FPS stands for Frames Per Second. It represents the total number of frames displayed in one second. The smoothness of the video games is directly proportional to the FPS. This means that the higher the FPS is, the smoother the gameplay is. If you are wondering about how to measure or view the FPS of games, this article will be beneficial for you. Here, we will list some best free FPS Counter Software for Windows 11/10 PC.
Best free FPS Counter Software for Windows PC
We will talk about the following FPS Counter Software for Windows 11/10 PC in this article:
- Fraps
- Steam
- MSI Afterburner
- Xbox Game Bar
Let’s see how to display FPS in games using these free software.
1] Fraps
Fraps is a software that lets you display FPS in a game, capture in-game screenshots, and record your gameplay. It is available in both free and paid versions. The free version comes with some limitations like a time limit for recording the gameplay, the recorded videos have a watermark, etc.
First, install Fraps on your system and then launch it. After launching the Fraps, launch any game on your PC and you will see its frame rate on the top left corner of the screen. By default, it displays the FPS in a game on the top left corner of the screen. You can change its position by pressing the Overlay hotkey which is set to F12 by default. You can change this hotkey and other FPS settings in the FPS tab of the software.
Other features of Fraps:
- Screenshots: You can capture the in-game screenshots by pressing the default hotkey (F10). In the free version, the screenshots will be saved in BMP format. If you want to save the screenshots in other supported formats (JPG, PNG, and TGA), you have to purchase its full version. You can change the screenshots settings in the Screenshots tab of the Fraps.
- Video capture: Fraps also lets you record your gameplay. The default hotkey to start video recording is F9. You can change this hotkey and other video capture settings in the Movies tab.
Visit fraps.com to download Fraps.
2] Steam
If you are a gamer, you might know what Steam is. It is among the popular gaming platforms and has a library of around 30000 games including free and paid games. You can use the Steam Client to display FPS in your games. The following steps will help you on how to display FPS in games using the Steam Client.
First, you have to download and install Steam on your system. After installing Steam, launch it. Steam will take some time to install the latest updates.
Open Steam Settings and select the In-game category from the left pane. Now, first, select the Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game checkbox and then select the position of the FPS Counter by clicking on the In-game FPS Counter drop-down menu. Click OK to save the settings.
To display FPS in a game, you have to add it to the Steam Client. To do so, follow the instructions below:
- Click Add A GAME on the bottom left side in Steam.
- Select Add a Non-Steam Game.
- After that, Steam will show you the list of all programs installed on your system. Select the game that you want to add to the Steam Client. If the game is not on the list, click on the Browse button.
- Now, click ADD SELECTED PROGRAMS.
After adding the game to Steam, go to Library, select your game, and click on the Play button. Now, you will see FPS Counter in the game.
Read: How to Fix Valorant FPS Drops or Low FPS on Windows PC.
3] MSI Afterburner
MSI Afterburner is a graphics card software developed by MSI. It can be used with any graphics card installed on your system and the best part is MSI Afterburner is completely free. You can use MSI Afterburner to display FPS in your games.
The FPS Counter is disabled in MSI Afterburner by default. Hence, you have to enable it. The following steps will guide you on how to display FPS Counter in games using MSI Afterburner.
Visit the official website of MSI, msi.com, and download the latest version of MSI Afterburner. Double-click on the installer file to install the software on your system.
MSI Afterburner will display the FPS in your games only if the RivaTuner Statistics Server is installed. Therefore, make sure that the RivaTuner Statistics Server checkbox is selected at the time of installation (see the above screenshot).
After the installation gets completed, launch MSI Afterburner and click the gear-shaped icon to open its settings. Now, select the Monitoring tab, scroll down the list of Active hardware monitoring graphs, and click on the tick mark before the Framerate. After that, select the Show in On-screen Display checkbox under the GPU usage graph properties section.
Similarly, you can display other monitoring parameters in the games by enabling them in MSI Afterburner settings.
Now, launch RivaTuner Statistics Server. If it does not appear on your screen, right-click on its icon in the system tray and select Show. Turn on the Show On-Screen Display option.
Now, you will see FPS Counter in the games that you play.
Read: Fix Battlefield 2042 FPS Drops and Stuttering Issues on PC.
4] Xbox Game Bar
You can also display FPS Counter in games using Xbox Game Bar in Windows 11/10. The shortcut to launch the Xbox Game Bar is Win + G. This is the easiest method to display FPS Counter in games.
First, launch the game in which you want to display the FPS Counter. After that, press the Win + G keys to launch the Xbox Game Bar. Now, select FPS in the Performance window on the bottom left side of the screen. There, you will see the FPS of your game.
If the Game Bar does not launch on your Windows 11/10 computer, check if you have enabled Xbox Game Bar in Settings.
How do I get free FPS counters?
If you are a Windows 11 or Windows 10 user, you can display FPS in your game using the Xbox Game Bar. Apart from that, there are some free FPS counters available for Windows PCs that let you display the frame rate during the gameplay.
Read: How to show FPS in games on Windows 11 PC
What is the best FPS counter for PC?
There are many free software available for Windows PCs that come with a feature to display FPS in games. Some of these software are Steam, MSI Afterburner, Xbox Game Bar, etc. After installing these freeware on your system, you have to configure them to display FPS in games.
That’s it.
Read next: Fix Game Stuttering with FPS drops in Windows PC.
