Before downloading the game, gamers need to know whether or not the graphics card in their laptop or desktop computer will be able to handle Fortnite. The challenge is that there are so many graphics cards out there it’s hard to understand where graphics cards rank on the scale of minimum to recommended graphics cards. This article will discuss all the major graphics cards that will and will not work for Fortnite. It will also discuss the gaming experience each graphics card will provide. You can find the minimum and recommended system requirements for Fortnite here.
The first thing you need to know in order to figure out if your graphics card will work with Fortnite is the model of your current graphics card. You can easily find it in Windows by looking at your ‘System Information’. Pull it up by pressing the Windows Key and searching for ‘System Information’. Once you’re there, open the Components menu and click on Display.
Gameplay and Graphics Terms
- FPS – Frames Per Second. This is how many high resolution image frames your graphics card can produce in a second. Gamers should seek to have 60 FPS for a smooth gaming experience.
- Resolutions – 1080p, 1440p, and 4K are the modern resolutions being played.
- 1920 x 1080 (1080p)
- 2560 x 1440 (1440p)
- 3840 x 2160 (4K)
- 2560 x 1080 (Ultra-Wide 1080p)
- 3440 x 1440 (Ultra-Wide 1440p)
- 3840 x 1080 (Ultra-Wide 1080p)
- 5120 x 1440 (Ultra-Wide 1440p)
- VRAM – Video RAM. This is the amount of memory on the graphics card. Modern memory capacities are 4GB, 6GB, 8GB, 10GB, 12GB, 16GB, and 24GB. The more memory you have the better games will generally play.
- Benchmarks – Benchmarks tell us real world experience using a combination of hardware to measure its performance while playing games.
- Raytracing – Raytracing is a new technology that simulates real world lighting and how it reflects off objects like water, cars, shadows, and other types of things.
Recommended System Requirements
Video Card: Nvidia GTX 960, AMD R9 280, or equivalent DX11 GPU
Video Memory: 2 GB VRAM
Processor: Core i5-7300U 3.5 GHz, AMD Ryzen 3 3300U, or equivalent
Memory: 8 GB RAM or higher
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Minimum System Requirements
Video Card: Intel HD 4000 on PC; Intel Iris Pro 5200
Processor: Core i3-3225 3.3 GHz
Memory: 4GB RAM
OS: Windows 7/8/10 64-bit or Mac OS Mojave 10.14.6
Where Does My Graphics Card Rank?
If your graphics card was manufactured more than 10 years ago, then you can bet they are not going to be a good fit for new games like Far Cry 6. It’s best to start budgeting for a new graphics card. Not sure what the top graphics cards are today? Head over to the Top 5 Graphics Cards for AMD and NVIDIA in 2022.
AMD Radeon Graphics Cards
AMD R5 M330 Series Graphics Card for Fortnite
If you’re running a AMD R5 series graphics card, then you should get a new graphics card for Fortnite. Sure, you can play the game with low settings, but it looks pretty terrible. You might as well go back to 1995 and play the original Doom.
AMD R7 240 Series Graphics Card for Fortnite
You should consider getting a new graphics card. Fortnite is playable, but again similar to the AMD R5 series, it looks like a game of antiquity. You should consider upgrading.
AMD R9 280 Series Graphics Card for Fortnite
The AMD R9 280 series graphics card will allow you to play the game from low, medium, high, and epic graphics settings, but only on 1080P resolution. The game will max out your GPU utilization, however. You will not get good FPS on medium, high, or epic graphics settings.
AMD Radeon RX 520X 2GB Series Graphics Card for Fortnite
The Radeon RX 520X 2GB graphics card is another graphics card where you only will be getting good FPS (60+) on low graphics settings.
AMD Radeon RX 550 Series Graphics Card for Fortnite
You will be able to play Fortnite with Radeon’s RX 550 series graphics card on low, medium, high and epic settings. However, only medium and low will be able to play the game at above 60 FPS. Once you reach high and epic settings, those FPS numbers drop dramatically to around 40 and below 20, respectively.
AMD Radeon RX 560 / 560D Series Graphics Card for Fortnite
The Radeon RX 560D series graphics card is an improvement over the RX 550. At medium graphics settings you can play the game on 1080p resolution while achieving 55-60 FPS. This is okay. It’s not good, but also not terrible. Once you hit 1080p on high graphics settings, your FPS drops to the 20-30 range.
AMD Radeon RX 570 Series Graphics Card for Fortnite
The Radeon RX 570 series graphics card is the ideal low budget graphics card for Fortnite players willing to play on 1080p. While on low graphics settings, the RX 570 will get you an impressive 270 FPS. Once you move the dial up to medium, that number drops to the 150 range, and on high you can expect 60-70, which is decent. Even with epic graphics settings, you are still achieving 40-60 FPS.
AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB Series Graphics Card for Fortnite
Once you move into the RX 580 8GB series graphics cards, you can move into a higher resolution: 1440p. On low graphics settings (Competitive) at 1080p, you are achieving 200+ FPS. At 1440p, you move down to about 140 FPS. At high graphics settings on 1080p, you are achieving 100+ FPS, and once you move up to 1440p resolution on high graphics settings, you are still achieving about 50-60 FPS, which is good enough.
AMD Radeon RX 590 8GB Series Graphics Card for Fortnite
The RX 590 graphics card is going to allow you to game at 4K settings and otherwise be very similar to the RX 580 graphics card. At 1080p resolution, you will see a range of 140 FPS to 180 FPS on low and medium graphics settings. Once you move to high grahics settings, it goes down to a range of about 100-120 FPS. On Epic settings FPS will range from 70-90 FPS. Once you move into 1440p, Epic settings will achieve 40+ FPS. At 4K resolution with Epic settings, you will only be achieving 20-30 FPS on this card. So, gameplay will appear choppy, but the animation will look smooth.
AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 Series Graphics Card for Fortnite
The RX Vega 11 series graphics card will achieve over 140 FPS on low settings with 1080p resolution. It provides 70-90 FPS on medium graphics settings with 1080p resolution. And on high you’ll be running around 30 FPS with 1080p resolution. Going to Epic settings on this graphics card is not recommended.
AMD Radeon RX 5000 Series Graphics Card for Fortnite
Most of the RX 5000 series graphics cards exceed the minimum requirements and many of them also exceed the recommended requirements for Fortnite.
AMD Radeon 5300 XT Series Graphics Card for Fortnite
The AMD Radeon 5300 XT surpasses the recommended system requirements for Fortnite. Although it may not be the most ideal graphics card for having high or epic graphics settings while gaming at 4K, it will definitely provide the performance needed for the average gamer. You should expect to play Fortnite on high or epic graphics settings at 1080p or at least high on 1440p whilst achieving decent FPS.
AMD Radeon 5500 XT Series Graphics Card for Fortnite
At 1080p with epic graphics settings, you’ll be able to experience 90-100 FPS with the Radeon 5500 XT graphics card. It’s not even really worth it to talk about the lower settings on 1080p since epic at 90FPS is about as good as you can noticeably get. Any higher FPS would be negligable from an experience perspective. On 1440p resolution, you can expect that epic settings will deliver around 40-50 FPS. Going to low graphics settings however will jump the FPS to over 200. 4K is probably doable but not at any respectable graphics settings or FPS.
AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT Series Graphics Card for Fortnite
Epic graphics settings at 1080p will deliver over 100 FPS with the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT series graphics card. At 1440p, you will still be achieving 70-90 FPS with epic graphics settings. Similar to the 5500 XT, 4K is probably doable but not at any respectable graphics settings or FPS.
AMD Radeon RX 5700 Series Graphics Card for Fortnite
The Radeon RX 5700 XT will deliver high FPS despite the graphics settings at 1440p resolution. Needless to say 1080p should not even be a consideration unless your monitor does not support it, but then in that case you likely wouldn’t have a RX 5700 graphics card.
AMD Radeon RX 6000 series Graphics Card for Fortnite
The AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards will handle any graphics settings from Fortnite you throw at it with resolutions of 1080p and 1440p. Even at 4K with performance mode you can expect around 70-90 FPS.
These graphics cards include the following:
- Radeon RX 6400
- Radeon RX 6500 XT
- Radeon RX 6600
- Radeon RX 6600 XT
Do you have an NVIDIA graphics card? Head over to our other article that discusses NVIDIA Graphics Cards for Fortnite.