PC Cost per FPS Calculator: Compare Gaming Builds and GPUs by Cost per Frame

How it works

Cost per FPS = cost ÷ average FPS · FPS per $100 = average FPS ÷ cost × 100 · Several games: average FPS = (FPS₁ × FPS₂ × … × FPSₙ)^(1/n) · Value difference = 1 − cost per FPS (A) ÷ cost per FPS (B) · Cost per extra frame = (cost A − cost B) ÷ (FPS A − FPS B)

Cost per FPS (also called cost per frame) turns a price and a benchmark result into one value figure: how much money each frame per second of performance costs. Lower is better. Review sites use it to rank graphics cards, taking the card price and its average frame rate over a set of games, and you can do the same for a whole PC by using the system price. When you have results for several games, enter them under More options: the calculator averages them with a geometric mean, the method TechSpot and Hardware Unboxed use, so one very high frame-rate game does not dominate. Turn on the comparison to see a second build or card, how much cheaper per frame one is (1 − the ratio of the two costs per frame), and what each extra frame of the faster option costs. That marginal figure is what tells you if an upgrade is worth it. Cost per frame counts frames only: it ignores smoothness (add the 1% low to see cost per frame of the worst moments), features such as upscaling and ray tracing, power use and noise, and it is only fair when both builds are tested in the same games at the same settings and resolution.

Worked example

A $1,500 PC averaging 120 fps in your target game costs 1,500 ÷ 120 = $12.50 per frame, or 120 ÷ 1,500 × 100 = 8.0 fps per $100. A $900 build that reaches 90 fps costs $10.00 per frame, 20.0% less, so it is the better value; the faster PC charges $600 ÷ 30 fps = $20.00 for each extra frame.

Sources: Notebookcheck: RX 9070 XT cost per frame vs RTX 5070 Ti (Hardware Unboxed data) · TechSpot: Best value graphics cards, cost per frame (geomean) · TechSpot: Radeon RX 9070 XT vs GeForce RTX 5070 value comparison

Frequently asked questions