Guides/Measuring

What are 1% lows, and why they matter more than average FPS

By Michael Steininger · Updated October 2026

Two setups can both average 140 FPS and feel completely different. One runs smooth, the other hitches every few seconds. The average hides the difference. The 1% lows show it.

What the numbers mean#

• Average FPS: frames per second over the whole run. The number everyone quotes.
• 1% low: how fast the game runs during its slowest one percent of frames. A 1% low of 90 FPS means the worst moments still ran at about 90.
• 0.1% low: the same for the slowest tenth of a percent: the rare, single hitches.

Tools calculate lows slightly differently. Some take the average of the slowest 1% of frames, others the frame time that 99% of frames are faster than. The numbers aren't always comparable between tools, so compare runs measured with the same one.

Why they matter#

What you feel as stutter is a single frame that takes much longer than the ones around it. At 140 FPS a frame takes about 7 ms; a hitch of 40 ms is barely visible in the average, but you notice it. Lows and a frame-time graph make those moments visible.

What good looks like#

There's no fixed number, but two signs of a healthy setup: the 1% low sits reasonably close to the average, and the frame-time graph is a flat line with few spikes. Big gaps or regular spikes point to things like shader compilation, background apps, memory without its XMP/EXPO profile, or heat.

How to compare settings fairly#

1. Pick a scene you can repeat: a replay, a benchmark mode or the same route through a map.
2. Run it three times and note the average and the 1% low each time.
3. Change one thing, and only one thing, then run it three times again.
4. If the difference is smaller than the spread between your own runs, it's noise, not an improvement.

Questions#