Yoodley is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Getting as many frames per second (FPS) as possible is important when gaming, whether you’re playing games on consoles, emulators, or Windows PCs. But you’ll certainly agree with the statement that the most important thing for computers is to achieve as high a number of frames per second as possible.
With sufficiently fast and powerful components and a monitor with a high refresh rate, the chances of you getting more FPS in games are higher, which will lead to games running more fluidly and being more enjoyable to play. But how to check how many frames per second a game displays? How can you find this out?
We’ll provide the answers to these questions in the rest of this article.
What Does FPS Even Mean?
First of all, what does the abbreviation “frames per second” even mean? Abbreviated as “FPS,” it’s the main metric used to determine how well or fluidly your game runs. If the game runs at a higher frame rate, it will run more fluidly and faster. This is especially important in eSports games, i.e., competitive games, where every millisecond counts.
Although you don’t need to know the number of frames per second if your game runs smoothly, there are situations when it is good to know how many FPS the game is running at, for reference. This information helps you gain better insight into your hardware’s performance.
A lot depends on achieving more frames per second. Of course, the more powerful and newer components your computer uses, the better the game will run and the higher the number of FPS will show. A powerful graphics card, an excellent and fast processor, and an adequate amount of working memory will greatly contribute to the fact that the game works as fluidly and quickly as possible at any resolution and regardless of details.
But sometimes it can happen that due to the ignorance and incompetence of the development team, the game works worse than it should or simply works poorly, with a low number of frames per second, even if, according to the capabilities of the components, it should work better. Examples of such games are The Last of Us Part 1 for Windows computers and Calisto Protocol. Both of these games ran horribly on every computer regardless of what components were inside, meaning this was down to the game, not the user’s computer.
How to Check the Number of FPS in a Game on the Steam Server?
Steam (a digital storefront and video game distribution service created by Valve Corporation) includes a built-in frames-per-second counter that you can overlay over any game in your Steam library, even if it’s a non-Steam game. As the most popular marketplace for PC games, this is probably all you need for a quick FPS counter in most of your games, but it’s not as detailed as some of the tools we’ll get into later.
- Open Steam and select “Steam” in the upper left corner.
- Select “Settings” and then select the “In-Game” tab.
- Use the “In-Game” frames per second counter option to choose where you want the “FPS counter” to be located. Check the “High Contrast Color” box if you have trouble seeing the box, and when you’re done, select “OK”. The “FPS” counter will appear in all your Steam games going forward, but you might not even notice it right away since it’s small.
How to Turn on Frames per Second Counter via Xbox Game Bar Tool?
Xbox Game Bar is available on all Windows 10 and 11 PCs and includes the frames per second counter that works with any game. This tool can be a little annoying, but it shows a lot more than your frame rate from second to second.
Here’s how you can use it to show the FPS in each game:
- Press “Windows key + G” to open the Xbox Game Bar.
- Select the “Performance” tab, located at the top.
- Select “Performance Options” in the new window and check if “FPS” is checked under the “Metrics” section.
- You can pin the counter anywhere on the screen to see it while the Xbox Game Bar is closed. In addition, you can monitor other data with it, such as the use of the processor and graphics card.
How to Enable Frames per Second Counter in Ubisoft Connect Server?
Like Steam, Ubisoft Connect has the FPS counter for all the Ubisoft games you want to play and to make things better, you can easily turn it on.
- Select the gear-shaped menu, which is marked with three lines and located in the upper left corner, and select “Settings”.
- Check the “Display FPS counter in-game” box.
Turning on the Frames per Second Counter in the EA App (Formerly Known as Origin)
The EA app also uses a FPS counter like Steam and Ubisoft Connect, which you can turn on in the settings menu:
- Select “Source” in the top left corner and select “App Settings”.
- Select the “Origin” tab in-game and scroll down to “In-Play”.
- Select where you want the frames per second counter under the “FPS counter display” option. Here you can also choose its size and transparency.
How to Enable FPS Counter Inside NVIDIA GeForce Experience Tool?
If you have an NVIDIA graphics card, you can turn on the frames per second counter and other performance metrics through the GeForce Experience tool. Before you begin, make sure you’ve updated your graphics card drivers so you have the latest version of the GeForce Experience tools. If so, do the following:
- Open GeForce Experience with “Alt + Z”.
- Select the “Settings button” (gear icon) and select “HUD layout.”
- Choose “Performance,” and then choose exactly what you want the tool to show you. You have several options for measuring performance, but FPS is what you want to choose if you just need a frame-per-second counter.
How to Turn on Frames per Second Counter with AMD Radeon Software?
AMD has a similar gaming fps tool just like NVIDIA, and what’s even better is that it’s even easier to run it than NVIDIA’s tool. To use this tool, you’ll need one of the latest AMD graphics cards, as well as the latest version of Radeon software, to make sure everything works as it should.
- Open Radeon Software and select the “Performance” tab located at the top.
- In the “Metrics” section, select which metrics you want to include in the frame rate data display.
- Press the “Settings” button (the gear in the right corner) and go to the “General” tab.
- Under “Preferences,” mark the settings to be displayed inside the game. You can also customize your language and location in this menu.
Showing FPS within the MSI Afterburner Tool
If you want to find out a detailed view of your computer’s data, that is, data about each component, the MSI Afterburner tool will serve you well for that purpose. It is one of the best tools you can use to overclock your computer’s components, but you can use it for a lot more. One of the purposes this tool can be used for is to measure the number of frames per second within games.
You can download MSI Afterburner from here: https://www.msi.com/Landing/afterburner/graphics-cards
It should also be said that the FPS counter isn’t located inside the MSI Afterburner itself. Instead, it comes from the RivaTuner Statistics server, which is included in the software and available with several other tools, such as CapFrameX. Make sure both MSI Afterburner and RivaTuner Statistics Server are installed before proceeding. If they are, proceed to the following steps:
- Open MSI Afterburner and select the “Settings” icon via the small gear on the left.
- Select the “Monitoring” tab and go to the “Active Hardware Monitoring Graphs” section.
- Check the boxes next to what you want to track and make sure “Show on screen” is selected.
- Scroll down and assign a shortcut to turn on OSD. In games, run the shortcut while MSI Afterburner is running, and you’ll see your stats.
How to Turn on the Frames per Second Counter within the Games Themselves?
Many games have built-in frame rate counters. To enable the FPS counter, you’ll need to open the console and make additional entries.
By opening the console and typing “showfps” you’ll be able to check the counter in Sniper Elite 3 and several other games. This command also works with many other games running on Unreal Engine 4. To open the console with a US keyboard, use the Tilda key to the right above the tab and enter “Stat FPS” to see the number of frames per second. You can also display frame times by entering “stat UnitGraph.”
You’ll lose the counter visual unless you open the options from the game launch menu to add an argument. Steam uses these arguments, although not all launchers will. If you’re using Steam, right-click the desired game and select “Properties”. Select “Set Launch Options,” then enter “-ExecCmds=” stat UnitGraph” or “-ExecCmds=” stat fps”. You must enter this code using the exact symbols we just entered for you, including a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, quotation marks, and hyphens or equal symbols. If you don’t, the FPS counter won’t work.
Here are some of the games that have been confirmed to enable the frames per second counter within them:
- Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus
- Wolfenstein: Youngblood
- Doom (2016)
- Doom Eternal
- The Talos Principle
- Borderlands 3
- The Evil Within 2
- Dota 2
- Overwatch
- Destiny 2
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- Call of Duty: Warzone
- Counter-Strike 2
- Fortnite
FPS actually matters for some genres because of the “lag” in input and how quickly you can react. Higher frames per second are preferable for twitch games, which usually are games that have already been part of the eSports realm for a long time and on which both eSports pro and amateur players, as well as betting enthusiasts trying their luck on the best mobile betting sites, make money. The best example is competitive shooters. And there’s the issue of preference. An extremely graphically inclined person might choose a higher frame rate.
If you’re a serious gamer, never forget this: You’ll experience smoother and more engaging gameplay with a higher frame rate.
