How to see FPS in your games

Want to monitor the FPS in your games? Here’s how.

The minimum FPS that you’re willing to game at varies wildly from one gamer to another. For many, a game is unplayable if it dips below the 60FPS mark, while others would happily sacrifice their frame rates in exchange for breathtaking visuals.

So, managing the frame rates and graphical settings is something every gamer has to deal with at some point. Being able to monitor the FPS in real-time allows you to tweak the graphical configuration to strike the perfect balance between high-fidelity visuals and performance. Luckily, there are plenty of native as well as third-party methods for monitoring the frame rates of your favorite games.

How to see the FPS using Xbox Game Bar

Available on Windows 11 and 10, Xbox Game Bar is Microsoft’s multipurpose tool that provides various gaming-oriented features. It’s also the fastest and easiest method to view the FPS counter.

1. Press Win + G to open the Xbox Game Bar overlay.
2. By default, you’ll see the FPS counter below the CPU, GPU, VRAM, and RAM usage metrics in a separate window.
3. If the FPS counter is still not visible, click on the Performance button at the top of the screen.

   

While the Xbox Game Bar allows you to view the frame rates, the FPS counter will disappear when you try to get back into the game. This means you’ll have to open the FPS counter multiple times if you want to tweak your graphic settings. Fortunately, you have the option to pin the FPS counter anywhere on the screen. To do so,

1. Click and hold the left mouse button on the Performance icon (or an empty area at the top of the window) and drag the FPS counter around the screen.

   

2. Click on the Pin button after you’ve placed the FPS counter in the desired position.

   

The Xbox Game Bar gives you the option to show a graph that displays the hardware usage. By default, it shows the percentage of CPU utilization in a game. To see this graph,

1. Hover the cursor over the bottom right portion of the FPS counter to reveal an arrow.

   

2. Click on the arrow to expand the hardware usage graph.
3. You can click on the arrow again to hide the graph.

Customizing the Xbox Game Bar FPS counter

The Xbox Game Bar also allows you to set the transparency and accent colors of the FPS counter. You can customize it by following these steps:

1. Click on the Performance options button at the top of the FPS counter.

   

2. A pop-up menu displaying the accent colors, transparency, and metrics options will show up next to the FPS counter.

How to see the FPS using Steam’s FPS Counter

Steam’s desktop application allows you to keep an eye on the frame rates of your favorite games with its in-game overlay. You can even use its FPS counter for games that you downloaded from sources besides Steam by adding them to your library and launching them via Steam. You can enable Steam’s FPS counter for all games on your system by following these steps:

1. Run Steam.exe and click on the Steam button located in the top left corner.
2. Choose Settings to open a pop-up menu.

   

3. Select the In Game tab and toggle the Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game checkbox.

   

4. Click on the drop-down arrow next to the In-game FPS counter setting and position it at any corner of the screen.
5. (Optional) Enable the In-game FPS counter high contrast color toggle. As its name suggests, this setting will make the counter more visible by displaying it in higher contrast colors.

   

How to see the FPS using Rivatuner Statistics Server

Rivatuner Statistics Server is an add-on for MSI Afterburner, a third-party software designed to offer extensive overclocking options for your gaming PC.

Unlike Steam’s overlay, RTSS provides multiple options to customize the on-screen display, making it perfect if you want to keep an eye on your CPU and GPU temperature, voltage, clock speed, and other metrics.

However, you’ll have to go through a series of steps before you can enable real-time FPS monitoring with RTSS.

Installing MSI Afterburner

Since the latest version of Rivatuner Statistics Server is built into MSI Afterburner, you’ll have to install the latter if you want to use RTSS to keep track of your frame rates.

1. Download MSI Afterburner from the official website and run the setup file after extracting it.
2. Toggle the Rivatuner Statistics Server checkbox during the setup procedure and proceed with the installation.

Enabling Rivatuner Statistics Server

Once MSI Afterburner is set up, you can go ahead and customize its overlay to enable frame rate monitoring. To do this,

1. Run MSIAfterburner.exe and click on the Settings icon.

   

2. Head to the Monitoring tab and enable the Framerate option under the Active hardware monitoring graphs section.

   

3. Toggle the Show in On-Screen Display checkbox.
4. Choose Apply and press OK to save your configuration.

   

Summary

These are the top three methods to check your in-game frame rates. If you want a straightforward way to see the FPS without going through a lot of hassle, you can use Xbox Game Bar’s overlay.

You can also choose Steam’s overlay, which displays a small FPS counter without any performance metrics that can divert your attention away from games.

On the other hand, you’d want to pick Rivatuner Statistics Server if you want to fine-tune your graphical settings. While it may be a bit overwhelming to use for beginners, it’s a powerful tool that has the most customizable on-screen display and can also be used to monitor your system temperatures. And if you find that the frame rate you’re getting is too low, you might want to check out the best gaming laptops so you can get that much more performance.