Budget Benchmark Math: 3 Ratios That Beat Raw FPS
You've saved up $600. You've read the spec sheets. And you're staring at a benchmark chart where one GPU posts 87 FPS and another posts 82 FPS. The obvious pick seems clear — but is it? Here's the thing: raw FPS hides the real story. It doesn't tell you how much you paid for those extra frames, how much electricity you'll burn, or whether the frame pacing will make a game feel stuttery even at a high average. For tight budgets, those numbers matter more than the headline score. So let's look at three ratios that cut through the noise — and why they'll save you more than a few bucks. Where This Ratio Thinking Shows Up in Real Work Reading benchmark roundups like a skeptic Pull up any two review sites testing the same budget GPU and you will get two different winners.