What's the Minimum Frames Per Second for Your Enjoyment?

[Ventus]

Title is probably worded wrong. What I mean is, what is the least amount of frames per second that you can tolerate?

Me, personally, I can tolerate no lower than a steady 30FPS. This is half of 60FPS and although it isn't as smooth, it's still playable.

 

[JuicieJ]

Same as you. 30. (Unless I'm playing a game like Skyrim on my laptop, OH WAIT!)

 

[Clank]

14.

That's what I get for using cheap hardware

 

[DarkestLink]

Depends on the game...but typically 60.

 

[A Link In Time]

40 FPS. Below that, the game lags beyond the point of no return and I find myself stupidly dying be it Halo or League of Legends.

I usually play around 55 FPS. Shame it's rarely at the ideal 60.

 

[Castle]

So long as the animation isn't choppy or laggy I won't complain. I'm not so much of a visual stickler that Ima take to the forums if my FPS drops to 59 for a second or two.

 

[Austin]

60. Anything lower is unacceptable.

 

[Vanessa28]

Okay if you guys don't mind me asking another question about this...
Is this something like the more FPS the better quality or the faster the game? And is there a difference in games itself? Like for example when I play TP or SSBB does it need more FPS than OoT or Pokemon? I always wondered about that

 

[Austin]

Okay if you guys don't mind me asking another question about this...
Is this something like the more FPS the better quality or the faster the game? And is there a difference in games itself? Like for example when I play TP or SSBB does it need more FPS than OoT or Pokemon? I always wondered about that

For console gaming the framerate is largely static. You don't need to worry about adjusting settings for a better framerate with console games.

For PC gaming however, depending on your hardware and your settings, you'll get varying framerates. A higher amount is better, and it generally affects how fluid the game looks. Besides higher framerates just looking better, if you have poor hardware or your settings too high, you'll likely not just get poor framerates, but fluctuating ones as well (as in, it won't run at a steady 30 FPS but instead shoot around between 5 and 40). This is very jarring.

EDIT: to answer your question a little more, different games don't need more FPS than others. 60 FPS is solid universally. However, some games may be more hardware intensive and as a result require a better machine to get the same amount of FPS as you would in other games.

 

[Dr3W21]

Since my computer is a freaking mess of awful, for PC games I can't be picky. The highest I get on Minecraft is SOMETIMES 30ish. Other than that, it's freaking laggy as hell. So I don't play it often. I can get a decent FPS on Half-Life most of the time (not HL2, I mean the original), but the online play can lag. As for games in general, I'm not too picky. I mean, I spend a good deal of time playing N64 games, so I can't afford to be. That's not to say I don't prefer a good framerate however..... I freaking love games that run at 60FPS.

 

[Vanessa28]

For console gaming the framerate is largely static. You don't need to worry about adjusting settings for a better framerate with console games.

For PC gaming however, depending on your hardware and your settings, you'll get varying framerates. A higher amount is better, and it generally affects how fluid the game looks. Besides higher framerates just looking better, if you have poor hardware or your settings too high, you'll likely not just get poor framerates, but fluctuating ones as well (as in, it won't run at a steady 30 FPS but instead shoot around between 5 and 40). This is very jarring.

EDIT: to answer your question a little more, different games don't need more FPS than others. 60 FPS is solid universally. However, some games may be more hardware intensive and as a result require a better machine to get the same amount of FPS as you would in other games.

Thanks for the explanation! I always see the FPS going up or down when I play a game on an emulator. But what is causing the framerates going down suddenly? Can it be caused if you have more applications/tabs open? Sorry if I sound dumb or something but I actually like this information. I know it has a lot to do with the specs of the pc but always wondered what it really was

 

[Austin]

Thanks for the explanation! I always see the FPS going up or down when I play a game on an emulator. But what is causing the framerates going down suddenly? Can it be caused if you have more applications/tabs open? Sorry if I sound dumb or something but I actually like this information. I know it has a lot to do with the specs of the pc but always wondered what it really was

Decreases in framerates are generally caused by a lack of resources, like running out of available RAM or maxing out your processor/GPU. This can be caused with having too many other applications open, yes, but it also can be caused by running the game with the settings too high. PC games tend to have different levels of settings you can set, like increasing the quality of the shadows/lighting or increasing the amount of anti-aliasing. If you've set the settings too high, you might just not have enough of a computer to run what you're trying to do. If you're noticing a game running very poorly, you might want to try closing any applications you have open, especially resource-intensive ones like a web browser, Skype, iTunes, etc.

And yeah, I'm happy to explain as best I can. =D Unless you've taken courses for computers the only way to learn is to ask questions. Oh, and regarding emulators, some systems such as the NES had infamous slowdowns during certain games, so if you're noticing a decrease in framerate with certain emulators you might want to first check whether the actual console was known to have slowdown issues.

 

[Ventus]

Thanks for the explanation! I always see the FPS going up or down when I play a game on an emulator. But what is causing the framerates going down suddenly? Can it be caused if you have more applications/tabs open? Sorry if I sound dumb or something but I actually like this information. I know it has a lot to do with the specs of the pc but always wondered what it really was

Going alongside what Austin said about games naturally slowing down on their native consoles, there is also the fact that all emulators are not always better than the native console. For example, while PCSX2 can run certain games at almost true HD with full anti-aliasing support, there is still noticable slow down because it is merely pretending to be the PS2, not being a better one. This goes for PS3 emulation of PS2 games, Wii emulation of GC, et cetera. A game will almost always run better on console than emulator because the actual resources are available on console whereas the emulator makes "compensations" for it.

 

[Dan]

Well on PCs I hate seeing a slowdown of anything below 60. On those stone aged consoles I suppose anything below 30, bless their little cotton socks for trying their best though.

 

[Ventus]

Well on PCs I hate seeing a slowdown of anything below 60. On those stone aged consoles I suppose anything below 30, bless their little cotton socks for trying their best though.

Well the PS2 runs at 60FPS so...

I can understand below 60 on PC. For some reason - this might be due to proximity - games running at 30FPS on consoles look great but the same frame rate on PC looks horribly choppy at times? Is that because of the way PC games are designed or am I just seeing too much?