The Highest FPS Ever Recorded is a Mind-Blowing 70 Trillion

When it comes to the frames per second (FPS) achievable today, gaming systems are still well below the 70 trillion FPS record set by advanced scientific camera equipment designed to capture ultrafast processes like nuclear fusion.

Peak Display FPS – Pushing Beyond 120Hz

Though 70 trillion FPS is impossible for consumer applications, display and gaming FPS capabilities have been rising dramatically.

The current standard displays with HDMI 2.1 or DisplayPort 1.4 peak at a 120Hz refresh rate, enabling up to 120 FPS assuming sufficient graphics power. High-end gaming monitors are now expanding beyond this spec, with options like the ASUS ROG Swift 500Hz gaming monitor demonstrating the bleeding edge at up to 500 FPS today.

NVIDIA has hinted at plans to support monitors with up to 1000Hz refresh rates in the near future as well, which would enable displaying up to 1000 FPS. Research is also underway by groups like Intel into concepts like free sync displays that could dynamically scale to extremely high FPS.

So while 120 FPS over HDMI 2.1 is the common standard today, we can expect to see 500-1000 FPS become more mainstream over the next 2-3 years.

Game Engine and Hardware Limits in High FPS Gaming

Game engines themselves like Unreal Engine 5 also have inherent FPS caps tied to their software architecture, though many now allow extremely high limits. At the software level, FPS rates from 240 FPS up to uncapped frames are possible.

When combined with bleeding edge hardware, rates up to and beyond 1000 FPS have been demonstrated in various game engine test environments by sites like Tom‘s Hardware and Hot Hardware. Real gameplay often lands in the 200-400 FPS range on top-tier modern hardware.

Reaching such high FPS metrics does require expensive, specialized equipment far above standard consumer PC gaming hardware:

The key considerations for maximizing FPS are:

• High single-core CPU speeds – gaming relies more on strong single-core performance versus core count. Top-end CPUs like the 13900KS can hit 6 GHz.

• GPU power and memory bandwidth – higher-end GPUs have more streaming processors and memory bandwidth critical to rendering frames as fast as possible.

• Low latency RAM configurations – fast DDR5 modules with tight timings keep the data flowing.

• Rapid storage – no bottlenecks from loading data from super-fast Gen4 and Gen5 NVMe SSDs.

With the perfect combination of cutting-edge components, astounding framerates are possible – but expensive!

Diminishing Returns at Extreme FPS Levels

While chasing down record-breaking FPS numbers has become an obsession for some, there is little practical benefit above a certain level for real-world gaming.

As we pass the 60 FPS range, there are diminishing returns on how much additional FPS improves the experience, because of the limits of human visual perception. Only highly trained professionals may even perceive differences in the 120-240 FPS levels.

Nonetheless, many gamers swear they can "feel" the incredible smoothness at FPS rates up to 240 FPS or higher, even if not necessarily seeing a visual difference compared to standard 60 FPS gameplay.

For competitive gamers, driving FPS continually higher does potentially yield advantages. At the professional esports level, tiny improvements in input response and getting updates on opponent actions could make an incremental difference.

But most agree even hardcore gamers would gain relatively little going over 200-ish FPS. And rates over 500 FPS are almost certainly well beyond the utility threshold for virtually all human players based on physiological limits.

In the end, while bragging rights go to benchmarkers brandishing four digit FPS scores, a more reasoned sweet spot is likely between 90-240 FPS for premium gaming experiences based on current display refresh rates. Significant investments above that level won‘t translate into notably improved gameplay for almost all gamers.

The Future of High FPS Gaming

Extreme framerates beyond 240 FPS may seem excessive today, but could become more mainstream in 5-10 years.

If display standards evolve to support higher refresh rates, with 1000Hz as an example, it opens the door to taking better advantage of extremely high FPS that future gaming hardware will continue unlocking.

And on the human side, tools like advanced eye tracking hardware combined with machine learning may help train our brains and nervous systems to actually capitalize better on frames our physiology currently can‘t fully capitalize on.

We likely won‘t see average consumers gaming at 2000+ FPS in the next decade. But 500+ FPS certainly seems viable, with 1000 FPS gaming within closer reach than one might think!

So while the FPS crown for now might go to multi-million dollar lab equipment, expect gaming systems to keep pushing FPS higher and higher – granting at least some bragging rights to gaming PCs versus what science can accomplish!