2019-06-01_PC_Gamer

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Frames

per second

If you think of a game as a series of animation cells – still

images representing single moments in time – the FPS is

the number of images generated each second. It’s not the

same as the refresh rate, which is the number of times

your display updates per second, and is measured in hertz

(Hz). 1 Hz is one cycle per second, so the two

measurements are easy to compare: a 60 Hz monitor

updates 60 times per second, and a game running at 60

FPS should feed it new frames at the same rate.

The more work you make your graphics card do to

render bigger, prettier frames, the lower your FPS will be. If

the framerate is too low, frames will be repeated and it will

become uncomfortable to view – an ugly, stuttering world.

Competitive players seek out high framerates in an effort

to reduce input lag, but at the expense of screen tearing

(see right), while high-resolution early adopters may be

satisfied with lower framerates at 1440p or 4K.

Upscaling and

downsampling

Some games offer a ‘rendering
resolution’ setting. This setting lets you
keep the display resolution the same
(your display’s native 1080p or 1440p,
for instance) while adjusting the
resolution the game is being rendered
at (but not the UI). If the rendering
resolution is lower than your display
resolution, it will be upscaled to fit your
display resolution – and, as expected,
look like garbage, because the image is
being blown up.
If you render the game at a higher
resolution than your display resolution,
which is an option in Shadow of Mordor,
the image will be downsampled (or
‘downscaled’) and will look much better
at a high cost to performance.

A pixelis themostbasicunitofa digital
image – a tiny dot of colour – and
resolution is the number of pixel
columns and pixel rows in an image or
on your display. The most common
display resolutions today are: 1280x720
(720p), 1920x1080 (1080p),

2560x1440(1440p), and 3840 x 2160

(4K or ‘ultra-HD’). Those are 16x9

resolutions – if you have a display with a

16x10 aspect ratio, they’ll be slightly

different: 1920×1200, 2560x1600, and

so on, while newer ultrawide displays

can be 2560x1080, 3440x1440, etc.

Resolution and FPS

1440p

Native resolution

5120x2880

Downscaled to 1440p

720p

Upscaled to 1440p

1440p

Native resolution

5120x2880

Downscaled to 1440p

THE BASICS