Do You Need a Graphics Card for Fortnite?

Fortnite is a game that almost everyone out there wants to get a taste of. Unfortunately, though, only some have deep pockets to dish out hundreds of dollars to buy a dedicated graphics card for gaming.

This begs the question, “do you need a graphics card for Fortnite at all?”

If you are talking about dedicated graphics cards – the standalone GPUs that plug into your motherboards – then fortunately, the answer is no, you do NOT need a dedicated graphics card for Fortnite.

In other words, if you have a desktop or a PC recently bought, the integrated graphics card in the CPU should be sufficient for playing Fortnite.

However, you must realize that your overall experience when playing on an integrated GPU would be far from when playing on a dedicated GPU – even if you compare it to a low-end dedicated GPU.

In the following article, I will explain the integrated graphics cards, their power, the official requirements of Fortnite, and how well-integrated graphics cards can support Fortnite.

Also Read: Build Guide for PC for Fortnite

All Games Require a Graphics Card to Run

For starters, I would like you to know that all games require a graphics card to run. You need a graphics card to get any video output from your PC and display it on a monitor.

The question concerns whether you need an integrated or a dedicated graphics card.

Integrated graphics cards are built into the CPU itself. They are weaker and generally intended for low-quality gaming. They CAN, however, manage to an extent certain light games.

Dedicated graphics cards, on the other hand, are your typical standalone devices that plug into the PCIe slot of your motherboard—these range from low-end to high-end graphics cards. High-end graphics, such as NVIDIA RTX 3080Ti, can cost you a fortune.

Could you take a look at the following table? It lists some integrated and entry-level dedicated graphics cards and their corresponding G3DMark scores. I have included the RTX 3080Ti for good measure.

• Scores are taken from G3D Benchmark.

You can see here that even the best integrated,  as found on the AMD Ryzen 7 5700G, is nowhere near comparable to the mid-range or high-end-end dedicated graphics cards.

But an NVIDIA RTX 3080Ti, just the graphics card itself, has an MSRP price tag of $1,1Mid-range NVIDIA RTX 2060 has an MSRP of $349.

As such, dedicated graphics cards are certainly something that only someone can afford.

Hence, when discussing Fortnite in this context, a better question would be: “Do you need a DEDICATED graphics card for Fortnite?”

Fortunately, the answer to that question is no. Let us explore a bit more.

Also Read: GPU Hierarchy – Graphics Card Tiered Performance List

Official System Requirements of Fortnite

According to the official system requirements, Fortnite has three tiers of requirements:

1. Minimum
2. Recommended
3. Epic

They are as follows:

Minimum Requirements

Recommended Requirements

New Epic Quality Recommendations

Fortnite, after Chapter 2 Season 7, launched a graphics overhaul. As a result, the revised hardware requirements for Epic settings are as follows:

The current High Setting is equivalent to the past versions’ EPIC Settings.

Also Read: Build Guide for Fortnite

So Do You Need a Graphics Card for Fortnite?

No, you do not need a dedicated graphics card to play Fortnite at minimum settings.

There are three tiers of graphics requirements for Fortnite:

• Entry: Intel HD 4000
• High: Nvidia GTX 960
• Epic: Nvidia GTX 1080

The entry-level requirement stipulates that the game can be played with an integrated graphics card.

In other words, to minimize bear gameplay, you DO NOT need to have a dedicated graphics card for Fortnite.

I will test this with my laptop’s Intel HD 630 integrated graphics card. This score is 1,395 on G3DMark, which is much higher than the Intel HD 4000 as required for bare minimum gameplay.

Testing Fortnite on Intel UHD 630 Integrated Graphics Card – Low Settings and 3D Resolution to 100% at FHD

So far, for starters, I tested the game by setting the graphics settings to low, the resolution to Full HD (1920 x 1080), and keeping the 3D resolution scale to a max of 100%.

At a 3D resolution of 100%, the game was unbearably slow. The game kept staggering between 23-25 FPS. Note I am standing idle in an action-packed; the FPS would drop even lower.

A typical gamer, particularly for a competitive game such as Fortnite, requires at least 30 FPS, if not 60 FPS.

TL;DR: NOT PLAYABLE at 3D Resolution of 100% and Low Settings

Testing Fortnite on Intel UHD 630 Integrated Graphics Card – Low Settings and 3D Resolution to 50% at FHD

Bringing the 3D resolution down by 50% makes a whole world of difference for the FPS you can on the integrated graphics card for Fortnite.

With the 3D resolution set to 50%, the game constantly gave me the sweet 60FPS, even with an Intel UHD 630. This is an iGPU found on 7th and 8th gen CPUs released in 2017.

You can expect even better results if you have newer integrated graphics, particularly one found in the 5000 series Ryzen CPUs.

TL;DR: Yes, you can play Fortnite WITHOUT a graphics card so long as you keep the graphics settings low and tweak the 3D resolution settings to reach a playable frame rate.

But it should be pointed out that the QUALITY experience of playing Fortnite at such low graphics settings is simply horrendous. The graphics will look utterly hideous, but that only matters for some as long as you can play competitively.

Also Read: Do You Need a Graphics Card for Minecraft?

Final Words

So to conclude the question, “do you need a graphics card for Fortnite?” The answer is no. According to the official minimum requirements and the test I conducted with my Intel UHD 630 graphics, Fortnite can be played with just an integrated graphics card.

However, the game would be playable only at low graphics settings, and you will need to scale the 3D resolution down to a reasonable level to get playable frame rates.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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