FPS & Refresh Rate Calculator

What Frame Time Explains That FPS Numbers Do Not

Frame time in milliseconds is the honest currency of smoothness. A display running 60 FPS shows a new frame every 16.67 ms; at 144 FPS every 6.94 ms. Halving the interval is what your eyes perceive as "smoothness" — and it explains why the jump from 60 to 144 Hz feels enormous while 360 to 480 Hz barely registers.

Frame time also exposes stutter that averages hide. A game delivering 100 FPS on average with individual frames spiking to 40 ms feels worse than a locked 80 FPS. This is why review outlets report 1% and 0.2% lows in frame-time milliseconds rather than raw FPS.

Practical Pairings

• 60 Hz display → cap at 60 FPS: capping prevents tearing without V-Sync latency.
• 144 Hz display → target 144+ FPS: each extra rendered frame reduces input latency even if it never gets displayed.
• VRR (G-Sync/FreeSync): frame rates inside the refresh window display tear-free; use the calculator to see how much headroom your target needs.
• Esports titles on high-refresh displays: 240 Hz means 4.17 ms per frame — every millisecond of engine latency matters more than visual settings.

Frame Time Is What You Feel

Frame time in milliseconds is 1000 divided by FPS: 60 FPS is 16.7 ms per frame, 144 FPS is 6.9 ms and 240 FPS is 4.2 ms. Going from 60 to 144 saves almost 10 ms per frame, while going from 144 to 240 saves only 2.7 ms, which is why returns diminish.

A monitor can only display as many frames as its refresh rate, so an FPS beyond the Hz value is not shown in full. Variable refresh rate (G-Sync or FreeSync) avoids tearing when FPS falls below the refresh rate, and a stable frame time often feels smoother than a high but uneven average.