Definitely – YES!

As a gamer, you want the most immersive and responsive experience possible. This means maximizing both visual fidelity and frame rates. However, these two factors often compete against each other. 

Yes, lowering resolution increases FPS (Frame per second) while gaming. The higher you set your game’s resolution, the sharper and more detailed the visuals become. But all those extra pixels put more load on your GPU, which can reduce your frame rates. On the other hand, a better frame rate provides a smooth gaming experience. 

In this article, we’ll explore the relationship between resolution, GPU load, and frame rates and answer how lowering resolution increases FPS. The goal is to help you find the optimal balance between visual fidelity and high FPS performance for the best gaming experience. 

Understanding FPS & Resolution 

Resolution refers to the number of pixels used to display an image on your screen. Common gaming resolutions include 1920 x 1080 (1080p), 2560 x 1440 (1440p), and 3840 x 2160 (4K). The more pixels, the sharper and more detailed the image. Higher resolutions put a greater demand on your graphics card.

Frame rate, also called FPS (frames per second), measures how many images your GPU can display per second. Most games target 60 FPS, though competitive esports titles often aim for 144 FPS or higher. 

Resolution Vs Fps Which do you prefer when gaming?

Higher frame rates translate to smoother, more responsive gameplay. When frame rates drop below 30 FPS, you’re more likely to experience choppy performance, input lag, and screen tearing.

The key distinction is that resolution impacts image quality and fidelity, while frame rate affects overall performance and fluidity. There is often a tradeoff between pushing higher resolutions and maintaining high FPS.

By lowering your resolution, you reduce the workload on your GPU. This allows it to render each frame faster and output more frames per second. The visuals may be less sharp, but the boosted FPS can lead to big gains in responsiveness, especially in fast-paced games.

Connection Between Refresh Rate & Frame Rate

Your monitor’s refresh rate and your computer’s frame rate work together to determine gaming performance and smoothness.

Refresh rate is how many times per second your monitor can redraw or “refresh” the image on the screen. It’s measured in hertz (Hz). A 60Hz monitor refreshes 60 times per second. High-end gaming monitors can have 144Hz, 240Hz, or even 360 Hz refresh rates.

Frame rate or FPS is how many images (frames) your computer’s GPU renders each second. The more frames rendered, the smoother and more responsive the gameplay will feel.

Here’s a simplified example:

• Your monitor has a 144Hz refresh rate
• Your game is running at 120 FPS

This means your GPU is rendering 120 frames every second, while your monitor can display up to 144 frames per second. Since FPS is lower than the refresh rate, your monitor won’t be operating at its fullest potential.

Ideally, you want your FPS to match or exceed the monitor’s refresh rate. That way, each new frame rendered can be displayed fully, resulting in silky smooth motion.

Having a high refresh rate monitor allows your GPU to push higher FPS for a better experience. But you need sufficient GPU power actually to achieve those high frame rates. The refresh rate and FPS work in tandem to create fluid, responsive gameplay.

Does Higher Frame Rates Improve Gaming Experience

Yes, increased FPS is generally better for gaming and provides a competitive advantage. Here are some key reasons why higher FPS is desirable:

• Smoother animation and camera movement. The higher the frame rate, the more fluid and natural the visuals look, preventing choppiness.
• Reduced input lag. At higher FPS, there is less delay between your controls and actions on screen. This allows for faster reaction times.
• Decreased motion blur. With fewer frames rendered per second, fast movement can look blurry. Higher FPS minimizes this effect.
• More responsive gameplay. Games feel more snappy and real-time at increased FPS, especially for competitive online multiplayer.
• Consistency. Fluctuating or dropping frame rates can negatively impact gameplay. Higher and more stable FPS prevents distracting dips.
• Competitive advantage. In multiplayer games, higher FPS gives you an edge over opponents with lower frame rates. Things appear faster on screen.

However, extremely high FPS over a monitor’s refresh rate provides diminishing returns. Focus on maintaining a minimum of 60 FPS, or 144+ FPS for high refresh rate monitors to get the most bang for your buck.

Get Higher Frame Rates by Lowering the Resolution

Lowering resolution from in-game settings is one of the most effective ways to increase frame rates. The reduced rendering workload allows your GPU to output frames much faster.

For example, dropping from 4K to 1440p resolution can improve FPS by over 50% in many titles using high-end GPUs like the RTX 3080 or RX 6800 XT. Competitive esports gamers often drop the resolution down to 1080p or lower to maximize high refresh rate monitor performance.

The exact FPS gains will vary based on your specific hardware and the game’s optimization. But you can generally expect a sizable bump in frame rates, especially at lower resolutions. This lets you maintain high FPS above 60 or even 144+ sometimes for smoother gameplay.

However, resolution cannot be reduced indefinitely without consequence. Too low of a resolution will make games appear pixelated, blurry, or distorted image quality. It’s best to find the optimal balance between resolution and FPS based on your preferences.

For example, 1440p resolution at 100+ FPS may give you the right mixture of visual fidelity and high frame rates for an excellent experience. Testing different resolutions and monitoring FPS is key to finding the best setup.

What Settings To Change For Low FPS

Tweaking individual graphics options can further optimize FPS after adjusting resolution.

• Shaders & Lighting Quality: Complex shaders and dynamic lighting add realism but require heavy GPU processing. Lowering these settings reduces load without compromising visuals too much.
• Anti-Aliasing: Anti-aliasing smooths edges but hurts FPS. Try disabling or using lighter AA methods. You likely won’t notice jagged edges during fast gameplay.
• V-Sync: V-Sync matches FPS to monitor refresh rate, generating extra workload. Turn off to eliminate this GPU overhead.
• Motion Blur: Motion blur obscures vision in action games without adding much benefit. Disable this setting to remove unnecessary rendering.
• Field of View: Higher FOV expands visible area, requiring more rendering. Slightly lowering FOV can optimize FPS if necessary, but beware of reducing awareness.

Testing each setting and monitoring FPS will show you which options give the most performance gain. The goal is to minimize unnecessary visual effects that tax your GPU without completely destroying image quality. With strategic adjustments, you can find the right balance of graphics and frame rate.

How To Decrease Resolution From Monitor

One of the most impactful ways to balance visual fidelity and frame rates is by adjusting your display resolution.

Your monitor’s native resolution is the maximum image quality it can display. For example, a 1080p monitor caps out at 1920 x 1080 pixels. Pushing higher resolutions like 1440p or 4K on a 1080p display will not improve visuals, but will tank your FPS.

Ideally, you want to run games at your monitor’s native res for optimal sharpness. But sometimes limiting resolution below your monitor’s capabilities is beneficial. This reduces the GPU workload and boosts FPS.

The sweet spot depends on your gear. Testing different settings is key – reduce resolution until an acceptable balance of image quality and high FPS is reached. Start at your monitor’s max res, then try lowering incrementally if frame rates are unsatisfactory.

While resolution has the biggest impact, other factors like GPU power, CPU, RAM speed, and storage type also influence gaming performance. But adjusting resolution is often the most effective way to quickly tune the balance between visuals and FPS.

What is GPU Workload?

Your graphics card’s GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) handles rendering all the visuals in a game. It has to process and generate the thousands or millions of pixels that make up each frame of animation.

The more complex the visuals, the more effort required by the GPU to render each frame. This is referred to as GPU workload or load.

Higher resolution, more detailed textures, complex shaders, lots of polygons, and advanced graphics effects all increase the workload per frame. The GPU has more pixel data to churn through before outputting each image to be displayed.

If the workload exceeds the GPU’s capabilities, frame rates will drop. The GPU can’t keep up with demanding tasks at high speeds.

Optimizing GPU Workload and FPS

The goal is to balance graphics settings to not overload your GPU. Reducing unnecessary visual effects decreases workload, allowing higher frame rates.

But lowering settings too much hurts image quality. Test different configurations to find the sweet spot between visual fidelity and smooth FPS based on your GPU model.

Monitoring GPU usage percentages can also help optimize workload. Try to avoid maxing out GPU load if possible for best performance.

Managing GPU workload is key to running games smoothly without sacrificing too much visual quality. Prioritizing frame rate provides a better overall gaming experience.

Downsides of Lower Resolution

While reducing resolution can provide a nice boost to frame rates, there are some downsides to consider:

• Reduced visual fidelity and detail. Lower resolution means fewer pixels are rendered on screen, resulting in a less sharp and detailed image. Fine details in textures, shadows, and environmental effects may be lost or muddied.
• More pixelated or blurry images. At very low resolutions, individual pixels become much more visible, giving the appearance of jagged edges, shimmering, and overall image degradation. Things look less solid and defined.
• Harder to spot enemies/objects. In competitive multiplayer games like first-person shooters, lower resolution makes it more difficult to spot and identify enemies at a distance. Smaller targets become tougher to recognize.
• Less immersive experience. The decreased graphics quality from reduced resolution can detract from overall immersion in cinematic or realistic games by damaging the visual presentation.
• Potentially distracting. Some players may find the visual artifacts and noise introduced by low resolution too distracting, pulling them out of the gaming experience.

The goal is to balance resolution and FPS without sacrificing too much visual quality that negatively impacts enjoyment and performance. Testing different settings is key.

Effective Tips To Increase FPS from Your PC

So far, we have talked about gaming resolution, FPS and the setup process for these. Apart from these, there are several other ways to get good FPS by default.

1. Hard Drive Defragmentation

Defragmenting your game drive reorganizes files so that data is contiguous, minimizing the physical movement of the hard drive head. This allows your drive to access and load assets faster sequentially compared to jumping around fragmented data. 

Quicker data retrieval from your drive means game assets like textures and maps can be loaded into memory faster. The less time spent loading, the more frames can be rendered by the GPU. 

Even shaving off a few hundred milliseconds from load times can make a difference in FPS during gameplay.

To do this, type “Defragment  and Optimize Drives” on windows search and open it. Then, select the drive and click Optimize.

2. Use SSD

Upgrading to a solid state drive (SSD) can provide a nice boost to gaming performance and FPS compared to a traditional hard disk drive (HDD). SSDs have no moving parts, allowing extremely fast access times of under 0.1 ms for data retrieval, versus 10-15 ms for HDDs. 

This rapid data throughput lets assets like textures and objects load faster into active memory where the GPU can access them. Less time spent waiting on data means more time for the GPU to render frames. SSDs also provide faster level loading and reduced pop-in of objects in open world games. 

The snappier response delivers a more seamless, immersive experience. While HDDs work, an SSD improves speeds across the board, helping you get higher, more stable FPS to take full advantage of high refresh rate monitors.

3. Close Background Apps

For a smooth gaming experience, the fewer apps you can keep running, the better. Keeping too much software open at once slows down the performance of the CPU and GPU, which can hamper the gaming experience. So, it is better to close all unused software from task manager before gaming.

4. Keep Your Drivers Updated

Keeping your system drivers updated, especially GPU drivers, can provide a nice boost to gaming performance and FPS. Driver updates improve how hardware communicates and functions with games through optimized code and profiles. This allows the GPU to operate at peak efficiency for faster frame rendering. 

Reduced driver overhead also frees up resources for higher FPS. Updated drivers may also fix game-specific bugs that hinder FPS. Overall, maintaining current drivers ensures maximum FPS and takes full advantage of your hardware’s capabilities.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the easiest way to increase FPS while gaming?

Answer: The easiest way to increase FPS is lowering resolution. This reduces GPU workload so it can render frames faster without upgrading hardware.

2. Can I increase FPS without Updating Hardware?

Answer: Yes, you can boost FPS without new hardware by tweaking settings like resolution, graphics quality, V-Sync, anti-aliasing, and post-processing effects to reduce load.

3. Why do I get screen tearing even when my FPS is high?

Answer: Screen tearing happens when FPS is higher than monitor refresh rate. Enable V-Sync or G-Sync to match refresh rate and FPS to fix.

4. Can running games at high settings damage my computer?

Answer: High graphics settings don’t damage components, but can cause overheating issues. Monitor temps and optimize settings for your hardware’s capabilities.

5. Should I overclock my pc to get a better FPS?

Answer: Overclocking does improve FPS, but requires proper cooling and pushes hardware past stock speeds. Only recommended for experienced users.