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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →A frame-time graph shows how long each frame took, usually in milliseconds; an FPS percentile summarizes performance across a selected portion of those frames. Read the metric and its event definition first: time between frames being presented is not necessarily the same as time between frames appearing on screen. A high frame-time spike can reveal a hitch that an average FPS number hides.
What is a frame-time graph?
Most frame-time graphs put time or frame index on the horizontal axis and frame duration, in milliseconds (ms), on the vertical axis. A low, steady trace means successive frames took similar amounts of time. A sudden rise means one or more frames took longer than those around them; the height and clustering of the rises help show how severe and frequent the interruptions were.
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Check the plotted metric before interpreting the line. A tool may measure intervals between Present calls, intervals between display changes, or another pipeline event. Those measurements answer different questions, so a graph labeled only “frame time” is incomplete unless the tool’s definition is clear.
Relate frame time to a target FPS
FPS and frame time are reciprocals: nominal frame interval in milliseconds is 1000 divided by the target FPS. For example, 60 FPS corresponds to about 16.67 ms per frame. This is a conversion, not a universal pass/fail threshold: a trace near that interval can still have disruptive spikes, and a target or cap changes the context.
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Why high average FPS can still feel stuttery
An average FPS compresses the entire capture into one number. It does not show when slow frames happened, how long they lasted, or whether several occurred together. A game can therefore maintain a high average while occasional long frames cause visible or felt stutter. Look at the trace and a tail statistic alongside the average rather than treating the average as a complete description.
What does a 99th-percentile frame time mean?
A frame-time percentile is a threshold in milliseconds. The 95th-percentile example in NVIDIA’s FrameView 1.1 User Guide says that if rendered-frame P95 is 16.67 ms, 95% of frames rendered faster than 16.67 ms. A 99th-percentile frame-time threshold is interpreted the same way: 99% of measured frame times are at or below that threshold, with the slowest 1% above it (allowing for ties and the tool’s calculation method). A larger high-percentile frame time indicates a slower tail.
Percentiles summarize a distribution; they do not tell you whether the slow frames were isolated, clustered, or caused a perceptible hitch. Use the graph to see their timing and pattern. Also check whether the tool reports rendered or displayed timing and how it calculates the percentile.
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How do you read 1% lows?
“1% low FPS” often refers to a low-performance summary, but the label is not standardized. NVIDIA’s FrameView 1.4 User Guide defines 1% Low FPS as the average FPS of the slowest 1% of frames. The same guide defines its separate “1% FPS” as a percentile measurement that separates the slowest 1% of frame rates from the fastest 99%.
Those are different calculations: one averages the slowest slice, while the other identifies a boundary. Do not assume another application uses either formula just because it displays “1% low” or “1% FPS.” Name the capture tool and version, quote its exact metric, and say whether the value is an average of slow frames or a percentile threshold.
FPS ordering reverses relative to frame-time ordering because FPS is the reciprocal of duration. The slow tail has high frame times but low FPS. Taking the reciprocal of a frame-time percentile may convert a threshold, but it does not turn that threshold into the average FPS of the slowest 1% of frames.
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What is the difference between rendered FPS and displayed FPS?
Rendered and displayed timing refer to different points in the graphics pipeline. NVIDIA’s FrameView 1.1 User Guide describes MsBetweenPresents as timing between rendered-frame Present events near the beginning of the pipeline. It describes MsBetweenDisplayChange as timing between display changes near the end of the pipeline, which is more indicative of what the user sees.
PresentMon documents additional fields, each with its own meaning: MsBetweenPresents is time between Present calls; MsBetweenDisplayChange is how long the previous frame was displayed before the next was displayed; MsUntilDisplayed is the interval from a Present call to display; and MsRenderPresentLatency runs from a Present call to completion of that frame’s GPU work. These values are not interchangeable, and none should be casually relabeled as another.
A rendered-FPS figure describes the chosen render-side event; displayed timing is closer to the cadence of visible screen changes. If the two differ, the difference alone does not establish the cause. Report the field name and tool definition rather than collapsing both into “FPS.”
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Why percentile results depend on the capture
A percentile describes only the frames included in its calculation. NVIDIA’s FrameView 1.1 guide says, “Percentile data is highly sensitive to stutter,” and advises excluding loading screens, menus, and large frame-time spikes when selecting a meaningful dataset. That can help compare a specific gameplay segment, but excluding spikes can also conceal real interruptions if the question is how a whole play session felt.
For a useful report, define the segment and disclose what was removed. If you exclude menus or transitions, say so. If genuine gameplay spikes are excluded for a focused comparison, consider showing a separate whole-session result as well; do not silently remove the events the reader wants to evaluate.
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Before comparing two results, align the measurement and the capture. A difference in the graph may reflect a different event definition, statistic, or gameplay segment rather than a change in performance.
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- Metric and event: identify rendered/presented or displayed timing, along with the capture tool and version.
- Statistic: distinguish average FPS, an FPS percentile, a frame-time percentile, and an average of the slowest fraction of frames.
- Outlier pattern: consider spike size, frequency, and clustering, not only the single maximum.
- Capture scope: use the same game scene or benchmark, duration, settings, frame cap or synchronization setup, and background conditions where feasible.
- Exclusions: disclose whether loading screens, menus, transitions, or spikes were removed from the analyzed interval.
These controls make the comparison easier to interpret; they do not prove why a spike occurred. A long frame indicates that an interval took longer, not whether CPU work, GPU work, asset loading, shader compilation, synchronization, or another factor was responsible. To assign a cause, use a diagnostic trace that correlates relevant CPU and GPU events.
Tools for capturing and diagnosing frame times
PresentMon Capture Application
The official PresentMon project documentation describes a capture application with a real-time performance overlay and trace capture. Its summary includes capture duration, frame count, average, minimum and maximum values, plus 99th-, 95th- and 90th-percentile FPS. Its raw per-frame CSV and distinct timing fields can help readers inspect what the summary covers. Confirm the field and statistic in the documentation rather than assuming an “FPS percentile” is a frame-time percentile.
NVIDIA FrameView
NVIDIA describes FrameView as an application for measuring frame rates and frame times, with a configurable overlay and logging that uses PresentMon analytics. The product page links version 2.0 release notes, while the specific 1% metric definitions above come from FrameView 1.4 and the percentile explanation from FrameView 1.1. Do not assume a metric’s definition is unchanged across versions without checking the relevant guide.
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Nsight Systems’ FPS overview can show frame durations, average and minimum/maximum CPU frame time, average FPS, and a 99th percentile for the currently displayed timeline range. Its stutter row highlights frames significantly longer than nearby frames. It is a profiling option for investigating timing in context, not a requirement for reading an ordinary frame-time graph.
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