In this paper, the structural performance of steel rigid frame with pall friction damper is compared with a braced moment resisting frame as existing structure. The existing structure is a 5-story steel frame which is designed based on the 2nd edition of the No. 2800 standard and the performance evaluation is based on seismic retrofit guideline. It is observed that when the slip force reaches to 20 tons, about 100 percent of the total dissipated energy in the structure is dissipated by damper devices, which makes 20 tons be the optimum slip force. Also, under the design basic earthquake, the acceptance criteria for immediate occupancy performance level are satisfied in both frames. Investigating the demand to capacity ratio, DCR, in deformation - controlled actions reveals that in the existing frame about 20 percent of the elements reached nonlinear region and the acceptance criteria for force – controlled actions are hardly satisfied, while all members of the frame with damper remained in elastic behavior and the acceptance criteria for these actions are satisfied with 16 percent safety margin. Similar desirable results are obtained under an earthquake stronger than the basic design earthquake.