A frame rate counter can tell you more about your gaming experience than almost any other number on screen. Yet many players never turn one on. They feel stutter, blame the game, and never realize their FPS dropped from 90 to 45 during a busy fight. Checking FPS takes about thirty seconds to set up, and once it is running, you get instant feedback on whether your hardware, settings, or drivers are holding you back.
This guide covers every practical way to check FPS in games, from built-in counters to overlays from Steam, NVIDIA, AMD, and Xbox Game Bar, plus the third-party tool that enthusiasts swear by. It also explains why two tools sometimes show different numbers, and which mistakes make your readings useless.
Why Checking FPS Is Worth the Effort
FPS stands for frames per second, the rate at which your GPU delivers new images to the monitor. Higher is smoother, but the relationship is not linear. Going from 30 to 60 FPS transforms the feel of a game. Going from 120 to 144 is subtle. What matters most is consistency: a steady 60 looks better than a jittery 90 that keeps dropping to 40. (GPU Benchmarks and Hierarchy)
That is why experienced players watch two numbers, not one. Average FPS tells you the typical speed. Frame time, measured in milliseconds, tells you how evenly frames arrive. A frame time of 16.7 ms equals 60 FPS. If frame times swing between 10 ms and 30 ms, the average might still look fine while the game feels like it is stuttering. Once you start measuring, you notice problems you previously only felt, and you can fix them with evidence instead of guesswork.
The Fastest Method: Built-In Game Counters
Many games ship with their own FPS display, usually buried in display settings or triggered by a console command. The advantage is zero overhead and zero extra software. The disadvantage is inconsistency: there is no universal standard, so availability varies by title and engine.
Common places to look:
- Open the graphics or display settings menu and scan for “show FPS,” “performance metrics,” or “statistics.”
- Try the developer console (often enabled with a launch option or a key like the tilde), then check the game’s documentation for the relevant command.
- Look in accessibility or HUD options, where some studios hide performance readouts.
If a game has no built-in counter, do not fight it. Move to an overlay instead. This same “check the settings first” habit pays off elsewhere, whether you are tuning a shooter from our list of the best fps games or revisiting older titles like the best xbox 360 games, many of which had no performance display at all.
Using the Steam Overlay FPS Counter
For anyone gaming on PC through Steam, this is the simplest option. Steam’s in-game FPS counter lives in the client settings under the In-Game tab, alongside options for the overlay itself. Enable the counter, pick a screen corner, and it appears in any Steam game you launch.
A few practical notes from experience:
- The overlay must be enabled for the counter to show. If nothing appears, check that the in-game overlay has not been disabled globally or for that specific game.
- Some games conflict with overlays. Anti-cheat systems and certain fullscreen modes can block or crash with overlays. If a game refuses to launch with the counter on, disable the overlay for that title only.
- The counter is minimal by design. It shows FPS, not frame times, so it is great for a quick sanity check but limited for diagnosing stutter.
Steam’s approach is ideal for players who want one number with no fuss. It is also the least informative, which is fine until you need to dig deeper.
GPU Driver Overlays: NVIDIA and AMD
Both major GPU vendors build performance overlays into their driver software, and both are more capable than Steam’s counter.
NVIDIA offers an overlay through its GeForce Experience software and, more recently, the newer NVIDIA App that is gradually replacing it. The performance overlay can display FPS and frame-time statistics, and it can be toggled with a keyboard shortcut during play. If you have an NVIDIA card and the overlay does not appear, the usual culprit is that the overlay feature is switched off in the app’s settings, or the game is running in a mode the overlay cannot hook into.
AMD includes a performance overlay and metrics logging in AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition, typically accessible through a hotkey combination. Beyond live FPS, the metrics logging can record a session so you can review frame rates after the fact, which is genuinely useful for spotting dips you missed in the heat of a match.
| Tool | What it shows | Best for | Setup effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam overlay | FPS | Quick checks in Steam games | Very low |
| NVIDIA overlay | FPS, frame times | NVIDIA users wanting detail | Low |
| AMD Adrenalin | FPS, logging | AMD users tracking sessions | Low |
| Xbox Game Bar | FPS | Windows users avoiding extra apps | Very low |
| MSI Afterburner + RTSS | FPS, frame times, GPU/CPU stats | Deep diagnosis and tuning | Medium |
The pattern here is that vendor tools give you more data than Steam but less than a dedicated monitoring suite. For most players, that middle ground is exactly right.
Xbox Game Bar: The Underrated Windows Option
Windows 10 and Windows 11 ship with Xbox Game Bar, and its Performance widget displays FPS without installing anything new. Open the Game Bar with its keyboard shortcut, pin the Performance panel, and it stays visible over most games.
This is the option people forget, and it is often the fastest path on a fresh Windows install. Two caveats: the widget sometimes needs to be added manually the first time, and like any overlay it can clash with games that use exclusive fullscreen or aggressive anti-cheat. If the panel shows no FPS value, try running the game in borderless windowed mode. That single change fixes the problem more often than any other.
MSI Afterburner and RTSS: The Enthusiast Standard
If you want to know why your FPS behaves the way it does, the long-standing combination of MSI Afterburner and RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) is the tool of choice. RTSS handles the on-screen display; Afterburner feeds it hardware data. Together they can show FPS, frame time, GPU usage, temperature, clock speeds, and more in a single customizable overlay.
The setup is more involved than flipping a switch, and beginners commonly make three mistakes:
- Installing one without the other. Afterburner alone will not draw the overlay; RTSS must be running alongside it.
- Enabling too many metrics at once. A wall of twenty numbers obscures the game. Start with FPS, frame time, and GPU usage, then add more only if needed.
- Ignoring the frame-time graph. The average FPS figure hides stutter. The frame-time readout exposes it, and that is where this tool earns its reputation.
The learning curve is real, but it is a one-time cost. Once configured, the overlay works across nearly every game on the system.
Reading the Numbers Correctly
Getting a counter on screen is the easy part. Interpreting it well separates useful data from noise.
Match your settings before comparing. Monitor refresh rate caps displayed FPS, and V-Sync or frame caps change measured values. A test with V-Sync on is not comparable to one with it off.
Watch for dips, not peaks alone. A game that hits 144 FPS in menus and 55 in combat has a real problem. Play a representative section, not a quiet corridor.
Remember that overlays cost a little performance. Every overlay renders on top of the game and consumes some resources. The impact is usually small, but it exists, and it is one reason different tools report slightly different averages. Instantaneous readings and averaged readings also diverge by design. There is no single “correct” number; what matters is using the same method consistently.
Check your monitor’s actual refresh rate. A 144 Hz panel set to 60 Hz in Windows will cap everything at 60, and no amount of tweaking in-game will fix it. This is one of the most common and most overlooked mistakes.
When FPS Is Low: Quick Fixes to Test
Once you have a baseline, you can act on it. The highest-value changes, in rough order of impact:
- Lower the most expensive graphics settings first, usually shadows, ambient occlusion, and volumetric effects.
- Update your GPU driver; performance fixes ship regularly.
- Close background apps that use the GPU, including browsers with hardware acceleration.
- Check that the game is using your dedicated GPU, not integrated graphics.
- Cap your frame rate slightly below your monitor’s refresh rate to smooth frame pacing.
The same diagnostic habit applies across genres. If you are working through a long RPG and wondering why towns chug, a counter tells you instantly whether it is the game or your rig. It is the kind of practical check that pairs well with guides like our roundup of the best role games, where sprawling worlds often stress hardware in very specific ways.
A Note on Mobile and Console
On consoles, FPS displays are rare and usually limited to specific modes or developer options; most players simply cannot measure frame rate directly. On phones, the situation is messier. Third-party performance apps exist, but they require installing software from outside official stores, which carries risk. If you go that route, learn how to check whether an apk file is safe before sideloading anything, because performance tools are a popular disguise for malware. For most mobile players, the safer path is trusting the game’s own graphics settings and frame-rate options.
Conclusion
Checking FPS in games is one of the cheapest upgrades available to any player, and it costs nothing but a few minutes. Start with the simplest tool that answers your question: Steam’s counter or Xbox Game Bar for a quick look, a GPU vendor overlay for a bit more detail, and MSI Afterburner with RTSS when you need to understand stutter rather than just measure speed. Then read the numbers with care. Watch the dips, keep your settings consistent, confirm your refresh rate, and treat frame time as seriously as average FPS. Do that, and every future performance problem becomes a question you can actually answer.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the easiest way to check FPS in a game?
For Steam games, enable the in-game FPS counter in the Steam client’s In-Game settings. On Windows, the Xbox Game Bar Performance widget works without installing anything. Both take under a minute to set up.
Why do two different tools show different FPS numbers?
Tools differ in how they sample and average frames, and each overlay adds a small performance cost of its own. Instantaneous readings also fluctuate more than averaged ones. Pick one method and stick with it so your comparisons stay fair.
Does showing an FPS counter lower my performance?
Slightly, yes. Every overlay renders on top of the game and uses some resources. The impact is usually tiny, but it is one reason to disable overlays when you are not actively measuring.
What is the difference between FPS and frame time?
FPS counts frames per second; frame time measures how long each frame takes in milliseconds, and the two are inverses (1000 divided by FPS). Frame time is better at revealing stutter, because an average FPS figure can look healthy while individual frames arrive unevenly.
Why is my FPS capped even though my hardware is strong?
The usual causes are a monitor running below its rated refresh rate in Windows settings, V-Sync or an in-game frame cap, a background app limiting performance, or the game using integrated graphics instead of the dedicated GPU. Check the refresh rate first; it is the most common culprit.
Can I check FPS on a console or phone?
Consoles rarely expose a frame-rate display outside specific developer or performance modes. On phones, third-party performance apps exist but require sideloading software, which carries real security risk, so verify any file carefully before installing it.
