Fortnite will drop DirectX 9 support when Season 10 goes live

The Fortnite system requirements dictate that you must have, among other things, a bare minimum of an Intel HD 4000 GPU in order to play the game. As it turns out, that was a bit of a fudge, because the game will actually run on DX9 GPUs. But it will be un-fudged when Season 10 rolls around.

"While a DirectX 11-capable graphics card has always been one of Fortnite’s system requirements, we’ve kept support online for players with older graphics cards—so they could keep playing!" Epic announced today.

"However, when Season 10 begins, Fortnite will no longer be compatible with these older graphics cards. This allows us to focus our development and testing efforts to further optimize the Fortnite experience for all players."

Season 10 is still a little distance down the road—Season 9 is just over halfway through—so this gives those of you still rocking the Windows 98 vibe some time to get caught up. And really, you should: I understand that deep-down dedication to your GPU (I loved my Radeon 9700, and it's probably still kicking around here somewhere) but sooner or later you have to let these things go. And if you're still running a DirectX 9 video card, trust me: It's time to move on.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.