FPS stands for frames per second. In layman’s language, the frames here mean images and the number of images when stitched together creates a video that is displayed on a screen. The more the number of images reflected on the screen, the better will be the motion created.
For example, Have you made a flipbook in your childhood? There, you draw images on each paper and get all these pages’ bind together and when you flip these pages together, it creates a motion picture. Now, the number of pages flipped in one second is the FPS of the flipbook in simple terms.
If the number pf pages flipped in one second are increased, you will see that the quality of motion created is also better(smoother) than before.
The second example that I am going to take is that of a projector. In analog projectors, a roll of images is run through the projector at a speed so as to create a movie on the theatre screen. So here the number of the still images that pass through the projector window in one second is the FPS of the projector.
So technically speaking, the number of still images shown in one second is the “Frames Per Second”. High FPS will produce smoother motion whereas a low FPS can result in choppy video graphics.
How to calculate FPS
If you create a 60 seconds video by using or stitching 3000 images together, you just need to calculate the number of images displayed in one second by using simple mathematics.
So here in this case, just divide the total images by a total number of seconds to calculate the images shown in one second. So the result is 50 FPS.
Role of FPS in a Gaming PC
For smooth gaming experience, FPS is no doubt one of the vital factors as it will run the game hassle-free and the movement of objects will be smooth on optimum FPS. Now here I have used the word optimum instead of high FPS. The reason being, in some games you need a medium level of FPS to notice the movement or steps of a person or object whereas at high FPS you might miss those vital clues shown in particular frames.
Having said that, the other two factors that determine the quality of gaming is the graphics card and monitor. If your particular game requires at least 30 fps of high resolution pictures, the graphics card should have the capacity to do so. And on the other hand, if the refresh rate of the monitor is much lower compared to FPS requirements, you will still not be able to achieve the desired results on the screen.
Comparison of different FPS
To help you understand FPS better, here is a screenshot of a video showing the balls moving at different FPS rate while keeping the velocity constant at 1000 pixels/second.
The First ball at the top is moving at a 15 FPS, the middle one at 25 FPS and the last one at the lower end is at 60 FPS. You can see how our eyes perceive these baseballs moving at different FPS rates.