If I want to benchmark my minimum framerate in a game, which program is best?

[COWZYOV]

In particular, I’d prefer a program which causes as little performance loss as possible when running in the background...

[r.linder]

Do you mean you want something that can track FPS while playing?

MSI Afterburner+RivaTuner Statistics Server, or FRAPS.

With AF+RTSS, you have to turn on Framerate in Monitoring settings in AF by checking "Show in on-screen display" and it'll say "in OSD" next to it when active.
Then, in RTSS, you have to check "Show on-screen display."

[76561199022829878]

I recommend MSI AFTERBURNER, its good, try to search youtube videos about it

[COWZYOV]

Originally posted by Escorve:

Do you mean you want something that can track FPS while playing?

MSI Afterburner+RivaTuner Statistics Server, or FRAPS.

With AF+RTSS, you have to turn on Framerate in Monitoring settings in AF by checking "Show in on-screen display" and it'll say "in OSD" next to it when active.
Then, in RTSS, you have to check "Show on-screen display."

I’m looking to optimize some games to the point that my fps never goes below 60, even in the most intense moments; I’m looking for a program which can tell me the lowest value my fps got to, so I don’t need to keep watching the fps counter, and can just review my performance after the fact.

[r.linder]

Originally posted by AÀÁÂÄÆÃÅĀ:

Originally posted by Escorve:

Do you mean you want something that can track FPS while playing?

MSI Afterburner+RivaTuner Statistics Server, or FRAPS.

With AF+RTSS, you have to turn on Framerate in Monitoring settings in AF by checking "Show in on-screen display" and it'll say "in OSD" next to it when active.
Then, in RTSS, you have to check "Show on-screen display."

I’m looking to optimize some games to the point that my fps never goes below 60, even in the most intense moments; I’m looking for a program which can tell me the lowest value my fps got to, so I don’t need to keep watching the fps counter, and can just review my performance after the fact.

That isn't possible unless the specific game has a feature that disables effects when frames drop below 60.

[hawkeye]

Fps is an average, so it doesn't measure minimum performance levels. I believe that msi-afterburner takes a snapshot of the pc every 100 milliseconds or so, and then computes a per second average fps. The snapshot interval might be customisable.

Frametime looks at individual frames and so can show minimum level of performance. The graphing option in msi-ab shows max and mins I think. And it can be set up to overlay on a game display I think but I've never tried that. However it might only be looking every 100 ms, so the info will be good enough but not necessarily precise. If it looks too often it might reduce performance.

More info here -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3ehmETMOmw

The charts in the vid shows which cpus have smoother performance and minimum lows by % occurrence. No surprises in that the best cpus are usually the ones with more cores, hyperthreading and better cpu technical design.

I have seen this app mentioned but have never tried it either.
https://github.com/GameTechDev/PresentMon

There are many apps on the web that measure all sorts of things in low level of detail.

[Autumn_]

MSI Afterburner has a built in ''framerate tracker'' (I forget the actual name, but I know it's there.)

It records highest, average, 1%, and .1% lows.
You can set it up, so that when you press a button, it stops, and when you press it again, it stops.
Then the data is stored in a .txt file for later viewing.

You can also use RTSS to limit FPS so that you get great frametimes, and don't use to much of your GPU (99%), reducing stutters and framedrops.

I use MSI ABs 'framerate tracker' quite often, albeit by accident. But still nice to see what my framerates are.
And, I use RTSS for almost every game I play. It's a must have.

[COWZYOV]

Originally posted by Escorve:

Originally posted by AÀÁÂÄÆÃÅĀ:

I’m looking to optimize some games to the point that my fps never goes below 60, even in the most intense moments; I’m looking for a program which can tell me the lowest value my fps got to, so I don’t need to keep watching the fps counter, and can just review my performance after the fact.

That isn't possible unless the specific game has a feature that disables effects when frames drop below 60.

Wait. It’s IMPOSSIBLE to not have drops below 60? Even if I’m running a 1996 game on an i9 5.0 gghrz, 32 gb ram, and 12 gb vram gpu (theoretically), I’d still get drops below 60?!

[r.linder]

Originally posted by AÀÁÂÄÆÃÅĀ:

Originally posted by Escorve:

That isn't possible unless the specific game has a feature that disables effects when frames drop below 60.

Wait. It’s IMPOSSIBLE to not have drops below 60? Even if I’m running a 1996 game on an i9 5.0 gghrz, 32 gb ram, and 12 gb vram gpu (theoretically), I’d still get drops below 60?!

While extremely unlikely, it's still possible. You can't set a "minimum FPS."

[COWZYOV]

Originally posted by Autumn:

MSI Afterburner has a built in ''framerate tracker'' (I forget the actual name, but I know it's there.)

It records highest, average, 1%, and .1% lows.
You can set it up, so that when you press a button, it stops, and when you press it again, it stops.
Then the data is stored in a .txt file for later viewing.

You can also use RTSS to limit FPS so that you get great frametimes, and don't use to much of your GPU (99%), reducing stutters and framedrops.

I use MSI ABs 'framerate tracker' quite often, albeit by accident. But still nice to see what my framerates are.
And, I use RTSS for almost every game I play. It's a must have.

Just checking, “0.1% lows” is the technical term for “longest frametime over the course of the benchmark,” right?

So if that’s over 60, it means that your fps never went below 60 over the course of the benchmark, right?

[COWZYOV]

Originally posted by Escorve:

Originally posted by AÀÁÂÄÆÃÅĀ:

Wait. It’s IMPOSSIBLE to not have drops below 60? Even if I’m running a 1996 game on an i9 5.0 gghrz, 32 gb ram, and 12 gb vram gpu (theoretically), I’d still get drops below 60?!

While extremely unlikely, it's still possible. You can't set a "minimum FPS."

Ah ok. But drops below 60 are not guaranteed; that’s all I wanted to clarify

[r.linder]

Originally posted by AÀÁÂÄÆÃÅĀ:

Originally posted by Autumn:

MSI Afterburner has a built in ''framerate tracker'' (I forget the actual name, but I know it's there.)

It records highest, average, 1%, and .1% lows.
You can set it up, so that when you press a button, it stops, and when you press it again, it stops.
Then the data is stored in a .txt file for later viewing.

You can also use RTSS to limit FPS so that you get great frametimes, and don't use to much of your GPU (99%), reducing stutters and framedrops.

I use MSI ABs 'framerate tracker' quite often, albeit by accident. But still nice to see what my framerates are.
And, I use RTSS for almost every game I play. It's a must have.

Just checking, “0.1% lows” is the technical term for “longest frametime over the course of the benchmark,” right?

So if that’s over 60, it means that your fps never went below 60 over the course of the benchmark, right?

0.1% lows are basically just stutters.

[COWZYOV]

So which do you guys recommend for benchmarking 0.1% lows?
Msi afterburner or rivatuner statistics server?
(As I said earlier, one of my main concerns is that it has a minimal performance impact while running in the background)

[r.linder]

Originally posted by AÀÁÂÄÆÃÅĀ:

So which do you guys recommend for benchmarking 0.1% lows?
Msi afterburner or rivatuner statistics server?
(As I said earlier, one of my main concerns is that it has a minimal performance impact while running in the background)

RTSS runs from Afterburner, which is a program you should have installed anyway.

[Autumn_]

Originally posted by AÀÁÂÄÆÃÅĀ:

Originally posted by Autumn:

MSI Afterburner has a built in ''framerate tracker'' (I forget the actual name, but I know it's there.)

It records highest, average, 1%, and .1% lows.
You can set it up, so that when you press a button, it stops, and when you press it again, it stops.
Then the data is stored in a .txt file for later viewing.

You can also use RTSS to limit FPS so that you get great frametimes, and don't use to much of your GPU (99%), reducing stutters and framedrops.

I use MSI ABs 'framerate tracker' quite often, albeit by accident. But still nice to see what my framerates are.
And, I use RTSS for almost every game I play. It's a must have.

Just checking, “0.1% lows” is the technical term for “longest frametime over the course of the benchmark,” right?

So if that’s over 60, it means that your fps never went below 60 over the course of the benchmark, right?

No, it's not. I can't remember it exactly, at the moment, since I'm pretty tired.
But I'm sure it's not the longest frame drawn, but it's up there. IIRC, it's an averaged number of the longest .1% of frames.

Yeah, if it's 60(+) then you never dropped during the entire benchmark period.
That doesn't mean you won't EVER experience a hiccup though, somethings just cause stutters, and there's no avoiding it.

Originally posted by AÀÁÂÄÆÃÅĀ:

So which do you guys recommend for benchmarking 0.1% lows?
Msi afterburner or rivatuner statistics server?
(As I said earlier, one of my main concerns is that it has a minimal performance impact while running in the background)

MSI AB is used in conjunction with RTSS.
RTSS is what makes all the ♥♥♥♥ displayed while playing, it's also a great FPS limiter, and Scanline sync is pretty useful.

You won't get any (noticeable) performance hit from running either.
In-fact, running RTSS with a framerate limit in place actually IMPROVES performance.
Higher FPS isn't always better - Smoother frametimes do much more for feel than a high bouncing framerate does. And, if you've got it always using less than 95% of your GPU, you will have less input latency.
So, it makes sense to cap all your games.
RTSS will add a ~1 frame of latency though, but, at ~120FPS, and using less than 95% of your GPU, you're going to get ~3 frames less latency.
So it makes it worthwhile to run.
Also, if you're doing this in pursuit of 'higher frames make me a better player', smooth frametimes will help much more, because you will have the same frametime, making muscle memory much more accurate, and easier to learn, since you're going to have the same latency on everything.

Originally posted by AÀÁÂÄÆÃÅĀ:

Originally posted by Escorve:

That isn't possible unless the specific game has a feature that disables effects when frames drop below 60.

Wait. It’s IMPOSSIBLE to not have drops below 60? Even if I’m running a 1996 game on an i9 5.0 gghrz, 32 gb ram, and 12 gb vram gpu (theoretically), I’d still get drops below 60?!

Yes, there is always a chance to have an FPS drop; anything from OS hiccup, to CPU/Drive usage, to game updating in the background.
There's ALWAYS a possibility to drop below 60, even on 'beast' PCs, though, unlikely.

[COWZYOV]

I do know what you’re talking about with random fps drops even when there “shouldn’t be”. Often, if I check right after it happens I find the culprit to be my virus scanner or windows update sneakily sneaking some background processses into my cpu (I’m usually cpu bottlenecked by the way)