Should I Cap My FPS in Games?

The short answer is yes, you generally should cap your FPS (frames per second) to match your monitor‘s refresh rate. For most gamers, this will provide the optimal balance of smooth gameplay and responsive controls. However, competitive esports players may still benefit from unlocking their FPS to minimize input lag.

Capping FPS aligns the frame rate output of your graphics card with what your monitor is capable of displaying. This synchronization results in a tear-free, super smooth gaming experience. The exception is for high-level competitive play, where every millisecond of input latency matters, and uncapping FPS can help decrease delay.

Below we‘ll explore these tradeoffs in more detail. I‘ll provide specific research, recommendations and settings tips you can use to fine tune your capped or uncapped framerate for different gaming needs.

Why Cap Your Frame Rate?

Limiting FPS primarily helps eliminate visual artifacts and stability issues that occur when your GPU sends frames too quickly for your monitor to keep up.

Here are 5 key benefits of capping frame rate:

1. Prevent Screen Tearing – Unsynced FPS can cause partial frames to display
2. Minimize Stuttering – Framerates exceeding refresh rate lead to uneven gameplay
3. Less Input Lag – Capped FPS has less variance/fluctuations than uncapped
4. Decreased GPU Load – Reduces power consumption, heat and fan noise
5. Enhanced Lifespan – Lessens wear on GPU/hardware from overworking

Capping your framerate also has advantages like saving power, allowing GPU resources to be used for higher graphical settings, and gaining consistency in the responsiveness of controls.

According to Hardware Unboxed‘s testing, running at unlocked framerates significantly increased power draw over a matched FPS cap.

Based on these benefits, I would recommend all gamers set an FPS limit matched to their monitor‘s refresh rate. This pairs graphical performance to your display capabilities. Battlefield players with a 144Hz monitor would thus cap at 144 FPS.

However…competitive esports players should continue reading before capping their FPS.

When to Uncap Competitive Gaming FPS

For serious competitive gamers, maximizing framerates, input responsiveness and display fluidity is more vital than absolute visual smoothness.

According to Nvidia, uncapped high FPS lowers end-to-end input lag by up to 33% compared to a matched refresh rate cap.

Therefore, games like CS:GO, Valorant, Fortnite and Rainbow Six put reaction times above all else. The blistering pace of these titles also makes screen tearing and stuttering less noticeable during quick movements.

As well, players likely compete on high refresh rate 240Hz or 360Hz monitors, which require extremely high FPS to take full advantage of.

For these use cases, I recommend removing the FPS cap entirely and allowing your graphics card to push as many frames as possible.

Just keep in mind you‘ll need a beastly GPU to maintain such high rates. Competitive visual settings also remove graphical barriers that could lower FPS.

Below are a few tips for fine tuning an uncapped competitive FPS setup:

• Use Low/Medium competitive graphics settings for minimal rendering workload
• Enable GPU Boosting/OC features that safely raise frequencies
• Set Windows Power settings to High Performance for sustained clocks
• Close unnecessary background software eating GPU resources
• Activate Nvidia Reflex or AMD Anti-Lag for lower input latency

Adopting this optimized approach allows competitive players to fully unlock their hardware‘s capabilities and responsiveness. Yet for most single player story gaming, an FPS cap is still ideal.

What FPS Limit Should I Choose?

Choosing the right frame rate limit comes down to your monitor‘s specs and gaming priorities. As mentioned above, a baseline matched cap is best for casual gaming.

However, players may tweak this further based on personal preference, game environments and hardware leeway.

Here are a few capping guidelines:

Standard 60Hz Monitors

• Cap FPS to 60 – Matches refresh rate for ultra smoothness

High Refresh 144Hz Monitors

• Cap FPS to 144 – Default for buttery smooth gameplay
• Cap FPS to 160 – Adds headroom to prevent exceeding refresh
• Cap FPS to 120 – Saves GPU resources with still optimal smoothness

Competitive 240Hz+ Monitors

• Try an FPS limit of 280-360 – High ceiling before uncapping entirely
• Uncap FPS completely – Necessary for 500+ FPS competitive environments

I recommend experimenting with 10-30 FPS increments above your refresh rate to find your perfect balance of fluidity versus GPU load.

Utilize the built-in FPS counter of games/services like Steam, Origin or Nvidia Experience to closely monitor performance. Tweak game graphics settings until your matches desired framerate.

Additional Recommended FPS Capping Tips

Here are a few final best practices in managing your in-game FPS limit:

• Use the FPS limiter within your game engine or menus if available
• Limit FPS separately per game as needs vary significantly
• Scan forums regarding ideal caps for specific game engines
• Ensure GPU temps/clocks aren‘t downclocking from an extreme cap
• Disable Vsync and other system caps if applying your own limit

Properly capping frames per second delivers buttery responsive gameplay free ofdistracting screen tearing or stutter. Competitive esports players should still consider uncapping FPS completely. But experiment with limits if pushing 400+ FPS proves unreliable.

There is no universal best FPS cap for all gamers and gaming situations. Each title responds differently based on its graphics workload and engine optimizations. Find your perfect frame rate ceiling for enjoying both optimal visuals and lightning reflexes.