Best Cloud Gaming Platforms for Fortnite

Fortnite is the biggest Battle Royale game to date and now since they introduced the no-build game type, the game got even more attention. Cloud gaming platforms are now getting plenty of attention as a great way to play Fortnite completely free without needing a console or high-end PC to play on. We have covered various cloud gaming platforms playing Fortnite. Looking to see which platform is going to be best for you? Let’s get on the bus!

Fortnite on GeForce Now

How does Fortnite look on the RTX 3080 tier at 4k on the NVIDIA SHIELD TV Pro? You’re in for a treat.

Believe it or not, this is the 2nd time I’ve ever played Fortnite. It’s been quite awhile since I’ve played so let’s see what RTX 3080 tier can do.

Graphics

I played several games on GeForce Now and the first game I played was on an Xbox controller at the default graphics settings. I also turned on the in-game FPS counter that Fortnite provides. Fortnite is not a demanding game so the FPS goes to 120. It’s too bad the SHIELD TV only outputs 60hz because 4k at 120hz is totally possible here.

Now as I get into a game, you can see that the game is as smooth as butter. If you don’t have the YouTube quality settings turned to 4k, do so and throw this on a big screen because this plays wonderfully.

Gameplay

Due to the GeForce Now’s infrastructure, GeForce Now also has great a response time which makes it is easy to lineup your shots and get your kills – even for a newbie. Does GeForce Now hold up the constant frame rate while in game? Oh yes.

For my second game, I decided to change things up and play this game on mouse and keyboard. I also maxed the graphic settings to see what the RTX 3080 tier is capable of doing at this resolution.

I have to say, things don’t look too much different but, the FPS drop was real. I understand now why they set it to the settings they did. I was dropping down to 70s and 80s. Now that doesn’t really matter since I’m only capable of 60hz right now but it’s good to know there is a bit of a strain when everything is bumped up a bit in the graphics settings.

Overall, things played extremely well. This is my ultimate way to play Fortnite now. I was actually able to win this match on my third time playing. Granted, these were bots but still, it’s a good feeling. I highly recommend Fortnite on GeForce Now, especially with the RTX 3080 tier.

Fortnite on Xbox Cloud Gaming

Fortnite is now free to play on any device that supports the Xbox Cloud Gaming platform. This includes Android and iPhone devices. If you are looking to get started with Xbox Cloud Gaming to play Fortnite for FREE, start with the video below.

All you need is a Microsoft account and you are set to go. You can also play the game on your desktop at 1080p by going to xbox.com/play. They don’t give you any time restrictions to play the game so you don’t have to worry about how long to play like you do on GeForce Now.

Quality

The biggest thing you’ll have to worry about is the quality of the service. Geforce Now has them beat on this end.

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The Xbox Cloud Gaming platform only goes up to 1080p and limits bitrate to 15 mbps. No high-end streams here. You get what you pay for.

Gameplay

Your performance will probably be better on GeForce Now as well. The Xbox Cloud Gaming platform is technically still in beta so playability is not as fleshed out as GeForce Now. But it’s free so who am I to complain.

Check out this crossplay between GeForce Now on iPhone vs Xbox cloud on iPhone. Can it be done? Absolutely. We decide to play a match in No build Duos as we make our way to the inner circle.

Fortnite on Boosteroid

How is the most popular Battle Royale game of all time with Europe’s biggest Pickup n’ Play cloud gaming platform. Match made in heaven? Let’s find out.

Graphics

Let’s talk graphics. Fortnite isn’t a super demanding game but it can’t run on a potato either. Boosteroid has a custom medium graphics configuration. But Boosteroid manages to run the game just fine according to the FPS counter. It’s at 60 for the most post.

Where there dips in game? Hardly. But 95% of the time, you’ll be at 60 fps at 1080p. I didn’t expect anything less from Boosteroid.

Input Lag

Now that Boosteroid has released servers in the US, it’s a great time to test how well the response time is on a game like Fortnite. Technically this is still a soft-launch according to Boosteroid. Now saying this, Boosteroid’s reduced lag in North America is noticeable.

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Everything has improved immensely because the lag feels minimal. Is it as good as I was expecting? To be honest, no but, that’s probably because my nearest Boosteroid server is several states away from me in North Carolina. I still get a good ping rate though. I get anywhere from 25-30 milliseconds.

Gameplay

Do I play well? I was satisfied. Going up against bots is easy. If you die by bots, I pity you. You got some work to do. Treat the bots as targets of opportunity for training purposes. I’ll admit that going up against players is much different ballgame. I got lucky for some but generally, I felt like I was still at a disadvantage even with ping this low.

It just didn’t feel fully there compared to, let’s just say, GeForce Now. Maybe if they had put a server in New York or DC I would have latency at 20 or below like I do with other services.

Overall, Fortnite plays fine. Maybe Boosteroid will add additional servers so ping will be even lower in the near future.

Fortnite on Shadow

Shadow might be aging in hardware right now, but Fortnite is getting up there in age now too. Does the current Shadow tech (see what I did there) handle Fortnite at the highest level? Does this include 4k? I’ll be the bus driver for this match. Let’s go for a ride.

Installation

Installation took about 15 minutes from the Epic Games Store. It was the weekend though so things might have been slow or the exact opposite we’ll never know.

Graphics

I have a 4k monitor so my ideal settings would be 4k resolution at Epic settings but there’s a reason why the Power Upgrade is releasing soon. There is no way the current Shadow machine is going to be able to handle this.

I have to lower the quality to ensure that I get a reasonable framerate to play at 4K. So, is 4K doable? Yes, but with a cost. I get an average of 30 FPS while playing with Medium settings. So yes, this is doable just not exactly the most enjoyable.

“What about 1080p?” you ask. Well, I tried this too and frames are much better here as expected at High settings so you 1080p and mobile gamers should have no issue. I did have some slight stuttering but nothing to write home about.

Gameplay

As I play Fortnite on various platforms, I’m slowly getting better with each game. With my Shadow machine latency usually under 20 ms, response time is wonderful. Heck, it’s even better than my connection to GeForce Now.

Even though Shadow might not be able to hand the super high resolutions and epic quality just yet, high quality 1080p will do you just fine. We’ll have to revisit the game when the Power Upgrade gets released.

Fortnite on AirGPU

Good ol’ Fortnite. How does the world’s most popular Battle Royale game fair on the AirGPU platform? We’ll test a couple tiers and see how it goes. Stay tuned.

V520 Tier

I first tried playing Fortnite on the v520-S tier just to see how much I could push the game. And guys, this tier ranks just slightly under Shadow’s. I don’t recommend going any lower for adequate gaming.

I jumped into my first match at 4k. The stutters and the low framerate, even Fortnite, was too inconsistent for this tier at 4K. During the match I had to reduce the resolution just to keep everything at a consistent framerate.

After this change, gameplay was a lot better for all games going forward. My frames were around 45 for an average. Of course this tier isn’t designed for 4k gameplay and you really can’t get away with it especially when the bitrate is capped at 20 mbps for this tier. Do other tiers offer a higher bitrate? Yes. You would have to benefit from the 4K gameplay the A10G tiers offer.

A10G 4K Tier

Now I tried playing again on the A10G-M tier. Is it worth the upgrade? Yes. Hello 120 fps at 4k. It’s just too bad that the stream doesn’t go above 60. The server is also farther away in Northern Virginia but this barely hinders performance. So if you don’t mind 4k gameplay limited to 60 fps, this is your ticket. But once again, you will pay for it.

I’ve been enjoying Parsec and have had no issues playing with mouse and keyboard and controller because I played with both. Saying this, I do hope AirGPU develops some apps for desktop and mobile devices. This would make things a lot more convenient for all users wanting to use these cloud PCs wherever and whenever they want.

Overall, Fortnite works well on AirGPU’s AWS servers. Fortnite is not a highly demanding game. Were you really expecting it not to play well?

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Fortnite on Playkey.net

For us, Playkey has been a top performing platform to play some of the most popular games on the market. Even though they are service with servers located in all parts of Europe, how does a game like Fortnite play on Playkey?

Graphics

So what are we running with when we use Playkey? Do we get “Epic” gameplay? Let’s take a look at the graphics settings. I’m surprised that Playkey has the settings at their highest. Don’t expect it to be like this all the time because you will get random hardware every time you logon. Your results might better or worse. We’ll also have the in-game FPS counter active to show off just how well the game performs.

Gameplay

As I get into the game, the true colors of these Playkey settings set in. The FPS is sporadic, at least when loading start of the game when everyone gets in the game. How bad is it when you are actually playing in-game?

FPS ends up being very sporadic on this session as well. Now it is close to 60 FPS. Sometime it’s above 60 depending on where you are on the map. What happens when I restart the game and connect to a new machine?

Here’s a different session altogether. As you can see, this session has an almost constant 60 FPS. This is what happens when you get random hardware every time you logon. See our benchmark post for more information.

Input Lag

With being in the US, the lag from Playkey servers in Europe is real. We get over a hundred milliseconds of latency which can make gameplay difficult. If you are in Europe, you might have a much better connection with better latency. So if you are in the US, I recommend not playing in Playkey until they come to the US, which they were planning to do. We’ll see if they come through.

Overall, Fortnite plays okay but it really depends on the hardware configuration you get every time you logon. I’ll just be waiting for those official US servers so I can play at my best. 4K hardware wouldn’t hurt either.