40 FPS Should Be the Standard

Introduction

As more games are releasing with performance issues and image quality issues on both the Xbox Series and PlayStation 5 consoles, the one point that sticks out to me is why don’t more developers start implementing 40 FPS options in their games? There are quite a bit of titles now that implement 40 FPS, namely most of PlayStation’s first-party efforts and games like A Plague Tale Requiem, Hogwarts Legacy, and Starfield. But this list is not as expansive as I would like it to be. 

A Great Compromise

Let’s start by examining why 40 FPS is such a great compromise. Firstly it is in the response time. As noted in my review of College Football 25, while playing at 60 FPS there is around a 16.67 ms input response time. While playing at 30 FPS there is around 33ms of input response. Now, 40 FPS does not seem like that big of a difference from 30 FPS but it sits very comfortably between 30 and 60 FPS in frame times and input response at 25ms. In practice, this means getting the benefits of a fidelity mode -i.e., ray tracing and better image quality- while also having most of the fluidity and input response of a performance mode. In my opinion, this makes it a great compromise.

A Caveat?

But there is one major caveat, and that is needing the user to run their systems at 120hz. To get the full benefits of 40 FPS the user must have a higher refresh rate panel and while not the industry standard just yet, during this console generation I have personally witnessed more and more of my friends upgrading to higher refresh rate panels such as monitors or OLED TVs. So it only makes sense as more users are upgrading to higher refresh rate panels, to give them more options to enjoy the games they play!

Some Titles Definitely Need a 40 FPS Mode, While Others Would Benefit From It

There are titles out right now that would heavily benefit from 40 FPS in a 120hz container. Games such as Final Fantasy Rebirth and Final Fantasy 16 on the base PS5 desperately need these options. And then there are titles that run at such a smooth 30fps that it would almost be a no-brainer to add in a 40 fps option. The main title that comes to mind for this example is Hellblade 2.  The 40 frame rates per second can also be the target in the PC handheld space because both the ROG Ally and the Steam Deck OLED are equipped with higher refresh rate displays. Allowing the player to benefit from both improved visuals and better input response even on a smaller screen.

Conclusion

I, like most gamers, love high frame rates, but for single-player games, I’ve started to realize that 40 FPS is good enough. Going forward, I would love to see more developers offer 30 FPS – Fidelity Mode, 40 FPS- balanced mode, and 60/120 FPS – performance modes as a standard in their console releases. While I know that may not be feasible in every release because each developer has different targets, I think if a game can hit at least a stable 30 FPS then adding a 40 FPS option should be feasible. For all of us who game on higher refresh rate displays, we would greatly appreciate being able to ever so slightly tailor our gaming experience and maximize our setups.