CapFrameX is an amazing tool that allows you to record your FPS so you know exactly how your games are running. This is especially important because the most important FPS values are hidden (percentiles and lows). The issue with CapFrameX however is that it introduces extra overhead processing for your CPU by itself. 

Any time you launch it to capture your FPS you will inevitably lose some just by having the GUI and the RTSS overlay on. Luckily there is an extremely simple solution to this situation that might be a solid alternative for people interested in the most accurate FPS measurements.

Frame Time Analysis

Frame Time Analysis is a web tool that uses PresentMon captures just like every other tool (including CapFrameX). The advantage of this alternative tool is that it’s a simple web page that you import the capture directly from PresentMon. The PresentMon utility by itself is extremely lightweight adding less than 10MB to my RAM utilization.

No automated GUI, no HUD changes, and no overlays all mean that the capture file you import into the web Frame Time Analysis tool will be closest to what you would game on without having other capture utilities open.

All you have to do is import the .csv file that PresentMon creates and analyze the data based on your own needs. The detail of the data you can view is great allowing for in-depth comparisons between settings like Win32Prio, power plans, etc.

Frame Time Analysis – How Do You Use the Tool?

Using Frame Time Analysis is very simple and consists of downloading PresentMon and setting it up as described on the main page – run it with a .bat file or run a shortcut with the commands for the main .exe file. 

You then open your game of choice and proceed just like with any other capture tool. Capture the data for the desired time frame, import it onto the site, and then select the measurements and graphs you need and want to view.

The process is straightforward and you can add as many .csv files as you need. The tool can also read .json files which are used by CapFrameX, so if you have older captures made with CFX you can also add those. 

TL;DR

While tools like CapFrameX are popular, the program itself adds processing overhead for your CPU, adding inaccuracies to your FPS measurements and captures. 

Using PresentMon and the Frame Time Analysis web page will allow you to capture the same data without any overhead, resulting in a much more accurate representation of what your FPS/frame times looked like during gameplay.