FRAPS Not as accurate as you think?

C

CrazyMike

New Member
Hey guys,

Been reading up on this (might be old news for most of you) about FRAPS being not necessarily the best way to judge a video card's performance.

Here's an article to explain what I am talking about.

I personally wouldn't mind hearing anyone's opinions about this. I personally have relied on FRAPS and use FRAPS as a tool to understand my purchases and what not. After reading this, it makes total sense. So using FRAPS for reference on if a game can be properly played at max settings and what not is kind of irrelevant seeing as that is not exactly what the user will see.
 
okay, here is my honest opinion. Who cares? Really. As long as the program always reads at the same point in the render process, then it is accurate to judge one card against another. Does not matter if you see said FPS or not.
 
People still use FRAPS? I havent used fraps since I discovered MSI Afterburner....way better program.
 
wolfeking said:
okay, here is my honest opinion. Who cares? Really. As long as the program always reads at the same point in the render process, then it is accurate to judge one card against another. Does not matter if you see said FPS or not.
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Good point.

For my personal thought, If you measure the FPS at the graphic card point, such as fraps or anything like such does, you can compare and plan what graphic card choice is best for your budget. Meaning, what would be the best bang for your dollar. Now at this point, one brand/model of graphics card might come on top of the other statistically showing you that you will receive higher FPS and thus should have better performance. This in actuality (what the article is trying to explain) might not be true. What your eye will see (monitor showing) might actually be worse with that choice.

Short version: One card might look good using fraps, when really you might be better off with another card because of the performance that you will see.

G80FTW said:
People still use FRAPS? I havent used fraps since I discovered MSI Afterburner....way better program.
Click to expand...

Good point, lol. FRAPS was just an example.
 
wolfeking said:
FRAPS and MSI afterburner use the same method to determine FPS. You are not any better off than FRAPS users.
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It must do something different as it uses less resources and monitors alot more information than FRAPS. So yes, I would say I am better off than FRAPS users.

But in all reality, I dont use any monitoring system normally. Only time I open up MSI Afterburner is for screenshots. I really dont focus on my FPS unless its not playable, and there is less than a handful of games out right now that arent playable with my setup. Theres only 2 games on my system right now that I get below 30FPS in, and the new drivers from nVidia claim to boost the average in Tomb Raider to above 30 but I havent tested it yet. And the other game is just a poorly optimized value game.
 
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You missed the point. System resource consumption has little to nothing to do with the method it uses to monitor. That is sloppy coding at its finest.

Both use the same method, by different means. And just to let you know, there are lighter weight tools than afterburner also.
 
I use fraps for its screenshot and recording functionality, not much else. It's a good program with pretty frequent updates so I supported the people who made it :)
 
I use bandicam because at the time of purchase my old laptop couldn't run FRAPS. Mistake or not its what I use and I kinda like it :rolleyes:
 
Hmmm..

I guess I am seeing it maybe the wrong way. The way I understood this is that a program like FRAPS measures the FPS a the video card (much like hp ratings on a car) this new method measures it at the monitor (much like "at the wheel hp"). So if i am in the market for SLI 680 or Crossfire 7970 (excuse my ignorance, I'm not up to date with AMD graphics), going with the first method, it would suggest that Crossfire would be the way to go to see the most performance. When in the second method it would show that SLI is actually better.

If this is right, this new method of measuring FPS is more accurate in the sense that the performance presented is actually what you see, no?

Am I understanding this wrong?

... I am not really talking about us users using a program such as fraps, more the benchmarking tools to measure performance. From what I have seen, and what I use personally, I use benchmarking tools to project the amount of performance I would see.
 
CrazyMike said:
Hmmm..

I guess I am seeing it maybe the wrong way. The way I understood this is that a program like FRAPS measures the FPS at the video card
Click to expand...

I think its always been this way.... Im not sure there is a way to monitor the framerates that the monitor is putting out. As far as I know, every program will display what the video card is producing not the monitor.

Also, this is a better way to measure the performance rather than measuring it at the monitor. Because you would need a 120hz or above monitor in some cases to get accurate performance ratings measuring it by the monitor. Otherwise youll be looking at a max of 29/30/60 fps.

Of course, if your like me and always use V-Sync, you need not worry about this as both will be the same anyway.
 
G80FTW said:
People still use FRAPS? I havent used fraps since I discovered MSI Afterburner....way better program.
Click to expand...

fraps is a heck of a lot more common than Afterburner or pretty much any other recorder, which is a mystery to me too.

If you were to use a test of "FPS that the monitor shows", you would not see that video card A is better than B if both are pushing 60 FPS+, as that is the absolute most the monitor would show. If you were to up to a 120Hz or 144Hz monitor that would be better as less cards are able to sustain a stable 120 or 144 FPS in the latest games, but for those that can, you again have no way of separating them.

You also cannot test at the monitor, as the screen will not send a signal back, it is output only, no input, the only way you can monitor the FPS is at the video card, though the number of frames the GPU is able to render will be the number that are sent to the monitor, bandwidth and refresh rate aside
 
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