9 Best FPS Counter Software To Download For Windows 10/11

If you are a gamer or live streamer then FPS counter software is very important for you as these apps keep you updated about the frame per second rate while playing the game.

As the higher FPS rate is better for gaming especially if you are a gamer, getting the ideal FPS is more important for a smooth stutter-free gaming experience. At the same time to get high FPS, you should also have supported hardware. The GPU plays the most important role in getting a stable FPS while playing the game.

Many games complain that they are not getting the required FPS depending upon their high-end gaming rig so there are many factors that result in lower FPS. But if you suspect that the FPS is not as high as it should be, or that it falls too often, you can add an FPS counter software to keep an eye on it.

Best FPS counter software for Windows 10/11

There is no shortage of software that can add an FPS counter on Windows 10. These FPS overlay tools will normally only work when you’re playing a game since there are few other apps that need or refresh frames at the same rate that games do.

1. FPS counter – Windows 10 game bar

Windows 10 comes with a built-in FPS counter. It works with the Windows 10 game bar. You do not have to install anything and you can pin the FPS counter to the screen and use it to monitor the frame rate.

  1. Run a game.
  2. Tap the Win+G keyboard shortcut to show the game bar.
  3. Enable the Performance widget.
  4. Select the FPS tab on the widget.
  5. Move the widget to a corner of the screen.
  6. Click the pin icon to pin it.
  7. The FPS for the game will be shown live.
  8. FPS counter – Windows 10 game bar

2. Fraps

The Windows 10 game bar FPS monitor is only a few years old and Windows users have long needed a way to monitor the FPS in-game. They’ve relied on Fraps.

Fraps has not been updated in a long time. Its product page does not mention Windows 10 however, it works just fine on the OS and can be used to monitor the FPS of a game.

  1. Run Fraps.
  2. Go to the app’s settings.
  3. Select the FPS tab.
  4. Enable the FPS box under benchmarking.
  5. Select which corner of the screen the FPS should appear on.
  6. Set a toggle to show/hide it.
  7. Open a game.
  8. Press the toggle and the FPS will appear in a corner.

3. GeForce Experience in-game overlay

If you have a gaming PC/system, you will have a GPU. If it’s an Nvidia GPU, you can install the GeForce Experience app and enable the in-game overlay. This overlay will, among other things, display the FPS for a game.

  1. Download GeForce Experience from Nvidia.
  2. Open GeForce Experience and click the cogwheel button at the top right.
  3. Go to the General tab and enable the Game overlay.
  4. Click the Settings button.
  5. Select HUD Layout.
  6. Go to the FPS Counter tab.
  7. Select which corner of the screen you want the FPS to appear in.
  8. Run a game and tap Alt+Z.
  9. The FPS counter will appear.

4. Dxtory

Dxtory is another amazing software that allows you to take screenshots, record gameplay, and monitor FPS while playing the game. When you run the Dxtory, games will have an FPS overlay in the upper left corner. This program is similar to Fraps in that it allows you to change the color of the FPS counter on your screen. The Dxtory, like Fraps, costs roughly $35, but there is a free version for Windows that you can download and play on your PC for as long as you wish. The main difference is that the Windows 10 FPS counter in Dxtory also works with Universal Windows Platform games, while Fraps does not.

To use Dxtory, follow the given steps.

  1. Download the stable version of Dxtory from its official website.
  2. In the Dxtory app, click on the monitor icon in the Overlay tab.
  3. Then, check the boxes titled Video FPS and Record FPS, shown highlighted.
  4. Now, navigate to the Folder tab and click on the first folder icon to set the path to save your game recordings.
  5. Here, choose the file location where you need to save files.

To take screenshots during gameplay, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the ScreenShot tab and customize your ScreenShot Setting, as per your requirements.

6. Steam in-game overlay

If you’re playing a Steam game, you should know it has an in-game FPS overlay that can display the live framerate.

To enable it, follow these steps.

  1. Open Steam.
  2. Go to Steam>Settings.
  3. Select the In-game tab.
  4. Open the In-game FPS counter dropdown.
  5. Select which corner of the screen you want it to appear on.
  6. Run the game and tap the Shift+Tab keyboard shortcut to enable it.

7. MSI Afterburner

MSI Afterburner is a tool popular with users who like to overclock or under vault their GPU. It is a feature-rich tool capable of monitoring your system and you can use it to enable an FPS counter on Windows 10.

Related: How to Enable FPS Counter in MSI Afterburner

  1. Download and install MSI Afterburner.
  2. Go to the app’s settings.
  3. Select the Monitoring tab.
  4. From the list of items, select and enable Framerate (check mark should be active).
  5. Enable the ‘Show in On-screen display’ option.
  6. The FPS counter will be displayed when you run a game.

8. FPS Monitor

If you are looking for a professional FPS counter for Windows 10/11, then download the FPS monitor program. It is a comprehensive hardware tracking program for Windows 10 systems that provide FPS counter data including information about the performance of the GPU or CPU as it relates to gaming. It is one of the first FPS counter applications that provide not only FPS statistics as accurate as Fraps, but also a variety of other benchmarks and overall performance of your hardware while your game is running.

Follow these steps to use the FPS monitor:

  1. Download the FPS monitor from the official website.
  2. Open the app and click on the Overlay to open the settings
  3. In the Item settings window, check the FPS option under the Enabled sensors section to enable it.
  4. According to the Chosen Customization, the overlay will be designed. Now, you can play your game and use this FPS counter on Windows 10 PCs.

9. Razer Cortex

Razer Cortex is a free game booster program that may be used to improve and launch games. It accomplishes this by terminating non-essential activities and freeing up RAM, allowing your PC to devote the majority of its processing power to the game or display. It also comes with optimization tools that might help you increase the frame rate of your games. You will get not just your system frame rate, but also a graph chart displaying the highest, lowest, and average frame rates. As a result, the supplementary FPS chart might help you better understand what the average frame rate for games is.

Related: Fixed: Razer Cortex Not Opening or Working Properly

Here’s how to use the Razer Cortex free FPS counter app:

  1. Download the Razer Cortex app, as shown.
  2. Then, open Razer Cortex and switch to the FPS tab.

If you need to show FPS overlay while playing the game, then follow steps 3-5.

  1. Check the box marked Show FPS overlay while-in game shown highlighted.
  2. Click on any corner to anchor your overlay.
  3. While in the game press the Shift + Alt + Q keys together for the FPS overlay to appear.

Conclusion

The apps listed here do not need a lot of system resources to run. They are light and will allow most if not all system resources to remain free for your game to consume. It’s up to you to make sure you don’t have other apps running on your system that will drag the FPS of the game down