Benchmarks (or video card benchmarks, or GPU benchmarks) provide a useful way to gain an idea of your GPU’s abilities. Benchmarks show you if your computer can support certain games efficiently as well as identify any potential issues with its setup.

Benchmarks serve to test the performance of your graphics card under load by simulating various visual challenges for it to complete.

Frame Rate

Frame rate (fps), measured in frames per second (fps), determines how smoothly motion is represented on screen. Higher frame rates create smoother movement while lower rates may cause choppy videos. Which frame rate you select depends on both your video’s style and purpose as well as available memory or bandwidth resources to store or stream it.

Today’s most commonly employed frame rates range from 24 to 60 fps. Of these rates, 24fps is most frequently employed in Hollywood movies as it produces cinematic visuals with natural motion blur that appeals to audiences. 24fps also provides ideal conditions for creating slow-motion videos as it gives the viewer the same sensation of movement as they would experience if watching real life events unfold before them.

Another popular frame rate is 30 frames per second (fps), used widely by broadcasters and online streaming services to provide sharper images than 24 fps; also popular among high-end video game publishers to ensure an uninterrupted gaming experience.

FPS can also be affected by your monitor’s refresh rate, meaning if your GPU produces 144 frames per second and your monitor refreshes at 60Hz, only 60fps will be rendered per second on screen, leading to lag and making streaming or computer game use with high fps impossible. A fast and reliable internet connection is key when using high fps content such as streaming or computer gaming with such capabilities.

Pixels Per Second

Pixels per second is another useful measure of video card performance, taking into account both frame rate and video resolution to calculate how many pixels can be rendered by graphics processor in one second.

Be mindful that higher PPI can result in lower FPS for graphically intensive games, since more pixels need rendering on larger displays puts undue strain on the GPU and causes its performance to degrade and lead to a decrease in FPS.

TestUFO designed this measurement in order to have a benchmark that would work across futuristic refresh rates such as 240Hz monitors. Traditional benchmarks used slow scrolling patterns that varied in speed; but sports and esports competitive gaming require faster motion than this and often resulted in persistent blurring due to persistence (blurry images visible after disappearing from the screen). Pixels per second is an easy and quick way of testing fast motion; remembering its formula (960*2 for 1080p displays) makes this benchmark very user-friendly as it remains consistent across display sizes and refresh rates.

Colors

Although pixels or triangles a GPU can render in real time is an essential metric, colors processing ability is equally vital to providing a good gaming experience. Many graphics benchmarks include this as part of their test results so users can see if their GPU can handle color intensive workloads like video editing or virtual reality well.

Benchmarks often provide another crucial metric: floating point operations per second (FLOPS). This metric is often known as “number crunching,” similar to how million instructions per second (MIPS) is measured on CPUs. FLOPS measures how complex ALU shaders on GPUs are and affect various aspects of graphics rendering including quality, performance, and user experience.

Certain graphics benchmarks also feature tests designed to gauge other aspects of GPU performance, like GFXBench 3.0‘s ALU test which measures peak GFLOPS performance delivered for specific scenarios using complex ALU shaders.

Selecting a graphics card can be an important investment for your PC, so it is crucial that you gain an understanding of how different benchmarking tools measure its performance so you can make an informed decision tailored specifically to your needs.