How to see FPS?

FRAPS is a good benchmarking tool.

thanks for the quick response. do you know/can you explain what it does/how it works?

http://www.fraps.com/download.php

i found that link. and i can see that i can download it, however i would like to know a little bit about it before i downloaded it.

FRAPS is very simple - you just run the program, and it sits in your system tray. Whenever you load up a games, the FPS will show. You can also benchmark your FPS as well, although I'm not sure how to do it. FRAPS also allows you to record gameplay - and take screenshots as well. Recording gameplay does stress the CPU, and can drop your frame rates quite a bit, especially if you have a single/dual core. It displays your FPS in the top or bottom corners of the screen, you can choose where it displays it.
FRAPS is shareware and costs $37 - a demo version is available for free which is all you need to check your FPS, and can record gameplay for 30 seconds with a watermark though, and can only take images in .bmp format.

wow, just what i needed... thanks a lot. i appreciate all your responses. Thanks

its home page then answers your questions, its a 3rd part app that runs in the background. You can select it to display your FPS in any corner of your screen. You can also set it up to run min/max time runs to benchmark various set ups. It will also capture video.

wow, i love how responsive these forums are

No problem,  .

Just come back if you have any other questions.

i will for sure. thinking about OC'ing for the first time, and don't wanna blow myself up

Reading your signature, you should be just fine. Normal OC'd clocks for the HD5850 is 1,000Core/1,300Mem, I think on 1.315v. You'll have to use a program such as MSI AfterBurner to raise voltages.

thanks, as of now i have a lot more reading and research to do before i start, but my mobo should be a breeze, not sure about ram and GPU yet... ill get there in the next few days hopefully