Why does my FPS read exactly 60.0 all the time?

VSync or an in-game frame cap is holding it there. VSync locks to the display refresh rate and raises input lag; a cap does the same without the lag. Turn both off before measuring.

Is a higher average FPS always better?

Not if the 1% low collapses. A 144 FPS average with a 60 FPS 1% low feels worse than a steady 100 with a 90 low, because the stutter is what you notice.

Do I need a 360 FPS monitor to play competitively?

No — only if your own measured average already sits near that figure. Monitors marketed to competitive players show 360 FPS and more, but a stable frame time at a lower rate beats a higher average with ragged lows.

My numbers drop halfway through the run — is my GPU too weak?

A clean start with a sliding finish usually means a thermal throttle, not a weak GPU. Check cooling and case airflow before changing any preset.

60 sMinimum run length per measurement

3Figures to log: average, 1% low, frame time

60 FPSLong-standing smoothness floor

16.7 msFrame time at 60 FPS

Measure FPS honestly

GA9Z — Gaming Performance Check | ga9z.net

GA9Z is a gaming performance check that measures FPS, frame time and input lag to tell whether a game will run smoothly on your own PC. The refresh-rate section names the synchronisation systems in the field — Nvidia's G-Sync, launched in 2014, AMD's FreeSync, and the VESA Adaptive-Sync standard carried over DisplayPort — and names 3DMark among the benchmarks used to compare machines. 60 frames per second has long been the smoothness floor, which is a frame time of 16.7 ms, and lag counts in milliseconds: under 100 ms is necessary for playability while the lowest ping crossing the whole planet is 133 ms. This page gives an ordered five-step FPS check, a refresh-rate table covering a stated range such as 30 Hz through 144 Hz, and the tells that separate a genuine performance problem from a measurement artefact such as VSync, a frame cap or a thermal throttle.

ga9z.net
GA9Z · Gaming performance checks · FPS, frame time, input lag
Measure FPS, frame time and input lag before you buy or install a new game

Five steps

Ordered procedure

60 FPSLong-standing smoothness floor60 frames per second has long been the minimum for smoothly animated gameplay.

16.7 msFrame time at 60 FPSOne frame every 16.7 ms is what a 60 FPS average actually looks like on a timeline.

20 msTarget input lag for demanding online playBelow 100 ms is necessary for playability, while competitive online play aims below 20 ms.

Refresh rate and FPS targets

Monitor refresh rate against a realistic FPS target and what the change feels like
Monitor refresh rate	FPS target to aim for	What changes in feel
60 Hz	60 FPS average, 1% low above 45	Baseline smoothness; below 50 FPS a modulated light source stops reading as steady
75 Hz	75 FPS average	Slightly lighter motion than 60 Hz; gains flatten if the 1% low stays under 50
120 Hz	120 FPS average, 1% low above 90	Noticeably quicker camera pans; VRR range must cover the low end
144 Hz	144 FPS average, 1% low above 100	The common competitive target; standard sync points include 59.94 and 60 FPS
240 Hz	240 FPS average, 1% low above 180	Only pays off if your own average already clears 200
360 Hz	360 FPS average	Monitors marketed to competitive players reach this; the GPU must sustain it
Any, with VSync on	Locked to the refresh rate	Tearing gone but input lag rises; disable while measuring
Any, with VRR on	Follows the game inside the range	Tearing removed without the VSync cap; outside the range behaviour reverts

Monitor refresh rate against a realistic FPS target and what the change feels like

Run the check in five steps

Pick a repeatable scene, fix your settings, run 60 seconds, log three figures, and repeat after every change.

Step one: choose a scene you can return to. A cutscene, a fixed camera angle in a hub area or a scripted benchmark loop all work; a firefight that changes every attempt does not. The point is that run number two must be comparable with run number one.

Step two: fix resolution and quality preset before you touch anything else. Write down the preset name and the resolution, because a driver update that 'improves performance' is meaningless if the preset silently changed from High to Medium between runs.

Step three: run for 60 seconds. Shorter runs miss the moment a shader cache fills or a background process wakes up; much longer runs drift as the GPU heats up. Sixty seconds is long enough to catch a stutter and short enough to repeat ten times.

Step four: log average FPS, the 1% low and frame time. The average tells you the general level, the 1% low tells you how bad the worst moments get, and the frame time trace tells you whether the jank is a spike or a steady wobble.

VSync left on: the frame rate locks to your refresh rate and input lag rises — disable it for the measurement.
An in-game frame cap: a cap at 60 or 144 FPS makes a faster GPU look slower than it is.
A thermal throttle: the first 30 seconds look fine, the last 30 slide downward — watch the frame time trace for a slope.
A recorder running in the background: screen capture software eats CPU and GPU headroom and will lower the very numbers you are measuring.

Terms used in this procedure

FPS: Frames per second: how many images the game delivers each second. 60 FPS has long been the minimum for smoothly animated gameplay.
Frame time: The gap between two consecutive frames, in milliseconds. 16.7 ms corresponds to 60 FPS, 6.9 ms to 144 FPS.
1% low (99th percentile): The frame rate that 99% of frames met or exceeded during a run. It exposes stutter that the average hides.
Input lag: The delay between pressing a key and seeing the result, measured in milliseconds. Playability needs below 100 ms; demanding online play aims below 20 ms.
VRR: Variable refresh rate: the display follows the game's frame rate inside a stated range, for example 30 Hz through 144 Hz, removing tearing without a VSync cap.

Questions people ask before the first run

Why does my FPS read exactly 60.0 all the time?: VSync or an in-game frame cap is holding it there. VSync locks to the display refresh rate and raises input lag; a cap does the same without the lag. Turn both off before measuring.
Is a higher average FPS always better?: Not if the 1% low collapses. A 144 FPS average with a 60 FPS 1% low feels worse than a steady 100 with a 90 low, because the stutter is what you notice.
Do I need a 360 FPS monitor to play competitively?: No — only if your own measured average already sits near that figure. Monitors marketed to competitive players show 360 FPS and more, but a stable frame time at a lower rate beats a higher average with ragged lows.
My numbers drop halfway through the run — is my GPU too weak?: A clean start with a sliding finish usually means a thermal throttle, not a weak GPU. Check cooling and case airflow before changing any preset.

How this record was assembled

Every figure on this page comes from published specifications and standard PC reference values: refresh rates, VRR standards, frame-time conversions and lag thresholds. No measurement was taken on this site, and no hardware was tested here.

Reference figures used here

Reference values are standard PC and display figures; version dates come from the tools' own release notes.