No More Guessing: Steam Will Show You How Many FPS to Expect for Games
Steam is developing a new Framerate Estimator tool that will show players expected frame rates for games based on their PC hardware, using data collected anonymously from millions of users with similar system specs.
Every PC gamer knows that moment of doubt before buying a new game: Will my computer even be able to run this properly? Will I hit a stable 60 frames per second, or will the game stutter and feel like a slideshow presentation, leaving me feeling like a peasant who bought a console with 59FPS? Turns out this isn't just the nightmare of a few obsessives, but a real problem that's also bothering the PC gaming giant.
According to recent reports and leaks from the web, Steam is developing a new tool called Framerate Estimator. This intriguing feature, which is apparently currently in internal beta stages, is expected to show you in advance a graph of the estimated frame rate you'll get in a specific game, based directly on your personal computer's hardware. How does this magic work? The secret lies in the wisdom of the crowds—millions of gamers. The first signs of this move appeared last month, when Steam revealed on its blog that it's starting to collect data about frame rates from users. The company was quick to reassure everyone that the process is optional, and that the data is stored completely anonymously without linking to the player's account, with the goal of "learning about game compatibility and improving Steam."
But this week the puzzle came together completely. The LambdaGeneration community posted new findings on social network X from SteamDB databases (spotted by user Roadrunner). The exposed code leaves no room for doubt: the feature will simply take your computer specs, cross-reference them against data from other Steam players with identical specs who have already played that same game, and show you the results you're expected to get. The question is how this will work on new games, where we'll probably still need to take a gamble, but the more people play it, the better we'll be able to find what's closest to us.
All in all, it's a nice idea that will let us know whether it's worth spending money on this game or not without diving into hours of internet searches and research. And given that hardware prices keep rising, we probably need this today more than ever.