FRAPS is not your friend

Recently, I wrote a perspective comparing experiences of gaming on the PS3 versus the PC on the Assassin's Creed games.  During that time of comparing and contrasting the video fidelity, benchmarking, and asking for outside opinions from my wife, one thing became clear; I'm a bit obsessive.  The second thing that became clear is that FRAPS is not your friend.

This isn't a direct attack on FRAPS.  Far from it.  I believe FRAPS is an invaluable tool in the real of hardware, because without benchmarking, we have no way to compare objectively one product to another.  For those that don't know, FRAPS is a tool that you can download and install that will show you the Frames per Second, or FPS as it's commonly referred to, in any 3d application.  Not 3D in "wear glasses" way, but think more in terms of TV or video games.  Anyway, if you're reading this, you likely know this already.

So why would I say it isn't your friend?  Simple; For those prone to addictive behavior, such as myself, knowing a score drives you to the competitive nature of increasing that score.  In order to increase the FPS, you have certain things you can do to effect that number.  One is over-clocking your current graphics card.  Find that sweet spot between increased performance and keeping the video card cool.  Once you exhaust that, you can over-clock your CPU, again finding that sweet spot between performance and heat management.  Lastly, updating the drivers for your system to ensure that the manufacturer's optimizations are in place.  Those are your free/low cost options.

Once you've exhausted those, you start getting into upgrading to new hardware.  Hardware is not cheap.  In relative terms compared to historical pricing, it is, but not in real world dollars.  An upgrade to your graphics card, depending on the performance you are seeking, is likely going to set you back anywhere from $200 to $400 dollars, depending on your level of performance upgrade sought.  Once you drop that, and get an increase, you quickly learn that your CPU is holding back the power of your shiny new graphics card.  Depending on the CPU upgrade, it's unlikely that the cost per performance works out that it makes sense to put a different chip on your existing motherboard, so you'll have to update that and the RAM to keep up with the new chipset improvements.  That can cause you to easily drop double or triple the cost of the GPU you spent in order to give yourself some future-proofing, if there is such a thing in the realm of computers.  Then, you start to focus on the other perceived bottlenecks in your shiny new system, like your hard drive.  SSD's blow them out of the water, so you drop a bunch of money on those.  Your system is screaming now, right?

So you launch that game you've been playing and notice a 10-20 FPS increase, maybe more, in the little FRAPS score.  WOOHOO!, right?  Except, did the game change?  No.  Did your enjoyment?  Who knows, because you've spent a ton of money and time upgrading, benchmarking, and everything else instead of PLAYING THE GAME!

I'm not saying you shouldn't upgrade your computer ever.  I'm a true enthusiast, listening to podcasts and reading benchmark reviews on a daily basis.  But with anything, you (really, I) have to learn moderation, and how to separate knowledge from actionable information.  Just because something out there is better doesn't mean you HAVE to have it.  If my wife read this, I'm sure she would be doing cartwheels that I've come to realize this.

My grandpa used to say the following about his car: "If you hear a funny noise, turn the radio up".  That sound advice work for PC's as well.  If you see a drop in FPS, turn off FRAPS.  You'll know if the game is unplayable or not by playing it.