What Is 60fps: Frame Rate Explained for Gaming and Video

Short answer: 60fps (frames per second) means 60 individual images are shown on screen every second. The more frames per second, the smoother motion looks. 60fps is twice as smooth as the common 30fps video standard and has long been the go-to for gaming, sports and fast-moving footage. Below we cover where 60fps actually matters, how it compares to 30 and 120 fps, why fps is not the same as hertz, and how to get 60 frames yourself.

Contents

1. What 60fps means
2. Is 60fps good?
3. 60fps vs 30fps
4. 60fps vs 120fps
5. fps vs Hz
6. 60fps in games and consoles
7. How big is 4K 60fps
8. How to get 60fps: shooting and converting
9. Why movies are shot at 24fps, not 60
10. FAQ

What 60fps means

FPS stands for frames per second. Any video or game is really a sequence of still images (frames) shown in rapid succession; your brain reads that succession as continuous motion. The number in front of "fps" is simply how many of those stills are displayed each second.

Here are the reference points almost everyone runs into:

• 24fps — the cinema standard since the 1920s; the "film" look.
• 30fps — the familiar standard for TV and most online video.
• 60fps — smooth video and comfortable gaming; standard for sports, action and screen recording.
• 120fps and up — competitive gaming and slow-motion capture.

The easiest way to feel the difference is in motion: the higher the fps, the less blur and judder when the camera or subject moves quickly.

Is 60fps good?

Yes — for the overwhelming majority of uses. 60fps gives you smooth motion and, in games, more responsive controls, because the image updates more often and you see the result of your input sooner. That's why 60fps is treated as the baseline for comfortable gaming and the standard for fast-moving video.

The one clear exception is narrative film, which is deliberately shot at 24fps for its recognizable cinematic feel (more on that in the cinema section). For everything else — games, sports, gameplay capture, footage of moving subjects — 60fps is objectively better than 30fps.

60fps vs 30fps

This is the most common comparison. 60fps shows exactly twice as many frames per second as 30fps. In practice:

One caveat: you'll only see the 30-vs-60 difference on a display that refreshes at 60Hz or higher. On any modern screen that's a given, but the smoothness is always capped by the slower of the two — your source fps and your screen's refresh rate.

60fps vs 120fps

120fps is another two times smoother than 60fps. Is the difference noticeable? Yes — but not for everyone, and not always:

• In fast games (shooters, racers) the jump from 60 to 120fps is real: motion is silkier and aiming feels crisper. Competitive players buy 144–240Hz monitors specifically for this.
• In regular video, the 60-to-120 difference is barely perceptible to most people — the eye already reads 60fps as smooth.
• The catch. To actually see 120fps you need two things at once: a source producing 120 frames (a powerful GPU) and a display of 120Hz or more. One without the other is pointless.

Bottom line: 60fps is the comfortable balance for most people. 120fps is worth chasing if you're into competitive gaming and have a high-refresh monitor.

fps vs Hz

This is the most commonly confused pair, so let's be precise. Hz and fps describe different things:

• FPS — how many frames per second the source produces: a game, a video file, a camera.
• Hz (refresh rate) — how many times per second the screen refreshes; a physical property of your monitor or phone.

To see all 60 frames, you need both a 60fps source and a screen of at least 60Hz. When they don't match:

• 120fps on a 60Hz screen — you'll only see 60 frames; the screen can't display the rest. The game renders more, but your eye doesn't receive it (though input lag can be slightly lower).
• 60fps on a 144Hz monitor — the screen is capable of more but will show exactly the 60 frames the source delivers. A monitor doesn't invent missing frames.

Simple rule: the smoothness you actually get is limited by the smaller of the two numbers — source fps and screen Hz.

60fps in games and consoles

In games, fps matters more than in video: it affects not just smoothness but how responsive the controls feel. 60fps is the comfort standard, and most modern games aim for it.

How it plays out on consoles:

• PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Many games offer a choice: a "Graphics/Quality" mode (usually 4K/30fps, maximum effects) or a "Performance" mode (often 1440p–4K/60fps for smoothness). 60fps in every game isn't guaranteed — it's up to the developer.
• Xbox Series S. The smaller console hits 60fps in many games, but typically at 1080p–1440p rather than 4K.
• PS4 Pro and older consoles. 60fps shows up, but selectively — far from every title.
• Nintendo Switch. Most games run at 30fps; 60fps is rare and usually reserved for lighter titles.

If smooth motion and responsive controls matter most to you, pick the Performance / 60fps mode. If you prefer a richer still image (in slower, story-driven games), the Graphics / 30fps mode can be worth it.

How big is 4K 60fps

60fps weighs roughly twice as much as 30fps at the same resolution, because there are twice as many frames. But the final size is driven most by bitrate (how much data per second) and codec.

These are ballpark figures — real numbers depend on the scene (static content compresses better than motion) and your settings. Practical takeaway: if you shoot 4K 60fps on a phone, budget several gigabytes per minute and free up storage in advance.

How to get 60fps: shooting and converting

Shoot at 60fps. Nearly all modern smartphones can record 1080p 60fps, and flagships can do 4K 60fps. In the camera app, look for the resolution/frame-rate toggle (e.g. "4K·60"). Among mirrorless and DSLR cameras, 4K 60fps is supported by many but not all models — check the spec sheet of the specific camera before buying if the frame rate matters to you.

The shutter rule when shooting. For natural-looking motion, set the shutter speed to roughly double the frame rate: for 60fps that's about 1/120s. Too fast a shutter makes footage look sharp and juddery; too slow makes it blurry.

Converting 30fps to 60fps. Here's the key thing to understand: you can only "add" the missing frames in software, through interpolation (motion/frame interpolation). The algorithm guesses in-between frames from the existing ones. Modern AI-based interpolators do this fairly well, but:

• It's not the same as shooting real 60fps — the detail in the invented frames is guessed, not captured.
• Fast, complex motion produces artifacts: broken edges, halos, wobble.
• Results depend heavily on the source: clean, stable footage interpolates far better than noisy, shaky clips.

If your goal is smooth video, it's always better to shoot at 60fps in the first place than to convert 30fps after the fact.

Why movies are shot at 24fps, not 60

A fair question: if 60fps is smoother, why do big movies still come out at 24fps? The reason isn't technical — it's aesthetic and habitual.

The 24fps standard settled in the late 1920s as a compromise between film-stock cost and acceptable smoothness with sound. Over a century, audiences came to associate 24fps with "real cinema" and higher frame rates with TV, sports and home video. Shooting at 24fps, natural motion blur softens the image and gives it that "cinematic" quality.

There have been attempts to shoot narrative films at high frame rates (HFR): Peter Jackson's Hobbit at 48fps, Ang Lee's 120fps experiments, James Cameron's hybrid approach in Avatar. But the industry never switched over wholesale — viewers often complained that the "too smooth" image looked like a cheap soap opera (the so-called "soap opera effect").

We cover high frame rate in cinema in depth in a separate article: HFR — high frame rate in cinema. And for the internet speed and bitrate you need for 4K 60fps, see: Internet speed and bitrate for 4K/1080p 60fps.

You've likely seen that "soap opera effect" on your own TV, too: modern sets turn on motion smoothing by default (TruMotion on LG, Motion Plus on Samsung, MotionFlow on Sony), artificially raising a film's frame rate. Many viewers and directors recommend turning it off for narrative films.

FAQ

Is 60fps better than 30fps?
For games, sports and fast-moving video, definitely — smoother image and more responsive controls. For calm talking-head videos and narrative film, the difference is less important, and 24–30fps can even be preferable stylistically.

Can the eye tell 30 from 60fps?
Yes — most people see it in motion, especially in games and fast pans. On a static scene the difference is minimal.

What is 4K 60fps?
Video at 4K resolution (about 3840×2160 pixels) at 60 frames per second — a combination of high detail and smooth motion. It needs powerful hardware and a lot of disk space.

Does TikTok support 60fps?
You can shoot and upload 60fps video to TikTok, but the platform may re-compress the clip during processing and lower the effective frame rate, so the smoothness in-feed is sometimes below the original.

What is 60fps in "speed" (60fps to mph)?
The "60fps to mph" question comes from a mix-up: fps in video means "frames per second," not "feet per second." They're different quantities, so converting video frames to miles per hour doesn't make sense — the units measure completely different things.