--- title: Frame rate explained: What is fps in video games? description: Frame rate measures how many images a game draws per second, and a steady rate matters more than a high one. At 60 fps, all game logic and rendering must... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/frame-rate-explained-what-is-fps-in-video-games--huyjhpzvs twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Frame rate explained: What is fps in video games? | daily.dev og:description: Frame rate measures how many images a game draws per second, and a steady rate matters more than a high one. At 60 fps, all game logic and rendering must... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/frame-rate-explained-what-is-fps-in-video-games--huyjhpzvs og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/huYJHpzVs.png og:image:alt: Frame rate explained: What is fps in video games? og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Frame rate explained: What is fps in video games? **[Unity](https://daily.dev/sources/unity)** · 8 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Frame rate measures how many images a game draws per second, and a steady rate matters more than a high one. At 60 fps, all game logic and rendering must finish within about 16.7 ms per frame, since frame time is 1000 ms divided by fps. A steady 30 fps can feel smoother than a 60 fps that keeps dipping, because players notice inconsistency more than the raw number. A 40 fps target works well on a 120 Hz display since it divides evenly into three refreshes. The guide also covers locked vs unlocked frame rates, what causes slowdowns, and how to choose a target, then points readers to Unity Spark, Unity's browser-based AI game creation tool. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### why does my game feel laggy even though the average frame rate is high Inconsistent frame delivery causes the laggy feel, not the average number. When most frames arrive on time but a few arrive late, those late frames appear as hitches, stutters, or brief freezes even though the average frame rate looks fine. Sudden freezes often come from work happening all at once, such as preparing new visual effects or loading content mid-play. _Developers chasing smooth gameplay can find more frame-pacing breakdowns like this on daily.dev._ ### why would a game target 40 fps instead of 30 or 60 A 40 fps target can work better on a 120 Hz display because 40 divides evenly into 120, so each frame stays on screen for exactly three refreshes. When a frame rate doesn't divide evenly into the display's refresh rate, frames stay up for uneven lengths of time, which looks like stutter even if the average number seems fine. _Picking the right fps target for a display is easier when you compare approaches on daily.dev._ ### how do I calculate frame time from frame rate in milliseconds Frame time in milliseconds equals 1000 divided by the frame rate in fps. At 60 fps, that gives roughly 16.7 ms as the budget for everything the game must do each frame, including moving characters, checking collisions, running game logic, and drawing the scene. _Budgeting frame time against real game logic is a recurring challenge developers track on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [120 Frames a Second, and It Still Feels Choppy](https://daily.dev/posts/120-frames-a-second-and-it-still-feels-choppy-nanq0dmy3) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Your games still stutter at 100 FPS because average frame rate hides the real problem](https://daily.dev/posts/your-games-still-stutter-at-100-fps-because-average-frame-rate-hides-the-real-problem-1mbvdixxx) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Frame generation doubled my FPS, but it taught me why that number lies](https://daily.dev/posts/frame-generation-doubled-my-fps-but-it-taught-me-why-that-number-lies-v0o4xwkpv) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#performance](https://daily.dev/tags/performance), [#game-development](https://daily.dev/tags/game-development), [#unity](https://daily.dev/tags/unity), [#vr](https://daily.dev/tags/vr) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/frame-rate-explained-what-is-fps-in-video-games--huyjhpzvs) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Frame rate explained: What is fps in video games?","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/frame-rate-explained-what-is-fps-in-video-games--huyjhpzvs","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/frame-rate-explained-what-is-fps-in-video-games--huyjhpzvs"},"datePublished":"2026-10-27T19:05:33.716Z","dateModified":"2026-10-27T19:45:39.115Z","description":"Frame rate measures how many images a game draws per second, and a steady rate matters more than a high one. 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