FPS may refer to any of the following:

  1. Short for frames per second, FPS is a measurement of how many frames a device can render each second. It is dictated by the speed of the video card, CPU, and memory in a computer. A user with a higher FPS can perform better and react faster than someone with a lower FPS. Many games today have a command or keyboard shortcut key combination that displays the frames per second you are getting. There are also programs, such as Fraps, that display the frames per second you can get with your computer hardware and certain settings. The picture shows a game displaying an FPS of 99.3 or 99 frames per second.

  2. FPS is also short for first-person shooter, a genre of video game. In an FPS, the player views the game in a first-person view. Game interaction largely involves moving, aiming, and shooting a gun. First-person shooter games first became popular with the release of Doom in 1993. In the picture, the player has a handgun and is shooting a character in the game.

With online games, FPS is still important, however, latency or ping (connection between you and the server) is even more important.

  • Video card help and support.

Computer acronyms, Frame, Game terms, Measurement, Smurf, Video card terms

If you’re looking over the shoulder of a character in a game, the game is considered a third-person shooter and not a first-person shooter.