If you love playing games, you would have come across a term called Frame Rate. But ever wondered what exactly it is? And how does it affect the overall gaming experience? If the answer is yes, then continue reading. We will tell you everything you need to know about Frame Rate also known as FPS And explain how it can affect your gaming experience.
It might get a little bit confusing at first to understand all the technical terms. But worry not, we have created a simple guide to help you learn what different terms actually mean and how you can optimize your PC to get a better experience. So let’s get started.
How does a Video work?
Before getting into what Frame Rate is, we should have an idea first of how does video work?
So a Video you see today in any form is nothing but a continuous stream of still images running multiple times per second across the screen. This process is done in a continuous manner and as a result, it tricks our brain into perceiving it as a moving image. But in reality, it is rather a continuous flow of a certain number of frames displayed per second, which today we call a Video.
The Footage must at least have a frame rate of 16 frames per second to be able to create an illusion of moving image (video).
What is Frame Rate and how it is measured?
The same concept can be applied in terms of video games. FPS is measured simply by how many frames your system can push per second. Generally, The higher it is, the better your experience will be.
In simple words, Frame Rate is nothing but the measure of how smooth you can experience your game. It is the speed at which the number of frames is displayed per second. How many frames per second you get depends upon the system you are using, especially your graphics card. If it’s powerful enough, you will enjoy games at higher frame rates and eventually with better graphics/ resolution as well.
Frame rate is also often called as Update rate or Burst rate.
Importance of FPS in Gaming
Whether it is a competitive or casual game, FPS still plays an important role as it is a measure by which one can determine how smooth a game can run. If it’s high enough, it enables gamers to get a seamless experience across the gaming session. On the other hand, if the FPS is comparatively low, you will see jagged and uneven footage which will, in turn, affect the overall gaming experience negatively.
Here’s an example of what it is like to play on systems pushing different FPS.
Here you can see how the same game character on 60 FPS footage is lagging behind while the other two are ahead of him. You can also see the “ghosting” effect more prominent in 60 FPS footage. Ghosting is nothing but a phenomenon where you see blurry and distorted images when you move your cursor or do any movement in the game.
Benefits of Higher Frame Rate
Having higher FPS essentially mean you are being updated with the information on what’s going on the screen more frequently than those who are having low FPS. This gives you a competitive edge over your opponents and enables you to track movements faster and offers fluid motion of different moving objects across the screen. This might not matter much to the casual gamer or the offline games but it can be a deciding factor when it comes to competitive online shooter games such as CS: GO, Apex Legends, PUBG to name a few.
Other benefits of having a higher FPS include smoother animation movements of the character and different moving objects. This enables the gamer to focus better on moving targets. Ghosting is another issue as discussed above. Due to the Ghosting effect, we see the trail of the moving object and it causes difficulty to spot the target in the given time. Low Frames per second also cause screen tearing issues where you will see visual artefacts and the tearing of the screen in 2 different parts. This happens when your monitor and GPU are not synchronised. Having higher FPS already reduces the screen tearing. You can further reduce screen tearing by enabling G-Sync or AMD FreeSync.
How many FPS do you really need?
Frame Rate is a subjective thing, and it really depends from person to person. But the general rule of thumb for gaming is, the higher the better. It also mainly depends on the factors such as type of the game, system capability, monitor and the graphics setting you are playing on.
With that being said, You should always aim for as high FPS that your system can draw. If you want a more fluid experience, you can rather upgrade your system or at least a graphics card to be able to play at a high refresh rate.
Ideal FPS for Story Based Games
If you are playing casual games or story mode games where you don’t need to respond very quickly, you are fine within 30 to 60 FPS. Though you should always try to get as much above 60 FPS to get a smooth gaming experience.
60 FPS has been a standard for quite a time now. Even the consoles were targeting the 60 FPS mark too for years. But with the release of modern hardware in both the console and PC market, it has now become easier to play games at least on 60 Frames per second and even at higher resolutions up to 8K.
Lowering some of the graphics settings of the game can further help squeeze out even more FPS. You can check out below for more tips on how to optimize your system and get the best out of it.
Ideal FPS for Competitive Games
Competitive games require smooth animation and low latency and a tear-free gaming experience. So you should not have less than around 144 FPS to keep up with the other players. You can obviously play at a low frame rate such as 60 FPS but you will pay dearly when you compete with players that play on better systems.
Competitive players generally prefer to play games at high FPS. From 144, 240 hertz to as crazy as up to 360 Hertz. You will need to have a monitor which is capable of displaying that many frames per second. Also, keep in mind that, to be able to play games at a crazy high frame rate, you must have a powerful system, especially a graphics card which matters most when it comes to rendering games.
Since competitive games require high frame rates, you can start off by 144 FPS and eventually upgrade to even 240 when you think you really need it.
How to monitor your FPS while Gaming?
If you play games on your PC and don’t know how many FPS you get while playing, then you can measure it by using different software. This can come in handy to know whether your system is performing up to the mark or not. By checking how many FPS you get, you also get to find out potential issues in your system.
So there are a couple of ways to check FPS while you are gaming. One of the easiest ways to do that is to enable Steam’s in-game FPS counter. If you don’t know yet, Steam actually has an in-game FPS counter which lets you display FPS while you play the game. The best part of using Steam is that you don’t need to install any special software. And another great thing is that you can now see FPS while playing non-steam games as well. Even though you haven’t bought any games on Steam. All you have to do is to add your game to the non-steam library and that’s it.
To enable Steam in-game FPS counter, first of all, open Steam on your PC. Now click on the Seam on the top left corner of the screen and open settings. Click the In-Game option from the list and select the location where you would want to see FPS while gaming.
If you want to monitor other advanced options apart from FPS, you can install software such as MSI Afterburner, NVIDIA GeForce Experience, FRAPS, etc. MSI Afterburner has got everything that you need to monitor your FPS as well as other advanced things such as CPU, GPU and Ram Utilization, Temperatures, Core clock of CPU & GPU, VRAM usage and Power draw of the system.
How to Boost FPS on your PC?
If you think you can churn out more FPS from your system then you should probably check out the following. We have listed some of the tips and tweaks that can help you push a bit more FPS from your system.
- Reduce in game settings
- Reduce resolution
- Update graphics driver
- Set power plan to performance in control panel
- Set High performance mode in NVIDIA Control panel
- Remove unnecessary apps
- Close unnecessary apps while playing
- Upgrade RAM
- Upgrade an SSD
- Upgarde CPU
- Upgrade your GPU
Best Graphics Card you can buy
Here are some of the best.
Nvidia GPU Links
- 3060
- 3060ti
- 3070
- 3080
- 3090
NVIDIA GPU Links
- 6600xt
- 6700xt
- 6800
- 6800xt
- 6900xt
Best High Refresh Rate Monitors you can Buy
Here are some of the best.
Links
#1
#2
#3
Conclusion
To conclude, we can say that having a higher frame rate is definitely helpful as it gives a better overall experience. Things such as smoother animation improve tracking, reducing the ghosting effect can help focus on the moving target and removing screen tearing give us overall a better video output. In simple words, your reaction will be faster, your experience in the game will be faster and you will always have an edge over the opponents if you have comparatively more FPS than them.