The short answer to the headline is “sometimes,” but it’s more complicated than just FPS over time. To really address this question, we have to first explain the oddity of FPS as a metric: Frames per second is inherently an average – if we tell you something is operating at a variable framerate, but is presently 60FPS, what does that really mean? If we look at the framerate at any given millisecond, given that framerate is inherently an average of a period of time, we must acknowledge that deriving spot-measurements in frames per second is inherently flawed. All this stated, the industry has accepted frames per second as a rating measure of performance for games, and it is one of the most user-friendly means to convey what the actual, underlying metric is: Frametime, or the frame-to-frame interval, measured in milliseconds.

Today, we’re releasing public some internal data that we’ve collected for benchmark validation. This data looks specifically at benchmark duration or optimization tests to min-max for maximum accuracy and card count against the minimum time required to retain said accuracy.

Before we publish any data for a benchmark – whether that’s gaming, thermals, or power – we run internal-only testing to validate our methods and thought process. This is often where we discover flaws in methods, which allow us to then refine them prior to publishing any review data. There are a few things we traditionally research for each game: Benchmark duration requirements, load level of a particular area of the game, the best- and worst-case performance scenarios in the game, and then the average expected performance for the user. We also regularly find shortcomings in test design – that’s the nature of working on a test suite for a year at a time. As with most things in life, the goal is to develop something good, then iterate on it as we learn from the process.

Blizzard announced in January that Overwatch had surpassed the 25 million player milestone, but despite being nearly a year old, there’s still no standardized way to benchmark the game. We’ve developed our own method instead, which we’re debuting with this GPU optimization guide.

Overwatch is an unusual title for us to benchmark. As a first person shooter, the priority for many players is on sustained high framerates rather than on overall graphical quality. Although Overwatch isn’t incredibly demanding (original recommended specs were a GTX 660 or a Radeon HD 7950), users with mid-range hardware might have a hard time staying above 60FPS at the highest presets. This Overwatch GPU optimization guide is for those users, with some graphics settings explanations straight from Blizzard to GN.

1080p remains the most popular resolution in use today, with more than 80% of the market sticking to existing 1920x1080 displays. Just a few years ago, a fairly beastly rig was needed to run games at 1080p with High to Ultra settings. AMD and nVidia have released new video cards nonstop this year, each enabling 1440p gaming at the entry-level market, or bolstering 1080p to max game settings. These new releases include the RX 480 and the GTX 1060 $200-$250 options, both of which we've reviewed.

You no longer need a $1200 gaming PC to game at 1080p/ultra, and 1440p now comes as a "free" add with these mid-range GPUs. This $800 gaming PC build targets ultra settings in Overwatch at 1440p, and will be capable of high settings in Battlefield 1 (and likely Titanfall 2).

In the paragraphs below we’ll go over our parts list and why we chose the parts for this rig like we did:

iBUYPOWER continues to show its support for the eSports community with a new tournament. The SI’s tournament series returns this fall with the CS:GO and Overwatch Invitational in September. From the 17th to the 18th, the top 8 teams in both games, as picked by iBP, will be competing for a combined $21,000 prize pool.

System integrator iBUYPOWER is furthering its commitment to eSports with the return of the iBUYPOWER CS:GO Invitational, accompanied by the newly introduced iBUYPOWER Overwatch Invitational. This weekend-long event begins on July 16th. Those in Santa Ana area can show up at eSports Arena to play in the free-to-play area and to compete in side events at the venue. Games will be streamed from the event floor.

CS:GO, League of Legends, Overwatch, and Super Smash Bros. will all be set up to play.

Recapping last week's game news -- following our DOOM benchmark and review -- mostly looks at major Overwatch playerbase announcements, future Star Wars titles (and an RTS, maybe?), and Ubisoft's plans through March, 2017.

Overwatch announced a major achievement in its acquisition of 9.7 million active players during its beta weekend, Respawn Entertainment teased its work on a new Star Wars title, as did EA, and Blizzard is making moves toward an eSports media network.

Video below, script below that.

We tested Overwatch back when it was still in beta, posting one of the earliest GPU benchmarks for Blizzard's new team shooter. The game's finally concluded its full beta pass and has set its final release date for May 24. Graphics requirements have more-or-less remained the same as when we last tested the game, making Overwatch one of the more accessible titles for PC builders. We're building this machine with a GTX 960 and i5-6400 non-overclocking CPU; the combination runs significantly cheaper than the next step up – and that's good anyway, since the GTX 1070 (and presumably, Polaris) will soon land in that mid-range price gap.

This ~$700 gaming PC build uses the best components for playing Overwatch at ultra graphics settings (1080p, 60FPS) while staying on a budget. Follow the below parts list and DIY PC guide to get up and running, and remember to check our forums for one-on-one help.

Gaming PC build classifications haven't changed much over the years, despite enormous leaps in hardware capabilities and game graphics. The price brackets are largely defined by the likes of Intel, AMD, and nVidia, responsible for the most critical and expensive gaming components. For an Intel i3 – what we're deploying today – total system build price generally, in our experience, spans the ~$400 to ~$650 range, with an i5 or equivalent CPU generally entering the fray thereafter. That's not how it always works, of course, and PC builds can be targeted at different use cases with a different component price split.

This gaming PC build is targeted at the entry-level gaming market – not quite a full-on 'budget' build, but not mid-range. It's a gaming PC best suited for high-FPS throughput in games like Rocket League, DOTA, Counter-Strike, Black Ops III, Overwatch, and similar games.

This week's game news looks to the worlds of Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher, Overwatch, Elite: Dangerous, Paragon, and Steam's account theft.

An interview with CD Projekt Red CEO Adam Kicinski went live on Polish site Money.pl, where the CEO – who openly discusses his company's financial efficiency – talks about the White Wolf's future adventures. The company hopes to continue its devotion to the Witcher series, despite initial plans to conclude the story with Wild Hunt. Geralt's story is done, Kicinski told the site, but that doesn't mean The Witcher is. This has been the major delay to Cyberpunk 2077, a game that has internal, unannounced deadlines, but Kicinski said to expect Cyberpunk news in 2016.

Our hardware news recap is over here.

That and all the other week's news items are recapped in the below video:

Forthcoming team shooter Overwatch is Blizzard's first new IP in years, fusing familiar FPS and team-based elements with MOBA-like playable characters. That, at its core, is what we'd call a “team shooter,” a genre that's been popularized most recently by Team Fortress 2.

The game is still going through closed beta testing, with select Battle.net accounts receiving invites to play-test the game over a few weekends. This weekend's test was, according to Overwatch PR Manager Steven Khoo, an attempt at learning “how Overwatch runs on your system” and a reach-out for “technical feedback.” We figured we'd throw ten video cards at the game and see how it does.

Overwatch isn't particularly GPU intensive, but it does make use of some advanced shadow and reflection techniques that can impact FPS. We performed some initial settings analysis – shown further down – to determine top-level performance impact on a per-setting basis. This is the basis of our eventual graphics optimization guide (see: Black Ops equivalent), something we'll finalize at the game's launch. For now, the goal was to provide a foundation upon which to base our GPU test methodology with Overwatch. This graphics card benchmark looks at the best GPUs for Overwatch (beta), testing 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions across “Epic” and “Ultra” settings.