Frames per second refers to the number of times that VisIt can draw the plots in the vis window in the course of a second. VisIt displays the minimum, average, and maximum frame rates achieved during the last draw operation, like rotating the image with the mouse, in the Renderer Options Window's Information area. Some actions that force a redraw do not cause the information to update. An example of this is resizing the vis window. To make VisIt update the frame rate information after each time it draws the plots in the visualization window, check the Query after each render check box.