Question about gaming FPS

[CDC Mail Guy]

What is Frames Per Second based on? The CPU? Video card? The game itself?

The reason I ask is that it seems no matter what video card I use, I seem to get the same FPS. From my original ATI 850XT whatever...to the Nvidia 7600 to my current 7950GT. Of course, each card I get I expect better performance, and I pay more each time.

So I just wonder. I get GREAT frame rates, but I'm curious if the game itself limits performance. I mainly play Call Of Duty online, Far Cry, FEAR etc...

 

[BFG10K]

Frames per second is based on the rendering speed of the total system from the CPU to when it finally hits the monitor from the GPU.

If you're getting the same framerate you're either CPU limited or have vsync on (vsync locks your framerate to your display's refresh rate).

Occasionally the game itself can also cap the framerate too, like Doom 3 for example that caps the game to 60 FPS.

 

[Rage3kMoiz]

It also depends from game to game. Some are GPU-bound, while others are CPU-bound. BF2 for example, is more CPU-bound so a faster CPU will cause better performance than a faster GPU. On the other hand, FEAR is very GPU-bound so a faster GPU will show much better performance than a faster CPU. By faster, I mean faster than your current setup.