What do you use to measure your FPS in games?

[Nvidiaguy07]

I have a decently powered system, but i have a feeling im putting my settings a little lower than i should.

For example in BF3, i could tell that my FPS dropped a lot when changing to Ultra, so i just leave it on auto, and its very smooth. I actually might want it a little lower, since i want as close to 120fps as possible, but if i could turn it up a bit that would be great too.

FYI i have a 3570k 560ti, and 120hz monitor.

To a degree i just use trial and error, but i wish there was an easier way, or a FPS counter that i could have on the screen to see what im getting. Even NBA 2k12 has a "test my settings" option, that shows you the fps at your current settings.

Lastly, is there a guide to which settings do what? I just play around with AA MSAA AF etc until it looks good, but i wish i knew what i was doing when i change this crap.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

fraps?

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

fraps?

is that what everyone uses? lol I'm pretty out of the loop when it comes to this. And do you always have it running? or just when benchmarking?

 

[Atomic Playboy]

FRAPS. You have to leave it on to have it show the FPS counter in games. Some games have built in FPS readouts available through console commands (cl_showfps 1 or net_graph 1 work in most games based off the source engine for example).

 

[DaveSimmons]

Eyeball Mark 1. If it looks smooth to me I don't bother worrying about the actual FPS.

Edit: actually, I did install FRAPS many years on a previous PC in . . . 2008? to see my FPS was in Neverwinter Nights 2 before and after upgrading my graphics card to a Radeon 4870.

 

[marlinman]

In BF3 you should be able to press '~', type "Render.ShowFps 1", press enter, press '~', and have an FPS counter appear at top right of screen.

edit: at tweakguides.com there are good descriptions of what the various graphics options are all about...

 

[cmdrdredd]

Fraps or MSI Afterburner/EVGA PrecisionX

 

[bononos]

is that what everyone uses? lol I'm pretty out of the loop when it comes to this. And do you always have it running? or just when benchmarking?

Fraps (free version) can also save your lowest/avg/highest fps. I wouldn't bother running it once I've finished with tweaking.

 

[SenorRed]

As previously stated, fraps. It's a good lightweight program that will also do more than just show your FPS. It will take screen shots, video, and I am sure it has other features that I am not aware of, those are just the two that come to mind immediately.

 

[BrightCandle]

I use Dxtory as it also includes a frame rate limiter that reduces the stuttering I see with xfire.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

One more question: will vsync limit my frames to 60, or 120 in my case?

How many people use vsync? Ive been using it a lot more lately.

 

[Ferzerp]

I bought fraps a few years ago. It displays on my keyboard LCD.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

One more question: will vsync limit my frames to 60, or 120 in my case?

How many people use vsync? Ive been using it a lot more lately.

I never used vsync until my most recent build. Now that there's adaptive vsync, it makes sense to use it for the most part (I still don't use it in Source based games since they feel more fluid at higher FPS even if your monitor can't display it). If you have a 120 Hz monitor, vsync would limit you to 120 FPS, and would drop you to 60 or 40 or 30 or 20 depending on how much your rig could produce; an even multiple of your refresh rate. With adapative vsync, your max will be capped at your monitor's refresh rate, but if it dips, vsync will be disabled so you could have any value from 1-120, but nothing higher. I find that it works very well to limit tearing while also getting rid of moments where your FPS gets cut in half from dipping slightly below the refresh rate.