Fortnite Stuttering? Here's Why (and How to Fix It)

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A simple guide for fixing lagging and choppy framerate issues

Co-authored by Dustin - DWDFN and Eric McClure

Last Updated: June 10, 2026 Fact Checked

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• Unique Fortnite Fixes
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• General Game Settings
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• Fortnite Stuttering Causes
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• Video

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Fortnite isn’t exactly the most graphically intensive game on the planet, so if you’ve got a high-end PC and your game is stuttering, flashing, or bugging out, we totally get why you might be confused and irritated. Just know that this is a pretty common problem among players, and this is probably more Fortnite’s fault than anything wrong with your computer. To help show you how to resolve the issue, we sat down with computer experts Luigi Oppido and Ken Colburn to get professional insight on how to get your game running smooth as butter.

Quick Fixes for Stuttering in Fortnite

1. Turn on “pre-download streamed assets” in the game settings.
2. Disable and/or reinstall Realtek Family Controller in Device Manager
3. Change the game’s rendering mode to DirectX 12.
4. Try reducing your mouse’s DPI setting.
5. Confirm your monitor refresh rate and FPS are unlocked.
6. Lower quality settings in the game to improve performance.
7. Reinstall the game to fix underlying bugs or corrupted files.

Steps

Section 1 of 3:

Popular Fortnite-Specific Fixes

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1. 
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   Disable the cosmetic streaming feature. Go to the Epic Games launcher library and click on the 3 dots under Fortnite. Select Options and then check the option next to Pre-download Streamed Assets to turn it on. Select Apply and then restart your launcher. This may fix your in-game stuttering issue.

   • The game engine normally downloads skins and textures as you encounter them instead of doing it ahead of time, which can cause your game to lag or stutter. Turning on the option to pre-download the assets may make your load times a touch longer, but it should streamline your experience in-game.

   Meet the wikiHow Experts

   Luigi Oppido is a computer and tech specialist with over 25 years of experience troubleshooting and fixing PC and software issues.

   Ken Colburn is a computer repair expert with over 3 decades of experience in computer repairs, data recovery, and tech education.
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   Try disabling or reinstalling the Realtek Family Controller. Use the search bar to open the Device Manager. Click on Network adapters to open the dropdown menu. Right-click Realtek Gaming 2.5GbE Family Controller and select Disable device. Try running Fortnite again to see if this solves the problem. If it doesn’t, repeat this process but select Update driver after enabling the device. If that doesn’t help, uninstall the device and reinstall it. You can find the driver you’ll need to install on Realtek’s website.

   • Your driver might be a 5G or 10G Family controller. The process is identical regardless of the version your motherboard uses.
   • The Realtek Controller is responsible for prioritizing your game by feeding your network’s resources into the game instead of other programs or OS features. With Fortnite, it appears that the game often doesn’t communicate with the Controller very well, and many users find simply disabling it to be a better gaming experience.
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   Switch to DX12 and allow the shaders to load ahead of time. Open Fortnite. Select Settings > Video > Rendering Mode. Then, select DirectX 12. Restart the game and confirm the settings are correct. This may solve your stuttering issues.

   • If you do not have DirectX 12 as an option in the Rendering Mode menu, it may not be enabled. To enable it, follow these steps:
     • Type dxdiag in your Search bar. Hit enter.
     • On the first page, check “DirectX Version” to see if you have DirectX 12.
     • If you don’t, update Windows. It should install automatically.
     • If you do have DirectX 12 but it doesn’t appear in Fortnite, reinstall the game.
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   Try reducing your mouse DPI. We have no idea why this works, but many Fortnite users swear by it as a solution. If you have a mouse with adjustable DPI (dots per inch) settings, go into the app and set your DPI to a lower number. Then, go into your Fortnite settings and increase the mouse speed to compensate. Restart the game to see if that helps.

   • How do I know which app controls my mouse? Check the brand. For Logitech mice, you need to use GHub. For Razer, you need to use Synapse. Just look up your brand’s software. If you don’t have customizable DPI (or you’ve never changed the DPI), this isn’t your problem, though.
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   Unlock your monitor’s refresh rate. Go to Display Settings and then scroll down and click Advanced Display. Under Choose a refresh rate, set the number to the highest number available. In Fortnite, go to Settings > Video > Frame Rate Limit and confirm that the rate is either set to “unlimited” or whatever the frame rate of your monitor is. Restart the game to see if the problem is resolved.

   • It’s also okay for Fortnite to have a lower FPS limit than the monitor’s refresh rate, but not the other way around. In other words, if it helps performance, feel free to set the game’s FPS to 60 if your monitor’s refresh rate is 144 Hz.
   • The refresh rate is how often the computer screen “refreshes,” or creates a new image. The frame rate limit in the game is how many frames the game displays every second. If these two don’t match up, Fortnite is known to get a little buggy.
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Section 2 of 3:

General Ways to Improve Game Stuttering

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1. 
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   Lower the game’s quality settings. Go to Settings and then Video. At the top, set the Auto-Set Quality to “low” or set the Quality Preset to “performance mode.” This will lower the overall quality of your game, but it may give your PC enough breathing room to fix the stuttering, says Fortnite Streamer & Map Designer Dustin - DWDFN.

   • All of the tips in this section are just generally good options for fixing stuttering in any game.
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   Turn off the graphics-intensive options in the game. The following settings all impact the graphics of the game. By turning them off, you may solve whatever problem is triggering the stuttering in your game. Here’s what to turn off in Fortnite (and what the setting does):

   • V-sync (This setting forces your frame rate and refresh rate to match at all times).
   • Dynamic 3D resolution (This automatically throttles or boosts your GPU based on how much power it has available).
   • Nanite virtualized geometry (Basically, this setting boosts the quality of the environment in the game).
   • Shadows (Shadows are what they sound like—in-game shadows. Having shadows takes a lot of power, though).
   • Motion blur (We recommend simply turning this off because motion blur is ugly and kind of ruins gameplay, but it has the added benefit of improving graphical performance).
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   Confirm your internet connection is stable. Oppido says to try playing a few other online games on other computers to check the internet. He says, "If my internet is slow on that second device, I know it's my internet. If the internet is super fast on that device, then I know it's my first device, my phone or whatever, that's having a problem."

   • What if my internet isn’t stable? Check out our guide on troubleshooting this problem and fixing it. The solution here could range from simply resetting your router or contacting your ISP to something like changing your router’s GHz band.
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   Update your drivers and OS. In your search bar, type “Check for updates,” and press Enter. Click the “check for updates” button in the top right of the screen and let Windows check your PC for outdated drivers. Then, install any missing updates. Next, go into Device Manager and right-click your GPU under the Display adapters dropdown menu. Click “update driver.” Restart your PC to see if the problem has resolved itself.

   • Colburn explains, “If the flickering issue a lot of times is caused by a mismatch of, say, a display driver, or something that's not properly configured in Windows... you probably need to look at fixing your display driver update and looking for an update for your specific device.”
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   Reinstall the game. Oppido recommends reinstallation as a great way to fix software problems you can’t identify. Try uninstalling Fortnite and then reinstalling it. It’s possible that Fortnite’s files became corrupted somehow and that the game will work just fine when you run a clean install.
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Section 3 of 3:

What causes Fortnite to stutter?

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1. 1
   Poor internet connection An unstable or slow internet connection is a common cause for Fortnite stuttering issues. As the connection cuts in and out, the game will stutter as it tries to reconnect to the internet. Plugging an Ethernet cord into your computer and getting off the Wi-Fi will usually help here, if you happen to be playing on a wireless connection.

   • You can check your internet speed to see if it’s good enough for Fortnite using Ookla’s online speed test. In general, you need a download speed of at least 20 Mbps, an upload speed of at least 5 Mbps, and the lower the latency, the better. Anything over 50 ms is probably going to feel unplayable.
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   Hardware issues Unfortunately, some PCs are just too old or slow to be able to run Fortnite smoothly—even on the lowest graphics settings. If your computer is a bit on the ancient side or you know you’ve got a malfunctioning GPU or CPU, it can keep Fortnite from running smoothly.

   • Recommended minimum requirements for Fortnite:
     • GPU: GTX 960, AMD R9 280, or any GPU capable of DX11
     • GPU RAM: 2 GB VRAM
     • CPU: i5-7300U or Ryzen 3 3300U
     • RAM: 16 GB
     • Memory: NVME Solid State Drive
     • OS: Windows 10
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   Software issues Any kind of issues with the Fortnite installation files, the DX12 shaders, or any of the game settings can also trigger stuttering issues. A lot of the time, simply reinstalling the game can be an easy fix here, but you may need to mess with your computer’s performance settings or update your drivers to improve your computer’s ability to run the game smoothly.
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