Fortnite's new season is kicking off and more players are returning to the Battle Royale game to see what changes Epic has made to the map in Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 7.
With this increase in players, it's more likely you'll experience lag or connection issues as Epic's servers struggle to cope with the influx of players.
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Even if you’re playing on a great gaming laptop for Fortnite, there’s still a chance that something will go wrong and you'll suffer from some pretty hefty lag.
Read on for our guide on how to prevent lag spikes from ruining your Fortnite experience.
How to stop lag in Fortnite
Experiencing lag is one of the most frustrating experiences in online gaming. In a game where gunfights can be decided in a matter of seconds, it's important that your game runs as smoothly as possible to give you a fighting chance of that Victory Royale. Here is how you can stop lag from affecting Fortnite:
Check the System Requirements
If Fortnite consistently stutters and lags on your PC, it may be because your build doesn't meet the recommended requirements to run Fortnite. Here are the minimum requirements for Fortnite, as put forward by Epic:
- Video Card: Intel HD 4000 on PC or Intel Iris Pro 5200 on Mac
- Processor: Core i3-3225 3.3 GHz
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- OS: Windows 7/8/10 64-bit or Mac OS Mojave 10.14.6
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Lower your Graphics Settings
Even if your PC passes the minimum requirements for Fortnite, it may struggle to run the game at the highest settings.
Consistent lag may be a result of your graphics setting being too high, and so adjusting them downwards could ease some of the issues.
You can change your Video Settings in Fortnite's visual settings tab. Setting the Quality to low/medium and the View Distance to near/medium may solve prevent lag spikes from ruining your Fortnite games.
Use a wired internet connection
If you play on PS4, Xbox, or have a pretty powerful PC, the chances are that your lag is caused by internet issues.
Ethernet cables use a direct connection to your router to ensure any connection issues stemming from the distance between your console and the router do not affect your internet stability.
If you don't have an ethernet cable on hand, even just moving your console or setup closer to your WiFi router should help to quash any stability issues that may cause lag spikes.
Connect to the right matchmaking servers
While debates over whether NA or EU servers have the best players will continue indefinitely, it won't matter for you if you keep losing because of lag.
If you go to Fortnite's Advanced Settings, you can change the Matchmaking Region to reflect which region is closest to you out of Asia, EU, NA, and Oceania.
This will help to keep your ping low as it will only put you in lobbies from servers closest to your location.
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