Glossary:Frame rate (FPS)

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Frame rate or frame frequency, often measured in frames per second (FPS), is the frequency (rate) that images (frames) render. It is a general concept not unique to computer video games; see frame rate.

Frame rate affects the quality of a game experience. High FPS looks good - smooth and fluid. Low FPS looks bad - choppy and laggy. Very low fps can hinder or distract from gameplay.

FPS is different for every game and setup, it depends on both software and hardware. Rendering is very complicated. Generally, more powerful and expensive hardware has higher FPS. However, problems with FPS are not always easy to solve, and there may be no solution.

Measure FPS

An FPS counter is a simple way to show frame rate, and averages FPS over a short period of time.

Most games will have a key combo or console command to show or toggle a counter. See game specific articles.

Alternatively, many overlays can show counters, including Fraps, MSI Afterburner, EVGA Precision, RivaTuner, Xfire, and others.

Limit FPS

An FPS limit can solve bugs and glitches, often in ports or legacy games not designed for very high FPS. It can also solve stabilize FPS, solving jitter and jerkiness from sudden and severe changes in FPS.

Instructions

Instructions

Instructions

Frame-rate (hardware)

Possible causes

There can be a host of different causes to sudden decrease in frame-rate. When trouble-shooting take note of new hardware, age, compatibility, possible damage caused by (and not limited to) power outage, and all changes made to the system in the time before the performance drop.

For framerate drops with no apparent cause, you can try the following:

• Plug in or remove any joysticks or gamepads.
• Closing unnecessary background applications.
• Restarting the system.
• Make sure you have the newest drivers for your GPU, If you are having troubles with newer games, try using the beta drivers.
• Use a tool like HWmonitor to see if your system is reaching higher temps and your GPU or CPU are throttling as to not overheat.
• If you are using SLI/crossfire, try turning off one of your cards, some games scale inversely in multi-GPU setups.
• Check the INI files of the individual games (usually located in the "Documents/My games" folders) for a line capping refresh rate or FPS.