How to Make Fortnite Run Faster on a Mac
If you've got a Mac, you might have issues running Fortnite and getting low framerate. Luckily there are a couple of quick changes you can make to get a boost in performance without having to buy any new hardware.
Step 1 - Meet the Minimum specs
First things first, you have to make sure your computer meets the minimum specs that Epic recommends for the game. If you have an older outdated computer, it might not be possible to get Fortnite to run well even if you make these changes.
- Intel HD 4000
- Core i3 2.4 Ghz
- 4 GB RAM
- Mac OS X Sierra (or above)
As long as you've got these minimum requirements, the game should at least be able to run and with a few tweaks, you can get an FPS boost that will make your gameplay that much more enjoyable.
Use Bootcamp to Run Windows on Your Mac
One of the most common things people with Macs do to boost performance in games is to install a program called Bootcamp and install windows. Windows generally runs video games better with higher FPS so the first thing to try is running Fortnite within Windows.
This should give you an immediate framerate boost.Running Fortnite in Windows is a good first step to try but It’s not required.
If that's too complicated for you, you can just run Fortnite on your Mac and try to change some of the settings.
Here are some settings you can tweak to get a boost in performance
Change All Settings to Low
Drawing all of the texture details and items in the Fortnite world requires a lot of computing power. By turning the settings in the game down to low you'll be running everything at the lowest possible detail level which should give you a big performance increase.
Of course, the tradeoff is that you won't be able to see as much detail and the game won't look as pretty.
So the next step after turning everything down to low is to slowly turn things back up. Once you've turned everything down, go back into the game and check your framerate.
Then go into the settings and turn some of the settings back up to medium and high and see what your framerate is. If you notice a big hit to your framerate, leave the settings on low.
But if you can turn specific settings up from low to medium without losing any FPS, then leave it at medium and move on to the next one.
Unfortunately there isn't a 1 size fits all piece of advice here. Depending on what your processor and graphics card are, there could be different framerate hits for different people.
You might be able to run on medium settings at 60 FPS while someone else with a similar model on a slower processor might only get 50 FPS with the same settings.
Every Mac is different and you'll have to tweak each setting individually to see the impact on the game's performance.
Lower Your Resolution
Usually, when you're trying to increase the performance of a game you're trying to get your framerate (FPS) higher. By getting a higher FPS you'll have a smoother experience in the game.
But every additional frame that the game is showing you requires calculations by your processor. Each frame is recalculated before it's shown on your screen and every single pixel in that frame has to be drawn.
This is a lot of work for your Mac so one of the ways to make it easier and to get higher performance is to just lower the resolution.
If you're currently running 1920 x 1080, which is the most common size for a 1080p monitor, you could see a big performance increase by just decreasing the resolution.
Even a small reduction in the resolution could result in a huge performance boost because you're saving your Mac from having to recalculate all of those pixels in each frame. Those savings are multiplied by the frames per second.
So if you're running the game at 100 frames per second, you'll get 100x the performance increase by changing resolution because each frame is that much easier for your Mac to calculate.
If that's too technical you don't have to worry about it. Just go into the settings menu and change the resolution to something lower.
Play around with different resolutions until you find one that you're comfortable with, doesn't look too bad to look at, and gives you the FPS increase you're looking for.
Try Windowed and Full screen mode
Another setting you can tweak to monitor the performance change is what type of window mode you are running. Most people run in full screen mode which is generally considered the best option for maximum performance.
But if you aren't getting good results with full screen mode, you can try windowed mode instead.
Again, just make the change in your settings and monitor your FPS before and after the change. If your FPS go up, keep the change. If your FPS drop, go back to the old setting.
Close Any Open Programs
Your computer can only run so many calculations per second. If you've got other programs running in the background it could cause Fortnite to slow down because it's not getting as much processor time as it needs.
So before you jump into a game of Fortnite you should close down all other apps you're running and make sure fortnite is the only thing open to get maximum performance.
Restart Your Computer
If you haven’ t restarted your computer in a while you could try restarting it to get a performance boost.
Over time as you use your computer it accumulates different processes and programs that remain open even when you think they're closed or can't see them on your screen.
Each of these processes only takes up a small amount of computing power but when they're left alone long enough it can add up to a big performance hit.
If you haven't restarted your computer in the last 2 or 3 days you should probably restart it before you start playing Fortnite.
Restarting your Mac gives it a chance to reset and clean up any background processes that shouldn't be open which will give you an immediate performance increase.
Wrap Up
If your Mac is having a hard time running Fortnite, you might not have to upgrade to a new Mac right away. By making these in-game tweaks you can usually get a 50% or higher performance boost that should make Fortnite nice and smooth to play.
