I recently switched from a ATI X800 to a Nvidia 7800GT pci-e. I was running a very cool utility called ATI Tray Tool.This tool has a amazing function. It showed FPS on the top right hand corner during 3d game play. It only works on ATI cards :mad3: This is extremely usefull for adjusting the right resolution, textures etc. In game auto detect function always drops the card to below it potential. Can't seem to find any similar tool for nvidia cards :frown:
err if u play battlefield 2 type in this command in console: renderer.drawfps 1 this shows your fps without extra programs.
like JXL says, a lot of games also have console commands to show the FPS, just google which game you want and FPS console command... but yeah fraps is easy too