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description: A detailed guide comparing multiple approaches to implementing an FPS counter in games. The post critiques common methods — single-frame measurement and fixed...
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# How to Implement an FPS Counter

**[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 11 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

A detailed guide comparing multiple approaches to implementing an FPS counter in games. The post critiques common methods — single-frame measurement and fixed N-frame windows — explaining why they produce misleading results. It recommends using a rolling time-based window (e.g., 1 second) to count frame completions, analogous to real-time monitoring in web services. Five methods are presented with pseudocode, from naive to robust, including tracking per-frame processing times within the rolling window. Practical tips cover using high-precision timers (SDL_GetPerformanceCounter, std::chrono::high_resolution_clock) and circular buffers as a memory-efficient alternative to queues.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://vplesko.com/posts/how_to_implement_an_fps_counter.html>

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