Should you limit your FPS in games? Here's when it makes sense

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Dave Meikleham for Engadget

In the majority of games, you should consider capping your frame rate. Setting an fps cap can help you hit and maintain stable performance — provided your hardware is up to the task — while lowering the chance of screen tearing. Capping frame rates can also put less stress on your GPU, leading to reduced fan noise and lower power output in general.

Setting an fps limit makes the most sense if you're using a VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) monitor. That's because a cap helps your favorite games stay inside the effective VRR range, which is generally agreed to start at 48 fps and top out at your display's max refresh rate. By setting a frame rate cap on a VRR screen, you're ensuring the in-game action doesn't hit the refresh rate ceiling, which in turn slightly lowers latency. Paired with V-Sync (much more on this shortly), limiting fps should ensure you never see screen tearing.

If you're wondering what causes screen tearing, this annoying screen issue occurs when your GPU sends a new frame to your monitor/TV while it's still displaying the previous one. This results in different parts of the two frames simultaneously appearing on-screen, which presents as flickering horizontal lines in motion. This looks ugly and can be distracting; it's a game-breaking defect in my book.

I've been capping frame rates for years to get the smoothest, most visually consistent gameplay sessions on my NVIDIA G-Sync compatible monitor. However, I don't usually set a minimum fps level. That's because both G-Sync and AMD's hardware-agnostic FreeSync match a display's refresh rate to a GPU's frame output. Admittedly, I play PC games on a custom RTX 5090 rig, so frame drops are uncommon. But when the action does dip to 110 fps from 120 fps, I can't see or feel the fluctuation. 

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The easiest way to cap a game's frame rate is to use an fps limiter. Many titles have this feature baked into their graphics settings, though they're not always reliable from my experience. A safer bet is to cap your frame rate using your GPU's software.

Those with NVIDIA cards should use either the NVIDIA app or the NVIDIA Control Panel. With the latter, go to Manage 3D Settings > Global Settings > Max Frame Rate, then set your desired fps target. If you have an AMD GPU, you can cap frame rates on a system-wide level with AMD Adrenalin. Simply navigate to Gaming > Radeon Chill, then set your minimum and max fps to the same rate. Another viable option is to use third-party programs, such as Guru3D RTSS RivaTuner.

The rate you should set your output at depends on your display's maximum refresh rate. In most cases, using a combination of V-Sync and a cap of three or four frames below your screen's max refresh rate will stop screen tearing. So if you're on a 60Hz panel, aim for 57 fps. On a 120Hz display, go for 117 fps; 240Hz should be 237 fps and so on.

On VRR displays, capping your frame rate slightly below the max refresh rate can help reduce lag, though not to a significant degree. And if you're concerned about losing a few frames, don't be. You're almost certainly not going to notice the difference between 57 and 60 fps, let alone 237 next to 240. Provided your GPU is powerful enough that it won't dip below the frame rate value you've set, you should get smooth, tear-free gaming experiences on your rig.

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If you're wondering what V-Sync does to your PC's frames per second, the short answer is that it caps FPS to a number that won't exceed the maximum refresh rate of your display. That means for someone who plays on a 120Hz monitor, your in-game performance can't exceed 120 fps when V-Sync is enabled.

V-Sync synchronizes a game's frame rate to match the refresh rate of a monitor or TV. Before your GPU can push a new frame, V-Sync forces the card to wait until a display's refresh cycle is complete. With 60Hz panels, that introduces a 16.7ms delay. For 120Hz screens, it's 8.33ms, and in the case of ultra-fast 240Hz displays, just 4.17ms.

The obvious plus with V-Sync is that it all but eliminates the chance of screen tearing. That's great, since screen tearing is an absolute immersion-breaker. Yet there's a fairly sizable downside to enabling V-Sync. By forcing the GPU to wait until individual refresh rate cycles are complete before it can generate fresh frames, unavoidable input lag is added.

The amount of latency V-Sync adds often varies by game. A rule of thumb is to expect one additional refresh cycle of lag. So with a 120Hz monitor, that's once again 8.33ms. Of course, if your GPU can't render frames fast enough, queued frames will build up, increasing latency even further.

In my experience, V-Sync has never added noticeable lag. For hardcore shooter fans using Team Green GPUs who crave the smoothest performance in order to pull off consistent headshots, it's worth playing around with NVIDIA V-Sync Fast. Found in the NVIDIA Control Panel under Manage 3D settings, this feature aims to reduce standard V-Sync lag while also providing a lower-tear experience.

Fast V-Sync lets the GPU keep rendering frames rather than make it wait for a refresh cycle to complete, so it doesn't cap FPS like garden variety V-Sync. I've had decently slick results with Fast V-Sync in games where my frame rate is normally well over my monitor's refresh rate; if you're often in this situation, it's another option to eliminate tearing, though it doesn't work in all games.