How to See FPS (Frames per Second) While Playing Games

How to See FPS (Frames per Second) While Playing Games

If you are a gamer, then you are, probably, familiar with the term FPS. FPS, short for Frames Per Second, is a value that indicates how many consecutive images (frames) are processed by your video card each second. Basically, lower FPS means that your game will "freeze", while a higher FPS value indicates a more smooth game experience.

Some experienced gamers and graphic artists can roughly estimate how many frames per second their imaging devices produce, but having a way to determine the exact FPS value may sometimes be of vital importance. You can lower the graphic settings in order to achieve a better FPS rate or add more effects if your FPS value is high enough (60 FPS is considered to be optimal).

Next, I will show you several ways to view your FPS while playing your favorite games.

Fraps

Fraps main window

Fraps is one of the most popular tools that will help you view your FPS while playing games that use DirectX or OpengGL graphic technology. The FPS value will be displayed in a corner of your screen (as you can see in the image below) that you can choose by clicking on the FPS tab and selecting one of the overlay corners. You can easily toggle the overlay on or off by pressing the F12 key (by default).

But that's not all that this application can do. FRAPS is also capable of performing benchmarking tests, capturing images (screenshots) or recording videos of your game sessions.

Game FPS Display

Steam - you can get it here

Steam FPS Menu

If you are using Valve's popular gaming client to purchase, download, install and play games, then, you won't have to install additional applications to display the FPS, because of the recent feature that was added to Steam, called "In-game FPS counter". In order to activate it, you need to go to the "Settings" menu, click on the "In-Game" tab and select the desired location of the FPS counter (see image). In addition, if you are having trouble viewing the counter, you can check the box right under the counter location menu so that you make Steam use high contrast colors when displaying the FPS.

Steam Game FPS Display

NVIDIA GeForce Experience

GeForce Experience FPS option

Those of you who own a modern NVIDIA graphics card with ShadowPlay support (ShadowPlay is NVIDIA's screen hardware accelerated screen recording tool) can use GeForce Experience application in order to display the FPS during your gaming sessions. To activate this feature, simply go to the "Preferences" tab, select "ShadowPlay" from the left menu and click on "FPS counter". Therefore, you can now use NVIDIA GeForce Experience not only to tweak your games and keep your drivers up to date (a crucial point for gamers), but also to view your FPS.

NVIDIA Game FPS Display

RadeonPro

RadeonPro FPS Option

We mentioned the tool NVIDIA users get to show the FPS, so it is time for AMD Radeon users. RadeonPro was designed as the equivalent of GeForce Experience tool but for Radeon graphic cards. To enable the FPS counter, you need to access the "Settings" menu, click on the FPS tab and select the desired position and hotkey (for turning the overlay on and off).

Use game settings

Before installing any additional tool to display the FPS, you might want to browse through the game settings to view if it doesn't come with a built-in FPS counter. Usually, the FPS counter can be found in the Video or Graphics Options menu, but some games have it placed in the Keyboard or Startup Options tab. Other games could even require you to type console commands in order to enable it or modify the configuration files. A short Google search, based on the game you are playing, will help you out a lot.

Conclusion

These are just some of the applications that are capable of displaying the frames per second your video card produces while you play your favorite games. If you want to test other tools that can display your FPS, then here are some of the alternatives.

Alternative downloads

• Dxtory $46 windows Movie capture tool only for DirextX/OpenGL application. Download
• Fraps windows Universal Windows application that can be used with games using DirectX or OpenGL graphic technology. Download
• RadeonPro free windows Radeon Profile Tool, or RadeonPro for short, is a free... Download
• Raptr free windows Program that allows you to optimize PC gaming settings. Download
• Razer Cortex free windows It can improve gaming performance on supported PCs by optimizing Windows settings... Download