High fidelity graphics vs. performance: What do you value most in a video game? If you have a beefy graphics card in an impressive rig, you could turn all your settings to the max and enjoy the beautiful graphics. However, most of us need to make some kind of compromise in order to get the best results.

If you value performance, or your game is experiencing unexpected slowdowns, you'll want to monitor frame rate to see how the title is playing on your hardware. There are a number of third-party, in-launcher, and in-game tools you can use to monitor performance and help diagnosis a specific issue.

What Is Frame Rate, and Why Should I Care?

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Your frame rate, measured in frames per second (FPS), describes how smoothly a given game runs on your PC. The more frames you can pack into one second, the smoother on-screen motion will appear. It's a useful metric for evaluating your hardware's gaming performance, and often touted by PC enthusiasts looking to boast about their system.

It isn't just about bragging rights, though—knowing your frame rate can also help ensure you are getting the best performance possible. For example, if your game is running slowly—typically frame rates lower than 30fps—displaying the frame rate can help you figure out which settings to turn down for the most meaningful performance improvement.

Knowing your frame rate can also help you decide which monitor to buy—after all, there's no reason to spring for a 480Hz monitor if your graphics card is only powerful enough to produce 60fps in the games you play. Monitoring other hardware stats, like CPU, GPU, and VRAM usage, can even tell you which component is the bottleneck in your system, and where you would benefit most from an upgrade.

Convinced? Here are a few ways to measure your frame rate, depending on how much info you need.

Quick and Dirty: Use a Built-In FPS Counter

If you don't want to spend a lot of time finding a new program, you can usually monitor your frame rate right from the launcher you use to the play games. How you enable this feature will differ based on the app, but they all tend to give the same basic data in one corner of the screen.

Steam's FPS Counter

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If you are launching a game on Steam, even if it's a game you didn't buy on Steam, you can use the launcher's in-game frame rate counter to measure performance. On Steam, open Steam > Settings > In-Game and make sure Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game is turned on. Use the In-game FPS counter drop-down to decide where on the screen it should appear and the In-game FPS counter high contrast option to make it more visible.

Ubisoft Connect's FPS Counter

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If you use the Ubisoft Connect desktop app to play Ubisoft games, click the hamburger menu and select Settings. From the General tab, enable the Display FPS counter in game option to pull up an in-game FPS checker.

GOG Galaxy's FPS Counter

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GOG's Galaxy launcher has no option in the settings menu to enable an FPS counter. Instead, you can simply press Ctrl + Shift + Tab while playing a game to make a small FPS tracker appear on-screen.

For More Detailed Info: Monitoring Software

Sometimes, monitoring your frame rate isn't quite enough. Certain tools allow you to also track the performance of your CPU, GPU, RAM, and video RAM (VRAM). these other hardware stats can show you if a certain component is being maxed out.

For example, if your CPU is always at 100% in-game while your GPU chugs along at 40%, you are better off putting your upgrade money toward a new CPU. Or maybe your CPU and GPU usage are fine while VRAM usage is maxed out, which would indicate that texture resolution is set too high for smooth performance.

Install MSI Afterburner

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For seeing these other stats, I like to use a tool called MSI Afterburner. Technically, its main purpose is overclocking your graphics card, but it also provides an incredibly detailed, customizable overlay with a wide selection of stats to track. And it works with any graphics card, not just those manufactured by MSI. When you install it, make sure to include the bundled RivaTuner Statistics Server application (which is required for displaying performance information).

In the app, open the Settings gear and click the Monitoring tab inside the pop-up menu. Go through the list of metrics and enable any stat you want to monitor—such as frame rates, GPU usage, memory usage, CPU usage, or fan speed—then make sure the Show in On-Screen Display option is selected. You can then open the On-Screen Display tab and assign a shortcut to toggle the on-screen display.

Once you're done, click OK and launch your game of choice. Hit the keyboard shortcut you chose in the settings, and you should see the on-screen display appear in the corner of your monitor, full of juicy stats about your PC's performance.

Xbox Game Bar

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Your Windows PC also comes with a built-in FPS counter (and screen recorder), thanks to the Xbox Game Bar overlay. You can launch this feature with the Win + G shortcut, and performance data—CPU, GPU, VRAM, RAM, and FPS—is displayed from the lower-left widget.

While the Game Bar's widgets can only be seen when the overlay is activated, you can click the Pin icon on any open window to keep it visible on the screen, even when the Game Bar disappears. Hit the Performance options icon at the top of the Performance widget to customize the window's positioning, transparency, and color. You can also remove any metric you don't want displayed.

No Extra Software: Check Your GPU and Game Settings

If you don't want to install yet another piece of software on your PC just to measure FPS, PC gamers can take advantage of their graphics card and use the built-in Nvidia or AMD settings instead.

Nvidia's FPS Counter

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Those with an Nvidia graphics card can use the new Nvidia app that has been introduced to combine GeForce Experience and Nvidia Control Panel. Press Alt-Z to launch the app's overlay, then select Statistics from the bottom to customize what game performance data should be displayed, including frame rates, CPU utilization, GPU temperature, average latency, VRAM clock, and more.

At this point in time, you can also still use GeForce Experience to embed a small FPS tracker over your game. Open GeForce Experience and select the Settings gear, then enable the In-Game Overlay option. From there, click Settings > HUD Layout > FPS Counter, then select a location. It's easy to enable, but pretty basic.

AMD Radeon Software

If you have an AMD graphics card, turn to Radeon Software for an in-depth tracker. Open the program and click the Performance tab. With the Tracking tab visible, enable FPS, GPU, VRAM, GPU, and RAM to make these stats visible in the Metrics window. Click the Overlay tab and enable Show Metrics Overlay to make a stat counter appear on the screen. You should then be able to launch any game and the metrics will appear in the corner of the screen.

Check Your Game's Settings

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Many games actually have their own frame rate monitors built right in to the settings menu. These are particularly useful for online games, since they can show stats like latency. Here are a few popular examples:

• Apex Legends: Open Settings > Gameplay > Performance Display to show FPS and Ping data.

• Call of Duty: Warzone: Go to Settings > Interface > Telemetry and enable Frames Per Second (FPS) Counter.

• Destiny 2: Click Game Options > Open Settings > Gameplay and set FPS Display to On.

• Dota 2: Head to Settings > Options > Advanced Options > Display Network Information.

• Fortnite: Look under Settings > Video > Show FPS and turn the feature on.

• Halo Infinite: Go into Settings > UI and enable FPS Counter and Network Statistics to show FPS and ping, respectively.

• Helldivers 2: Hit F2 or F5 to pull up a small overlay containing FPS and other data.

• League of Legends: Press Ctrl + F in-game to view frame rate and latency stats.

• Overwatch 2: Check Options > Video > Details, and enable Display Performance Stats. You can then choose which stats to show.

• Rainbow Six Siege: Click the gear icon, then open Options > Gameplay and set Display Game Info to On.

• Roblox: Hit Shift + F5 in-game to view FPS, latency, and other data.

• Rocket League: Go to Options > Interface > Performance Graphs and select Performance Summary from the drop-down menu.

• Valorant: Open Settings > Video > Stats, then set the Client FPS to show text, graph, or both.

• World of Warcraft: Hit Ctrl + R to view frame rates in-game.

Check your game's settings to see what's available. In some cases, it may be hidden behind a console command, like in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and you may need to search around if a setting isn't easily accessible.

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There are countless other tools if none of the above options suit you. Third-party tools like Fraps and FPS Monitor are also popular, though they may cost money for certain features. No matter your needs, there's probably something out there if you are willing to look around. But for most people, these above options should cover your bases.