# FrameRate gets slow over time **URL:** \ **Category:** Coding Questions\ **Created:** [August 31, 2018, 6:35pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/framerate-gets-slow-over-time/3149 "2018-08-31T18:35:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![willianxz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@willianxz](https://discourse.processing.org/u/willianxz)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 6:35pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/framerate-gets-slow-over-time/3149/1 "2018-08-31T18:35:36Z")
Hello my friends, I’m having trouble with the speed of my program. I set the default speed to 60 fps, but over time the increment of my variable “time” is slowly increasing. I wonder how I could solve this “bug”. I already called setup (), but it did not work. Maybe I can solve it if there is any code that totally resets the sketch. Below is my code. ```auto Semáfaro ``` ---
**Author:** ![kfrajer](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/kfrajer/32/196_2.png) [@kfrajer](https://discourse.processing.org/u/kfrajer)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 8:16pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/framerate-gets-slow-over-time/3149/2 "2018-08-31T20:16:51Z")
What does your code do? Can you host it in codepen please? Do you have a clue where the problem could be? Kf ---
**Author:** ![jeremydouglass](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/jeremydouglass/32/20_2.png) [@jeremydouglass](https://discourse.processing.org/u/jeremydouglass)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 4:17am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/framerate-gets-slow-over-time/3149/3 "2018-09-03T04:17:42Z")
You have a variable `tempo` and you are incrementing it in `draw()` – this is the same thing as the built-in variable `frameCount`. - [https://p5js.org/reference/#/p5/frameCount](https://p5js.org/reference/#/p5/frameCount) However, the frame count is not the same thing as the precise elapsed time – it is approximately 60fps, but may drift a little, or a lot, or experience dramatic lags on certain frames. If you need to compute things compared to the wall clock, use `millis()` and check the elapsed number of milliseconds. Also read the reference entries under IO \> Time & Date - [https://p5js.org/reference/#/p5/millis](https://p5js.org/reference/#/p5/millis) - [https://p5js.org/reference/](https://p5js.org/reference/) If you will be checking many times, always compute the latest offset from the program start time – don’t compute a recent interval, otherwise you will get the very same drifting behavior. ---
**Author:** ![willianxz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@willianxz](https://discourse.processing.org/u/willianxz)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2018, 6:05pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/framerate-gets-slow-over-time/3149/4 "2018-09-08T18:05:54Z")
Thank you very much, I think only using this to solve. Despite this resolution, I believe this is a bug, because by the time I define frameRate (60), this should force it to 60, but this does not occur, ie it does not deliver what it promises. It would be great if it worked that way. ---
**Author:** ![jeremydouglass](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/jeremydouglass/32/20_2.png) [@jeremydouglass](https://discourse.processing.org/u/jeremydouglass)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2018, 7:05pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/framerate-gets-slow-over-time/3149/5 "2018-09-08T19:05:51Z")
> [@willianxz](#): > > Despite this resolution, I believe this is a bug, because by the time I define frameRate (60), this should force it to 60, but this does not occur, ie it does not deliver what it promises. > > It would be great if it worked that way. This is not a bug in p5.js – frameRate() defines a _maximum_ throttled rate, not a minimum or exact rate. It would be a bug if you set `frameRate(60)` and got fps=90. The Processing(Java) API works the same way. > Specifies the number of frames to be displayed every second. For example, the function call frameRate(30) will attempt to refresh 30 times a second. If the processor is not fast enough to maintain the specified rate, the frame rate will not be achieved. Setting the frame rate within setup() is recommended. The default rate is 60 frames per second. This is the same as setFrameRate(val). [reference | p5.js](https://p5js.org/reference/#/p5/frameRate) While I am not a JavaScript expert, my understanding is that p5.js does not define a minimum rate because it _cannot_ – it is implemented on JavaScript, and JavaScript events and timing don’t work that way. > **[Introduction to events - Learn web development | MDN](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/JavaScript/Building_blocks/Events)** > > Events are things that happen in the system you are programming, which the system tells you about so your code can react to them. In general, FPS usually doesn’t work that way on major video games in other languages, either. There is no minimum. If your computer can calculate the contents of a given frame 60 times a second, or only 15 times, or 5 times, the program will do what it needs to do to calculate each frame – and then update the screen as soon as it is done if it is running late. Common techniques for making the desired speed a sure thing are: 1. make code more efficient (e.g don’t repeat calculations you don’t need to, do less in `draw()`) 2. reduce the amount of pixel data (e.g. use a smaller `size()`) 3. run the code on faster computer hardware ---
**Author:** ![KevinWho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KevinWho](https://discourse.processing.org/u/KevinWho)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 12:45am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/framerate-gets-slow-over-time/3149/6 "2020-02-15T00:45:48Z")
I have had the same problem in normal processing, not sure about p5.js, but you could try running clear(); at the top of the loop. ---
**Author:** ![jeremydouglass](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/jeremydouglass/32/20_2.png) [@jeremydouglass](https://discourse.processing.org/u/jeremydouglass)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2020, 3:28pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/framerate-gets-slow-over-time/3149/7 "2020-02-16T15:28:38Z")
`clear()` will not improve frame rate in either Processing or p5.js. It is for clearing the values of graphics buffers, that is, it sets a bunch of pixel values – it doesn’t e.g. clear objects or processes out of memory or do garbage collection etc.