame rates and FPS drops can cause noticeable stuttering when playing Fortnite, particularly during more action-intense moments. This stuttering makes Fortnite’s gameplay less responsive, which can be fatal during short-range gunfights.
If the gameplay stutters a lot when you play Fortnite on a PC, you may need to optimize the game for higher frame rates. First, you can benchmark the Fortnite FPS to find out what your game’s average frame rate is currently like. This is how you can run a Fortnite FPS benchmark test on a Windows PC.
How to Benchmark Your Fortnite FPS
Fortnite doesn’t include any internal tool for calculating average frame rates. To benchmark your Fortnite FPS, download and install Fraps on your PC. Fraps is a freely available program with which you record gameplay and average frame rates for games by pressing hotkeys. You can obtain Fraps by clicking Download Fraps on this page. Then, double-click on the downloaded setup.exe file to bring up the setup wizard from which to install the software.
When you’ve installed Fraps, run the software to open its window. Click the 99 FPS tab to view settings there. Select the FPS and MinMaxAvg checkboxes. Change the Benchmarking Hotkey to O because the default F11 key activates a windowed mode when playing Fortnite.
Now, you can utilize Fraps to calculate an average frame rate for the FPS Performance Benchmark. The FPS Performance Benchmark is a player-created Fortnite map in which you can run an action sequence lasting a few minutes, which includes gameplay scenarios. To access that map, start Fortnite and input the 5608-7013-5653 code (copy and paste with the Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V hotkeys) for the FPS Performance Benchmark in the search box. Select to play the FPS Performance Benchmark from there.
When you’ve entered the FPS Performance Benchmark map, walk up to the button beside the campground sign. Press that button with the E key to activate the FPS benchmark sequence. Wait for the five-second counter to count down and press the Fraps O hotkey you set to activate the frame rate benchmarking for the sequence.
Now, sit back and watch the FPS Performance Benchmark sequence. This sequence lasts about four to five minutes and whisks you around the map during day and night cycles. You’ll see some blasting action mixed into the sequence that zooms in and out. When that graphical sequence has finished, press the Fraps O hotkey again to end the Fraps FPS benchmarking.
To view the results of your Fortnite FPS benchmark test, open the Benchmarks folder for Fraps. For me, that folder was at a Program Files > Benchmarks path. However, the location of that folder will depend on where you installed Fraps. You can see the path location for your Benchmarks folder on the 99 FPS tab in Fraps.
When you’ve found and opened the Benchmarks folder, double-click the FRAPLOG.txt file inside that directory. That file shows the results for the Fortnite (FortniteClient-Win64-Shipping) FPS benchmark you ran. The Avg figure shows the average frame rate for the FPS Performance Benchmark sequence. There are also Min and Max numbers that show the minimum and maximum frame rate points during the sequence.
How to Boost Your Average Fortnite Frame Rate
If your PC’s average frame rate was less than 30 during the Fortnite FPS benchmark test, you should try boosting it. You’ll have probably noticed the FPS benchmark sequence was a little choppy if the average frame rate during it was lower than 30. An average FPS of 60 or above is a good FPS target to set for smoother, more responsive Fortnite gameplay.
One of the best ways to optimize Fortnite for a higher average frame rate is to generally lower the game’s graphical settings. I recommend selecting Lower Graphical Fidelity for the Rendering Mode: Performance setting on Fortnite’s Video options tab. In addition, lower the Textures and Meshes in-game graphical options.
Disabling High-Resolution Textures can also remedy Fortnite FPS drops. To do that, bring up the Epic Games software, click Fortnite’s three-dot (…) menu button on the Library tab, and select Options. Unselect the High-Resolution Textures checkbox and click Apply.
Aside from that, you can optimize Fortnite for better frame rates by disabling unneeded background apps or services that hog system resources, such as RAM. To disable such programs in Windows 11/10, click the search icon or box on the taskbar and enter a background apps keyword. Select Background apps in the search results to access a Let apps run in the background setting. Turn off the Let apps run in the background option to disable them.
You can also disable background apps and processes via Task Manager’s Processes tab by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc. Right-click unneeded third-party app processes there to select End task. In addition, try removing superfluous programs from the Windows startup by selecting them on the Startup tab and clicking Disable.
When you’ve done those things, try running another Fortnite FPS benchmark test with Fraps and FPS Performance map to see the difference. The average frame rate will probably be better than what it was before. Consequently, Fortnite’s gameplay will be smoother and more responsive after running a Fortnite FPS benchmark test and optimizing the game. You can also optimize the FPS for many other Windows PC games by benchmarking frame rates with Fraps much the same.
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