Capture Center
Record frame times in any game with a hotkey, read FPS, 1% lows and stutter, track sensors, and compare up to four captures.
On this page
The Capture Center records how smoothly a game runs. Press a hotkey in game, play, and TinyBoost saves every frame time plus the sensors you choose. Afterwards you can read the results and compare runs side by side.
Use it when you want to check whether a change made a game smoother: a new driver, a settings change, an undervolt, or a different map. It works with any game you can see in a window, not just CS2.
Where: the Capture tab → Capture Center. It opens in its own maximized window with three tabs at the top right: Capture, Analysis and Comparison. The sun/moon button next to them switches between a dark and a light theme.
Record a capture#
- Start your game. While no game is running, the Capture Center says START YOUR GAME.
- When the game appears, the screen says PRESS F11 TO START CAPTURING followed by the game's name.
- Go into the game and press the hotkey (F11 unless you changed it). A voice says recording has started.
- Play normally. The capture stops on its own when the time runs out (20 seconds by default). To end it early, press the hotkey again or click Stop capture.
- A voice says recording has finished, and the capture appears in the CAPTURES list.
The first capture can show PREPARING PRESENTMON for a moment while TinyBoost gets its frame recorder ready.
The hotkey works while the Capture Center window is open, even when your game is in front of it. Closing the window turns the hotkey off; a capture that is already running still finishes and is saved.
Good to know
For the cleanest numbers, record the same part of the game each time: the same map, route and settings. Two captures are only worth comparing when they recorded the same thing.
Pick which program to record#
The Capture tab has two lists:
- RUNNING: games TinyBoost recognizes that are open right now. The capture records the selected one.
- IGNORED: everything else that is running, such as browsers, launchers and chat apps.
TinyBoost picks the game up automatically. If something you want to record is in IGNORED, select it and click Restore selected. To stop a program from being picked, select it in RUNNING and click Ignore selected. Click Refresh if a program you just started isn't shown yet.
Settings#
The Settings sit under the status area on the Capture tab.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Hotkey | The key that starts and stops a capture: F8, F9, F10 or F11 |
| Capture time (s) | How long a capture runs, from 1 to 600 seconds |
| Start delay (s) | Waits this many seconds (0 to 60) after you press the hotkey before recording starts. With a 1 to 5 second delay you hear a spoken countdown. Click Cancel during the wait to call it off |
| Hotkey sound | Trump plays a voice when recording starts and finishes; None is silent |
| Sensors to record | Which hardware readings are saved with each capture. See Sensors |
If another program already uses the hotkey, the Capture Center says so. Pick a different key.
Read a capture#
Open Analysis and click a capture in the CAPTURES list on the left.
Frametime#
The Frametime chart shows how long each frame took, in milliseconds, from the start of the capture to the end. Lower is faster. A flat line means smooth play. Spikes are frames that took longer than the rest, which is what you feel as a hitch. The blue line is the 20-frame average, and dots mark frames that count as a stutter.
Hover the chart to see the frame number, its time and its FPS.
FPS metrics#
| Metric | What it means |
|---|---|
| Average | Average FPS over the whole capture |
| 1% | 99% of frames were faster than this |
| 1% low average | The average FPS of the slowest 1% of frames |
| 0.1% | 99.9% of frames were faster than this |
| 0.1% low average | The average FPS of the slowest 0.1% of frames |
| Std dev | How much frame times vary, in ms. Lower is more consistent |
Click the gear on the FPS metrics card to choose which metrics are shown. Std dev is off until you turn it on.
The lows matter more than the average for how smooth a game feels. Two runs with the same average can feel very different if one has much lower 1% and 0.1% values.
TinyBoost calculates these the same way CapFrameX does, so results line up with CapFrameX on the same data.
Stutter#
A frame counts as a stutter when it takes longer than the Stutter threshold times the average frame time. The default is 2.5× average. To change it, click the gear on the FPS metrics card and pick 2×, 2.5×, 3× or 4×.
The same menu also shows the cut-off in milliseconds, how many frames crossed it and how much of the run was spent in stutters. Stutter frames are also marked as dots on the Frametime chart. A lower threshold catches smaller hitches; a higher one only counts big ones.
Sensors#
The Sensors card shows the hardware readings saved with the capture, such as CPU and GPU load, clocks, temperatures, power and voltages, each as MIN, AVG and MAX. Readings are taken once a second while the capture runs. Click the gear on the card to choose which sensors are shown; one that wasn't recorded shows a dash.
By default TinyBoost records 10 common CPU and GPU readings. Sensors to record on the Capture tab lets you add more, from CPU, GPU, Memory and System groups, including P-core and E-core clocks, GPU hotspot temperature, VRAM usage, DRAM voltages and WHEA errors. Choose what to record before you capture; a capture only has the sensors that were on when it was made.
Time in GPU load limit shows how much of the run the graphics card was at 97% load or higher. A high value means the graphics card was the part holding FPS back.
A sensor can be missing if your hardware doesn't report it.
Compare captures#
Open Comparison and click up to 4 captures on the left.
- Bar charts (the default) show each capture's Average, 1% and 1% low average side by side.
- Line charts draw each capture's frame times, as a 50-frame average, over each other.
- Sort by orders the bars by Selection order, Average, 1% or 1% low average. When you sort by a metric, the arrow button next to it switches between highest first and lowest first.
Click a selected capture again to remove it from the comparison.
Manage your captures#
- Rename: double-click a capture in the list, double-click its title, or click the pencil next to the title. Type the new name and press Enter.
- Delete: open the capture in Analysis and press Del.
- Search: type in the box above the list to filter by name or date.
Captures are saved as JSON files in Documents\TinyBoost\Captures, one file per capture. You can back them up or move them to another PC by copying that folder.
If something goes wrong#
| You see | What to do |
|---|---|
| No frames were recorded | Keep the game in focus while it renders, then capture again. A paused game or a menu with a frame cap may record nothing |
| Start the game you want to capture first. | No game was picked up when you pressed the hotkey. Start the game, or restore it from IGNORED |
| ...is not running | The game closed before the capture started. Start it again |
| ...is already used by another program. Pick another hotkey. | Choose a different Hotkey in Settings |
| PresentMon could not be prepared | Check your internet connection and try again |
| Captures cannot be saved in Documents | Make sure your Documents folder exists and isn't full or read-only |