How do you measure the FPS you really get?
You measure real FPS by recording the frames while you play, not by reading a counter in the corner for a few seconds. A proper measurement runs for at least a minute of ordinary play, records every frame the game shows, and then gives you the average and the slowest moments. The free Configurator app for Windows does this: press start, play, come back and press stop. It records frames the same way Windows itself reports them, so nothing is added to the game and anti-cheat is not affected.
Why is the average not enough?
Because a game can show a high average and still feel rough. What you feel as stutter is the slowest frames, and they hide inside an average. That is why a measurement also reports the 1% low and the 0.1% low: the frame rate during the worst one in a hundred and one in a thousand frames. When the lows sit close to the average, the game is smooth. When they are far below it, something interrupts the game now and then, and the usual suspects are slow or single-stick memory, a processor at its limit, or a program working in the background.
How do you tell which part is the limit?
Look at how hard the graphics card worked during the run. If it was at or near full load, the graphics card set the frame rate, and that is the normal, healthy case: lower settings or a faster card would give more frames. If the graphics card had room to spare, something else held it back. Either the frame rate was capped (by the game, the driver or the monitor) or the processor could not prepare frames any faster. A processor does not need to show full load to be the limit, because most games lean on a few of its cores while the rest sit idle.
- Graphics card near full load: the card is the limit. Nothing is wrong.
- Graphics card has room, frame rate sits exactly on a round number or the monitor's refresh rate: a frame cap is on.
- Graphics card has room and there is no cap: the processor or the memory is the limit.
What if the PC is slower than it should be?
Compare the measurement with an estimate for the same processor and graphics card. Our FPS calculator gives that estimate, and the app sets your result beside it. A result well under the estimate usually has a plain cause, and most of them cost nothing to fix.
- The memory profile (XMP or EXPO) is off, so the memory runs slower than it was sold as.
- One memory stick instead of two, or two sticks in the wrong slots.
- The monitor is left at 60 Hz although it can do more.
- Windows is on a power-saving plan.
- A background program is using the processor or the graphics card while you play.
- The parts run hot and slow themselves down.
How do you run the test?
Install Configurator, open the FPS test and press start. Switch to the game and play a normal stretch for a minute or more: a match, a busy street, a fight, not a menu. Come back and press stop. You get the average, the lows, a graph of frame rate and temperatures through the run, the resolution the game ran at, and a sentence saying which part was the limit. The app is free and in beta. The installer is not signed yet, so Windows may warn that it does not know the publisher.