Is Fortnite Actually Bad with AMD? (Fixes!)

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Today, we settle the debate once and for all: is AMD bad with Fortnite? It’s a rumor so persistent that there has to be some truth to it, right? After our testing, we finally have the answer AND how to fix it.

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Testing Rig:

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Time Stamps

0:00 Intro
1:49 The GPUs
5:50 Benchmarks
10:53 How to Improve Fortnite Performance
14:23 Testing Rig

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#PCGaming #PCBuild #GamingPC

[ZachsTechTurf]

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[sak-atWork]

You come to learn that people, who have never owned an AMD gpu, and/or do not know the FIRST thing about optimizing their PC, are so quick to say silly things like "AMD Sux". It's a shame that ignorant people tend to be the most confident.

Thanks for the video, as someone who has an NVIDIA GPU, I hope to see AMD do better in the future. We need competition in the market.

[theredpineapple]

If I recall correctly, Fortnite does have a replay mode where you can test the same environment with different settings or GPUs, I remember seeing Daniel Owen's video about the RTX 3070 vs 4070 and he was using it to compare them.

[Digitizedtech]

Fortnite ain’t that bad with AMD; I occasionally play it at 1440p with the 6800. Just runs at a lower frame rate than expected

[Iker_]

The view distance on enemies is 250 meters no matter what setting u use, it only changes the LOD of the textures from far away and that only gives u more fps drops, the only advantage that it gives is that u see floor loot from far away, which if u put more than medium view distance it doesnt increase so medium distance should be the best setting
edit: i think people doesnt know that performance mode is made for low end devices, and that directx its just worse because its not the latest version of directx, its like the problems on counter strike, newer gpus werent able to get more fps than a 1050 because of csgo being a dx9 game, but now on cs2 with directx11 its way better for high end devices (and worse for low end ones)

[knutkj]

Finally! This was so needed! I also finally learned what DX12 Pro settings mean. It was practically impossible to find good material on Fortnit graphics settings before this video was made. I would also appreciate it if you could do a follow-up video on non-pro settings since I want both: Look decent and good enough perf. What kind of card is needed? Which settings are important? Again, thanks a lot for pulling this video together. You made the Fortnite community a big favor, in my opinion.

[imFaceless]

one thing i would add is. If you care about comp always use performance mode for higher fps. Also most pros first leave their settings at dx12. they then change all their settings to low, including view distance ( in fortnite the view distance is more to do with rendering objects than player, players view distance is unaffected by view distance).Then restart fn and then change your settings to performance mode on all low. Also if your not on amd gpu then make sure you remove settings such as nvidea highlights ( for clips) and replays (for going back into your gameplay to see what happened). only situation where this wouldnt make sense is if your a pro trying o make a montage (nvidea highlights ) or a pro trying to improve by looking back at what you did wrong (replays). not sure if this is confusing but hope this helps

[Stands]

9:38 - this happens because the game has to compile shaders for the GPU again as you have updated to a new GPU driver

[mnml]

9:40 It happens because game engine is building shaders, everytime new driver is installed "shader cache" is deleted and game needs to rebuild shaders. Its the same thing also on AMD. But after a couple games it gets sorted out, no need to restart Fortnite.

[Spcialk]

Hardware Unboxed have said multiple times the issue come when trying to get max gos possible for competive players. That AMD is worse when using performance mode. They say thats the way you would want to play the game. I dont play online shooters, but that's what Steve from HUB says.

[lolFantaFox]

Hey Zach fellow Jawa commoner here! This video helped me figure out that performance mode is not the move at all when it comes to my Ryzen 7 9700X and my GTX Titan Xp (the uncut GP102 big boy Pascal), I’ve seen an improvement in my 1% lows and 0.1% lows by a lot! Originally mine was 360FPS AVG on performance mode with 227FPS 1% and 74FPS 0.1%, now I’m seeing FPS 360FPS AVG 280FPS 1% and 180FPS 0.1%! Thank you for the huge help Zach!!

[mcformarkich]

@ZachsTechTurf
Okay, here's the deal. The whole "AMD gpus are bad at Fortnite" is STILL true, to an extent that the video did not mention/delve into.

Your definition of "pro" settings uses directX12 on the reasoning that "it performs better imo". I haven't heard of ANY pro player using dx12 over performance mode (not even semi-pro players, me and everyone i know who plays included). Perf. mode isn't made for JUST potato pcs, its made for any pc to have more fps at a lower visual fidelity (lower grass LOD, textures etc..) but here comes the BIG and ONLY problem. Performance mode is based on DIRECTX11! ... thats the whole "problem" for AMD Gpus. They perform pretty bad on dx11 ESPECIALLY on Fortnite.

Nvidia cards DO NOT have this problem, thus in performance mode EVERY NVIDIA GPU has more fps than on dx12, and every nvidia gpu OUTPERFORMS its AMD counterpart on performance mode (while AMD is on dx12 "pro" settings). That's why the point still stands of "AMD Gpus are bad at fortnite(WHILE RUNNING PERFORMANCE MODE)" because its a horrible stuttery mess... switch to dx12 and YES, you do get a much more playable experience.... but then again, you are definitely not getting a better one than the nvidia counterpart. That's why i really do not agree with the last statement of "amd gpus even get more fps than nvidia, so the whole "amd has problems" is just fake =D". If you compared nvidia on perf. mode and amd on dx12 the results would be MUCH different. (NVIDIA outperforms every time) That's the whole purpose of Performance mode, to have more fps than dx11 and 12. Performance mode is just a highly optimized dx11. The "real" solution would be for epic games to make performance mode based on dx12, then amd would have an equally as good experience (if not better) than the nvidia counterpart, but then some older pcs (that this mode was specifically made for) just wouldn't work, because dx12 isn't supported on those old gpus. At this point, they wouldn't bother, because casual players can use dx12 and pro players should use nvidia.

I have delved into this topic a LOT, and know almost everything there is to know. I love amd as much as i love nvidia. When i was supposed to get a gpu i was picking between a rtx 3060 and a 6600xt... As i mainly played fortnite at the time, the extra 5% more power the AMD had would be useless for me on Fortnite (and I was right).

To wrap it up, amd DOES have a problem running fortnite on performance mode (based on dx11), the SOLUTION is to run it on directx12... thats it. But do note, if you mainly play fortnite competitively, Nvidia is the better solution because you can run performance mode on it, and get more fps. (and more stable one)

[kutakimoari]

WOW! The settings you showd in this video actually changed everything. I was suffering for years with low and uneven fps but now its basecally gone... Thanks man! You got a new sub and like.

[Taavettii]

You said the NV cards are horrible in the first game, after a driver update.
I think it may be something to do with the shader compilation, but idk why it doesnt happen to amd.

[logmeme]

Anakin in the beginning kill me Off💀🤣🤣

[bigrob]

This was actually really interesting and helpful. Definitely a nice break from the usual pc building videos, good to see you stretching your technical commentary legs!
I try not to play fortnite.... but when I did it was on a RX570 *with no issues*. Finally upgraded to a 6600 and I think a lot of these tips can apply to a lot of games out there.
Looking forward to seeing you take on other popular games with this angle.

[stuff_]

been a pc enthusiast for 4 years now, this is the best explanation on fps capping I've ever heard on youtube

[dotxyn]

One of the reasons people use performance mode is because it reduces visual clutter, like removing grass, which significantly improves player visibility. Also, FWIW, when I had a 6800XT, the initial stuttering did happen after driver or game updates. You can reduce this on any card by pre-downloading streamed assets in your Fortnite Epic launcher settings. On that AMD card with the same PC, Fortnite crashed sometimes with a UE5 or driver timeout error. This was after multiple game and driver installs, DDU, etc. It didn't crash nearly as much as the 2080Ti I mained, or now my 4080. However, this could have been due to problems with the game itself and variance with stability on certain updates. I will add that driver timeouts in UE5 games are practically non-existent on my Nvidia cards, whereas I experienced them frequently on AMD, and so have some of my friends.

[pixelschubser]

Very well done video. The only critique point i have are the camera angles. I don't like it when you switch from one to the other, cause it irritates me. Stay on one angle and keep it consistently please. Otherwise good video and well explained 👍
I specifically liked the timestamp you gave for people that don't have much time or the nerfs to watch through alot of explanation so they can get straight to the point. I watched the entire video, but this will definitly help me and friends of mine later down the line!

[CMZiMusic]

Just got my AMD R580 and works just fine, although my last gpu was iGPU on a i6400