What is Low FPS?

Low FPS means your video or game moves slowly and jerkily instead of smoothly.

Imagine you're watching a cartoon on TV, but instead of playing all the frames in order like normal, it only plays every other frame, so the characters jump from one spot to another without showing what happens in between. That’s what low FPS feels like: Frames Per Second, which means how many pictures your screen shows each second.

What Causes Low FPS?

Think of your video or game as a row of pictures, like a flipbook. If the person flipping the pages does it slowly, say only 10 times in one second, you’ll see the images change slowly and not very smoothly. That’s low FPS.

If they flip fast, maybe 60 times in a second, your eyes follow the action easily, like watching real life. That’s high FPS, and it feels much smoother.

So when your game or video feels choppy, it's like you're watching a flipbook that only flips slowly, not enough to make everything feel smooth.

Take the quiz →

Examples

  1. A video that stutters and looks choppy because it has low FPS.
  2. Playing a game at 10 FPS feels like watching a slideshow.
  3. Your phone's camera recording at 15 FPS seems slow compared to normal videos.

Ask a question

See also

Discussion

Recent activity

Categories: Science · fps· video quality· gaming