FPS Test: How to Check & Improve Frame Rate (2026)

An FPS tester measures how many frames your PC renders each second – and the fastest way to check is pressing Shift+Tab in Steam and enabling the built-in FPS counter, which takes five seconds and works in any game. But that number alone does not tell the full story. Your average FPS might look fine at 90, while your 1% lows drop to 30 and cause stuttering you can feel but cannot explain by the average alone. See our gaming tools hub for deeper context.

This guide covers every method to measure frame rate on PC, what the numbers mean, how to spot whether your GPU or CPU is the problem, and the settings changes that give you the biggest FPS gains with the smallest visual hit.

What Is FPS and Why Does It Matter?

FPS stands for frames per second. Your GPU draws a new image of the game world, sends it to your monitor, and starts drawing the next one. The more frames per second, the smoother the motion looks and the more responsive your inputs feel.

At 30 FPS, each frame stays on screen for 33 milliseconds. At 60 FPS, that drops to 16.7ms. At 144 FPS, just 6.9ms. The difference between 30 and 60 is obvious to everyone. The jump from 60 to 144 is noticeable in fast-paced games, especially shooters where you are flicking crosshairs. Past 240, most people struggle to tell the difference unless they are tracking targets at close range.

But FPS only matters relative to your monitor’s refresh rate. A 60Hz monitor can only display 60 unique frames per second. Rendering 200 FPS on a 60Hz panel wastes GPU power without any visual benefit (unless you want lower input latency for competitive play). Match your target FPS to your monitor’s refresh rate for the best experience.

How to Check Your FPS (Every Method)

There are several ways to get an FPS counter on screen. Some are dead simple, some give you more data. Pick the one that matches how much detail you want.

Steam Overlay (Easiest – 5 Seconds)

If you play through Steam, this is the fastest option. Open Steam, go to Settings > In-Game, find In-Game FPS Counter, and pick a corner. Done. A small green number appears in every Steam game from that point forward.

The Steam counter shows average FPS only. No 1% lows, no frame time graph, no GPU temperature. For a quick sanity check – “am I hitting 60?” – it is the best option. For diagnosing problems, you need something more detailed.

Performance cost: Essentially zero. The Steam overlay is so lightweight that no benchmark has ever measured a meaningful difference with it on or off.

MSI Afterburner + RTSS (Most Detailed)

MSI Afterburner paired with RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) is the gold standard for FPS monitoring. It works with any GPU brand – not just MSI cards – and it is free.

1. Download MSI Afterburner. Install it with RTSS included (the installer asks – say yes).
2. Open Afterburner. Click the gear icon for Settings.
3. Go to the Monitoring tab. For each stat you want on screen, click the item and check “Show in On-Screen Display”. Start with: GPU usage, CPU usage, Framerate, GPU temperature, Framerate 1% low.
4. Launch your game. The overlay appears in the top-left corner by default showing all your selected stats in real time.

Why RTSS matters: it can show your 1% low FPS, which is the frame rate during the worst 1% of rendering moments. A game averaging 120 FPS with 1% lows at 25 FPS has a serious stuttering problem. The average alone would never reveal that. RTSS also shows frame time in milliseconds, which is the most accurate way to spot micro-stuttering.

Performance cost: Under 1% CPU overhead. RTSS injects its overlay at the render level, which is more efficient than Windows-based overlays.

Game Built-In FPS Counters

Many games include their own FPS counters hidden in settings menus or console commands. These vary wildly in usefulness.

• Valorant: Settings > Video > Stats > Client FPS (shows FPS, server tick rate, ping)
• CS2: Open console with ~ and type cl_showfps 1
• Fortnite: Settings > Video > Show FPS
• Overwatch 2: Options > Video > Display Performance Stats
• Apex Legends: Settings > Gameplay > Performance Display

The advantage of built-in counters: they sometimes show game-specific data like server tick rate and render latency that third-party tools cannot access. The downside: they differ in format, detail, and placement from game to game.

Xbox Game Bar (Windows Built-In)

Press Win+G to open Xbox Game Bar, then click the Performance widget. Pin it to keep it visible during gameplay. It shows FPS, CPU usage, GPU usage, and RAM usage in a floating window.

The Game Bar works in non-Steam games where the Steam overlay is unavailable. But it runs as a Windows app rather than a render-level injection, so it has slightly higher overhead than RTSS. On low-end hardware, that overhead can cost you 2-5 FPS – ironic when you are trying to measure frame rate.

NVIDIA and AMD Overlays

NVIDIA GeForce Experience: Press Alt+Z to open the overlay, click the gear icon, enable Performance HUD. It shows FPS, GPU clock, temperature, and power draw. The “Advanced” view adds a frame time graph.

AMD Adrenalin Software: Open Radeon Software, go to Performance > Metrics, and enable the in-game overlay with Ctrl+Shift+O. Shows FPS, GPU temperature, clock speed, and VRAM usage.

Both vendor overlays work well for their respective hardware. The downside: they only show GPU stats. You will not see CPU usage or per-core data, which means you cannot spot CPU bottlenecks with these tools alone.

FPS Benchmarks: What Numbers Should You Target?

Your target FPS depends on your monitor, your game genre, and your tolerance for visual compromise. Here is a practical breakdown.

The 1% low column is what separates a smooth experience from one that “feels weird” even though the average looks good. Your 1% low should stay above 60% of your target FPS. If you are aiming for 144 FPS and your 1% lows hit 50, that is a stuttering problem that needs fixing regardless of the average.

Genre Matters More Than Raw Numbers

A turn-based strategy game at 45 FPS feels fine. Valorant at 45 FPS feels sluggish. The speed of camera movement and the precision of input required dictate how much FPS matters.

• Competitive FPS (Valorant, CS2, Apex): 144+ FPS minimum. Every frame gives you a timing advantage in gunfights. Pros target 240+.
• Battle royale (Fortnite, Warzone): 100-144 FPS is the sweet spot. Dips below 80 during big fights hurt your aim tracking.
• Single-player AAA (Cyberpunk, Elden Ring): 60 FPS is the target. These games look gorgeous at Ultra settings, and the visual fidelity matters more than pushing 200+ frames.
• Strategy/Simulation (Civ 6, Cities Skylines): 30-60 FPS is acceptable. Camera movement is slow and input precision is irrelevant.

Understanding Your FPS Numbers

You ran a test and got numbers. Now what? Raw FPS is only the starting point. Frame time consistency matters just as much.

Average FPS vs 1% Low vs 0.1% Low

Average FPS is the total frames rendered divided by time. It hides stutters. A game that renders 200 frames in one second and 20 the next averages 110 FPS, but it feels awful.

The 1% low is your FPS during the worst 1% of moments. The 0.1% low captures the absolute worst spikes. If your average is 120 but your 0.1% low is 15, you have a severe stutter that happens briefly but ruins the experience when it does.

Frame Time: The Better Metric

Frame time measures how long each individual frame takes to render, in milliseconds. A consistent 8.3ms frame time at 120 FPS feels buttery smooth. A frame time that bounces between 5ms and 25ms at the same average FPS feels terrible.

RTSS shows frame time as a graph. A flat line is good – it means consistent frame pacing. Spikes in the graph represent stutters. The graph tells you more about perceived smoothness than the FPS number ever will.

GPU vs CPU Bottleneck: Which Is Killing Your FPS?

Low FPS always comes down to one of two components being the limiter. Figuring out which one saves you from wasting money on the wrong upgrade or changing settings that will not help.

How to Identify Your Bottleneck

Open MSI Afterburner with GPU usage and CPU usage enabled in the overlay. Play your game for five minutes in a demanding area – not a menu screen, not a loading zone, but actual combat or open-world traversal where the engine works hardest.

• GPU at 95-100%, CPU under 70%: GPU bottleneck. Your graphics card is maxed out while the processor has room to spare.
• CPU at 85-100%, GPU under 70%: CPU bottleneck. Your processor is holding back the GPU from doing more work.
• Both at 80-95%: Balanced. Neither is wasting significant capacity.

Fixing a GPU Bottleneck

GPU bottlenecks are the easier problem to solve because most in-game settings directly reduce GPU workload. Here are the biggest wins, ranked by FPS gain per visual quality lost:

1. Enable DLSS, FSR, or XeSS: These AI upscaling technologies render at a lower internal resolution and upscale the image. DLSS Quality mode can boost FPS by 40-60% with minor visual differences. This is the single best setting change in modern games.
2. Lower render resolution: Dropping from 4K to 1440p roughly doubles FPS. Going from 1440p to 1080p gives another 50-80% boost. Resolution is the heaviest GPU load.
3. Turn off ray tracing: RT lighting and reflections look great but cost 30-50% of your frame rate in most implementations. Global illumination is the most expensive; reflections are cheaper.
4. Reduce shadow quality: Shadows from Ultra to Medium saves 10-15% FPS with barely visible differences during gameplay.
5. Lower volumetric effects: Fog, clouds, and god rays are expensive. Dropping from Ultra to Medium saves 5-10% FPS.

Fixing a CPU Bottleneck

CPU bottlenecks are harder to fix through settings because fewer sliders reduce CPU load. But you still have options.

1. Lower draw distance and NPC count: These settings determine how many objects the CPU has to track. Reducing them lightens the CPU workload directly.
2. Close background apps: Discord, Chrome with 40 tabs, antivirus scans, RGB software – these all eat CPU cycles. Close what you do not need while gaming.
3. Enable XMP/DOCP in BIOS: Your RAM is probably running at default speed, not its rated speed. Enabling XMP (Intel) or DOCP (AMD) can boost FPS by 5-15% in CPU-limited scenarios because the CPU accesses data faster.
4. Raise the resolution: This sounds backwards, but increasing resolution shifts more work to the GPU, which can actually balance the load. Your FPS stays the same (CPU-limited), but you get better image quality for free.
5. Disable SMT/Hyperthreading (last resort): Some poorly optimized games run better with fewer, faster threads. Test with it off – if FPS improves, leave it off for that game.

Optimal Settings for Maximum FPS

Not every graphics setting costs the same amount of performance. Some settings eat 20% of your FPS for a barely noticeable improvement. Others look great and cost almost nothing. Here is how to prioritize.

High-Impact Settings (Lower These First)

• Resolution scale / render resolution: The single biggest FPS swing. Going from native to 75% render scale can gain 30-50% FPS.
• Ray tracing: Any RT setting costs significant GPU time. Turn it off entirely if you need FPS.
• Shadow quality: Ultra shadows render at high resolution with long draw distances. Medium cuts the cost by half with minimal visual change.
• Anti-aliasing (MSAA): MSAA is extremely expensive. Switch to FXAA or TAA for similar edge smoothing at a fraction of the cost.
• Volumetric lighting/fog: Expensive per-pixel calculations. Medium is the sweet spot.

Low-Impact Settings (Keep These High)

• Texture quality: Barely affects FPS unless you run out of VRAM. Keep it on High or Ultra if your GPU has enough memory.
• Anisotropic filtering: The cost is negligible on modern GPUs. Keep it at 16x.
• View distance (non-CPU): In some engines, view distance only costs GPU time for rendering distant objects, and the cost is minor.
• Texture filtering: Almost free on modern hardware. Leave it maxed.

The “Competitive” Preset

If you play ranked shooters and want maximum FPS without the game looking like a slideshow from 2005:

• Resolution: Native (do not downscale – clarity matters for spotting enemies)
• DLSS/FSR: Quality or Balanced mode
• Textures: High
• Shadows: Low or Medium
• Effects: Low
• Anti-aliasing: TAA or FXAA
• Ray tracing: Off
• V-Sync: Off (use G-Sync or FreeSync instead, or cap FPS 3 below your refresh rate)

This combination keeps the game looking sharp where it matters – character models, weapon skins, environment textures – while cutting the expensive effects that add visual flair but not gameplay clarity.

Common Mistakes When Testing FPS

FPS Testing Tools Compared

Advanced FPS Improvements

You have tweaked settings and identified your bottleneck. Here are the next-level optimizations that squeeze out extra frames.

Windows Optimizations

• Game Mode: Windows 11 Game Mode is on by default. Leave it on – it prioritizes GPU and CPU resources for the foreground game.
• Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling (HAGS): Found in Settings > System > Display > Graphics. Reduces CPU overhead for frame scheduling. Enable it and test – most modern GPUs benefit, but some older titles can stutter.
• Power plan: Set Windows to “High Performance” or “Ultimate Performance” in power settings. “Balanced” mode throttles CPU clocks between frames, adding inconsistency.
• Disable fullscreen optimizations: Right-click game .exe > Properties > Compatibility > Disable fullscreen optimizations. Some games perform better with this checked.

Driver and Software Updates

GPU drivers get game-specific optimizations with every release. A new NVIDIA or AMD driver can gain 5-15% FPS in recently launched titles. Use GeForce Experience or AMD Adrenalin to stay current. But do not install day-one drivers blindly – wait a day or two to see if other users report stability issues.

BIOS Settings That Affect FPS

• XMP/DOCP: Enables your RAM to run at its advertised speed instead of the default 2133/2400 MHz. The FPS gain in CPU-limited scenarios ranges from 5-15%, which is significant for a free change.
• Resizable BAR / Smart Access Memory: Lets the CPU access the full GPU VRAM pool instead of 256MB chunks. Gains range from 0-10% depending on the game.
• PBO (AMD) or Turbo settings (Intel): Ensure your CPU is boosting to its rated clock speeds. Some motherboards ship with conservative defaults.

Which FPS Tool Should You Use?

Here is the short version for anyone who does not want to read through every option.

If you just want to know your FPS number: Use the Steam overlay. Five seconds to enable, zero performance cost, works in every Steam game. Good enough for 90% of players.

If your game stutters and you want to know why: Install MSI Afterburner with RTSS. Enable GPU usage, CPU usage, framerate, and 1% low in the overlay. This tells you whether your GPU, CPU, or thermals are the problem – and the 1% low reveals stuttering the average hides.

If you play non-Steam games and need a quick overlay: Use Xbox Game Bar (Win+G). It works everywhere but costs a few FPS on low-end hardware.

If you are benchmarking for hardware reviews or upgrade decisions: Use CapFrameX. It logs every frame over time, generates detailed charts, and exports data you can compare across different settings or hardware configurations.

For most gamers, start with Steam overlay. The moment something feels off, graduate to Afterburner + RTSS. That covers almost every scenario.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good FPS for gaming?

60 FPS is the baseline for smooth gameplay on a 60Hz monitor. For competitive shooters like Valorant or CS2, aim for 144 FPS or higher on a matching high-refresh display. The most important number is your 1% low – if it drops below 60% of your target, you will feel stuttering even when the average looks fine.

Does showing an FPS counter reduce performance?

Steam’s built-in counter and most in-game counters cost zero measurable performance. MSI Afterburner with RTSS adds under 1% CPU overhead. Xbox Game Bar is the most expensive option at 2-5 FPS on low-end systems because it runs as a Windows app rather than a render-level overlay.

Why is my FPS low even though I have a good GPU?

A CPU bottleneck is the most common cause. Your GPU sits idle waiting for the CPU to process game logic, AI, and draw calls. Check per-core CPU usage in Task Manager – if any single core is at 100%, that core is the limiter. Other causes include thermal throttling (GPU or CPU too hot), RAM running at default speed instead of XMP, or V-Sync capping your frame rate.

Is V-Sync good or bad for FPS?

V-Sync caps your frame rate to your monitor’s refresh rate and eliminates screen tearing, but it adds input lag (typically 20-50ms). For competitive games, turn it off and use G-Sync or FreeSync instead, which eliminate tearing without the input lag penalty. For single-player games where input lag does not matter, V-Sync is fine.

How do I check FPS on a laptop?

The same tools work on laptops – Steam overlay, MSI Afterburner, Xbox Game Bar. But laptops have an extra variable: power profiles. Make sure your laptop is plugged in and set to “High Performance” mode. On battery power, the GPU and CPU throttle aggressively, and FPS drops by 40-60%. Also check that the game is using the dedicated GPU and not the integrated graphics – NVIDIA laptops sometimes default to the wrong one.

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