Gaming Performance Glossary

Sep 1

Written By Mario Xu

FPS (Frames Per Second) — How many frames your GPU renders each second. Higher = faster, but doesn’t reflect stutter.
Frame time — Time to render one frame (milliseconds). Lower and more even = smoother.
p95 / p99 (95th/99th-percentile frame time) — “Worst typical” frame times. Lower = fewer slow frames; great proxy for smoothness.
1% low / 0.1% low FPS — FPS for the slowest 1% / 0.1% of frames. Higher = steadier play.
Input latency (input-to-photon) — Delay from click/keypress to on-screen change. Lower = snappier feel.
Stutter / hitch — A noticeable pause caused by a slow frame (e.g., shader compiling or VRAM swapping).
Spike count — Number of frames slower than a threshold (e.g., >25 ms). Fewer is better.
Throughput vs consistency — Avg FPS is throughput; p95/1% low capture consistency.

GPU-bound — The graphics card is the limiter. Lowering resolution or effects raises FPS.
CPU-bound — The processor is the limiter. Resolution changes don’t help; reduce simulation/crowds/draw distance.
Utilization — How busy the GPU/CPU is. High GPU + low FPS → GPU-bound; Low GPU + low FPS → CPU-bound or some other bottleneck.

VRAM (Video Random-Access Memory) — GPU’s dedicated memory for textures/buffers. Low headroom → hitching/pop-in.
VRAM headroom — Free space left in VRAM; keep ~0.5–1.0 GB free in heavy titles.
Memory bandwidth / bus width — How fast/wide data moves between GPU and VRAM; matters more at high resolutions.

Refresh rate (Hz) — How many times the monitor updates per second.
V-Sync (Vertical Sync) — Matches GPU output to monitor refresh to reduce tearing; can add latency.
VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) — Monitor adapts to the game’s FPS (e.g., AMD FreeSync, NVIDIA G-SYNC Compatible) for smoother motion.
Screen tearing — Horizontal split from GPU/monitor desync; VRR/V-Sync reduce it.
Exclusive fullscreen vs borderless windowed — Fullscreen can lower latency and enable certain driver features; borderless eases Alt-Tab.

FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) — AMD’s in-game upscaler: renders fewer pixels, reconstructs to target resolution.
DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) — NVIDIA’s AI upscaler; RTX-accelerated.
XeSS (Xe Super Sampling) — Intel’s AI upscaler; best on Arc, also works on other GPUs.
Frame generation (AFMF/DLSS FG/XeSS-FG) — Inserts interpolated frames for higher apparent FPS; adds latency and can show artifacts.
- AFMF (AMD Fluid Motion Frames) — Driver-level frame gen.
- DLSS FG — NVIDIA’s in-game frame gen via DLSS SDK.
- XeSS-FG — Intel’s in-game frame gen (XeSS 2.x).
Anti-Lag (AMD) / Reflex (NVIDIA) / Xe Low Latency (Intel) — Reduce input latency, mainly when GPU-bound.
RSR (Radeon Super Resolution) — AMD driver-level upscaling for games without in-game FSR.
Radeon Boost — Lowers resolution/shading only during fast motion to keep frame times even.
Enhanced Sync — AMD’s lower-latency alternative to classic V-Sync.
HYPR-RX — AMD one-click profile that toggles a stack (Anti-Lag, AFMF, RSR, Boost) for quick gains.

Driver — Software layer between game and GPU; Day-0 drivers add per-game optimizations and fixes.
Day-0 / Game Ready (driver) — Released for a game’s launch with targeted improvements.
Release notes — Vendor change log listing performance gains, fixes, and known issues.
WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Labs) — Microsoft certification/signing for driver compatibility.
RC (Release Candidate) — Near-final build pending last checks.

AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition — AMD’s driver + app for updates, overlays, capture, tuning, HYPR-RX.
NVIDIA App — NVIDIA’s hub for drivers, overlay, ShadowPlay capture, optimization, DLSS model overrides, Smooth Motion.
Intel Graphics Software — Intel’s hub for per-game profiles, display/VRR settings, telemetry, and Arc tuning.
ShadowPlay — NVIDIA’s built-in capture/instant replay (NVENC encoder).
OBS Studio (Open Broadcaster Software) — Popular open-source recorder/streamer; test capture overhead.

PresentMon — Frame-time capture engine used by many tools.
CapFrameX — GUI for PresentMon; calculates avg FPS, p95/p99, 1%/0.1% lows, stutter counts.
OCAT (Open Capture and Analytics Tool) — Lightweight overlay/logger.
RTSS (RivaTuner Statistics Server) — On-screen display and logging (bundled with MSI Afterburner).
HWiNFO / GPU-Z — Sensor logging (temps, clocks, power, VRAM).
3DMark / Superposition / OCCT — Synthetic/stress tests for stability and driver A/B checks.
ICAT (Image Comparison & Analysis Tool) — Side-by-side screenshot/clip diff for upscaler quality and artifacts.
LDAT / Reflex Analyzer — Hardware tools to measure end-to-end input latency.
High-speed phone slow-mo — Budget method to estimate input latency (record mouse + screen at 240 fps).

TGP/TDP (Total Graphics/Design Power) — Power target for GPU/CPU; impacts clocks/thermals.
Thermal throttling — Auto-downclock when temps are too high; hurts consistency.
Hotspot temperature — Hottest sensor on the GPU; better than “core temp” alone for diagnosing limits.
Fan curve — How fan speed scales with temperature; steeper curves reduce throttling at the cost of noise.
Frame cap — Limits max FPS to stabilize frame times, reduce heat/noise, and stay within VRR range.
Undervolting — Lowering voltage for the same clocks to reduce temps/power; can improve sustained performance.

SAM (Smart Access Memory) / Resizable BAR — Lets the CPU access the GPU’s full VRAM address space; small-to-moderate gains in some games.
BIOS/UEFI (Basic Input/Output System / Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) — System firmware that initializes hardware; updates can affect stability/perf.
VBIOS (Video BIOS) — GPU firmware controlling clocks, power limits, and fans.

H.264 / HEVC (H.265) / AV1 — Video codecs; AV1 offers better quality at the same bitrate but needs support.
Bitrate — Data per second for a stream/recording; higher looks better but costs bandwidth and some performance.
Keyframe interval (GOP) — How often a full reference frame is written; affects seeking and compression behavior.

IHV (Independent Hardware Vendor) — Chip designer (AMD, NVIDIA, Intel).
AIB (Add-In-Board partner) — Builds graphics cards using an IHV GPU (ASUS, MSI, Sapphire).
OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) — Ships complete systems (laptops/desktops) with firmware, cooling, and support (Dell, Lenovo, HP).

Same average FPS, different feel: Rig A and B both average 90 FPS, but A has p95 12 ms vs B’s p95 20 ms. A feels smoother—fewer slow frames.
Frame gen trade-off: 70 FPS native → 120 apparent FPS with frame generation, but +15 ms input latency. Great for single-player; skip for competitive shooters.

Upscaling 101 (FSR/DLSS/XeSS)