The internet is obsessed with frame rates,

but do they actually matter?

Any video, this one included, is nothing more than

a series of still frames that are played back quickly.

So for this video, you should pick the 60 frame

per second option.

That way you can get the full effect

of what I'm talking about.

So this is 15 frames per second.

As you can see, it looks a little choppy, a little weird.

I mean, yeah, you can see that this is video,

but it almost looks like some kind of

like dream sequence.

Now we're at 24 frames per second.

Now this is past the point where your brain is

looking at the individual stills

and perceiving them as motion.

So 24 frames is much more common in things

like TV shows and especially movies.

And now we're moving on to 30 frames per second.

Now this is probably the most common for web content.

It's pretty much what all of my videos are in

and here you'll see that motion is nice and smooth

and it looks pretty natural.

Now we're at 60 frames per second.

Here you can see the motion is much more smooth,

almost to the point where it's a little bit distracting.

Now while 60 FPS video is not that common, you will see it

a lot in things like game play.

Things become even more noticeable

the more motion there is.

That's why while 30 frames works for most things

switching to 60 can work better for

fast-paced action like sports.

Another big area where frame rate

is important is for gaming.

Not only do lower frame rates look distracting,

but they can have a real effect on game play.

It's one thing to watch a movie or TV show

and another when you're controlling something on screen.

Low frame rates not only look choppy

but add a sense of lag to your gameplay.

Most displays top out at 60 frames.

However, something like this ASUS monitor can

handle up to 144 frames per second when

you hook it up to a gaming PC.

With a one millisecond response time,

in theory, this should almost completely

eliminate any sense of lag or choppiness,

but how much of a difference does it actually make?

To find out, I invited a few of my friends to sit down

and play a game at a few different frame rates to see

if they could actually tell the difference.

- What? Oh Jesus.

10 FPS is bull (bleep).

- If I'm flying, I wouldn't know it 'cause it

feels like I'm just bumping along.

- Yeah, it's super, it just feels not even laggy,

but it just feels slow.

- Is this a sick joke?

This sucks, Austin, why do you make me play this?

- Smooth is going to be the keyword in this video.

Can we get a smooth counter going?

- It's like really jumpy.

It's not smooth.

- Like it's playable in the sense that I can do things.

But first off, this is just burning my eyes.

- I don't want to play anymore.

- Not a fan of 10 frames.

Alright, this is, oh, that's so much better.

- Oh my gosh, this is worlds different.

This is so much smoother.

- Whoa!

This still sucks.

- Like it depends on the game you're playing too.

I think some games you can pull off 30

and it's OK, but you can definitely notice

in this one that it's not as smooth as it could be.

- Yeah, you know what?

Watching that thing move out there,

it looks a lot more natural.

- It's just a lot smoother.

- This still looks like N64 right here.

- Like it's usable, but that's about the most you can say.

It's not good.

- Alright, 60 frames.

OK, yeah, when it starts to move,

it's a lot smoother when I move.

It feels like Need for Speed.

- Ah, that's better.

- A lot smoother than 30 was.

I mean, the jump to 10 to 30 was more noticeable

because 10 is that painful.

You can definitely tell looking at 30 versus 60.

- It's really responsive and really fast,

but I kinda want to puke.

- 60 is really good.

It doesn't make me feel queasy or anything.

That's a common complaint with people who don't play.

- Yeah, I mean, this is just the standard

right now for a reason.

- I never played at 144 so this is gonna be interesting.

Oh my god, oh my god, this is great.

So smooth, look at all the crumbling, so smooth.

- Everything is coated in butter.

Even though I'm flying so that doesn't

make any sense, there's no friction.

- The murders of the chickens.

I like 144, it's great.

- I can tell that it's faster, but it still

feels about the same as what 60 was.

- Like I feel like the difference between

30 and 60 was not as noticeable as 10 to 30

and then same for this.

Like it's smoother, but I don't think it's

as drastic of a change, at least to my eyes.

- I'm happy with 144.

Austin, I'm glad that you had me participate

in your video 'cause I'm really enjoying it.

Thank you, everybody, for watching.

Subscribe to Austin Evans and I'll see you guys later.

End.

- If you're doing some sort of reaction game

like a Need for Speed or like a shooter or something,

then you might be tempted to spend the extra

and see things in what seems like hyper speed.

- So what do you guys think is the sweet

spot for frame rates?

Let me know in the comments below

and I will catch you in the next one.