PC Slower Than It Used to Be?
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchThe quickest option is Steam’s Performance Overlay. For a more complete HUD showing CPU, GPU, VRAM, RAM, temperatures, clocks, FPS and frame time, install MSI Afterburner with RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS). AMD, NVIDIA and Intel also provide hardware-specific alternatives.
No overlay works with literally every game. APIs, fullscreen modes, hybrid graphics, permissions and anti-cheat systems can prevent an on-screen display from appearing. The methods below cover most Windows PC games and explain what the numbers actually mean.
When monitoring in-game hardware usage, Outbyte Driver Updater can check graphics and chipset drivers for outdated versions that may affect reporting.
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Choose the right overlay
| What you need | Best first choice | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Simple FPS, CPU, GPU and RAM readings in a Steam game | Steam Performance Overlay | VRAM support and compatibility vary |
| CPU, GPU, VRAM and RAM in one customizable HUD | MSI Afterburner + RTSS | Requires installation and some games block injected overlays |
| Radeon GPU or compatible Ryzen system | AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition | Requires compatible AMD hardware and software |
| NVIDIA hardware with minimal setup | NVIDIA App overlay | Less granular than Afterburner and RTSS |
| Charts, percentiles and bottleneck analysis | Intel PresentMon | More advanced than a basic HUD |
| Benchmarking, logging and power analysis | NVIDIA FrameView | Its overlay is not displayed in DX9/DX10 games |
| A fallback when another overlay is blocked | Xbox Game Bar | Available metrics differ between Windows installations |
For most readers, start with Steam if the game is in your Steam library. Use Afterburner and RTSS when you need dedicated VRAM, per-core CPU readings or consistent customization across Steam and non-Steam games.
Fastest method: Steam Performance Overlay
Steam’s Windows Performance Overlay offers four detail levels, from a single FPS value to a full display with FPS, CPU, GPU and RAM information. Valve introduced the current performance-monitoring feature in 2025; menu names and availability can still change with Steam updates. See Valve’s announcement.
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- Open Steam.
- Select Steam → Settings.
- Open In Game.
- Find the Performance Overlay section.
- Choose the desired detail level.
- Change the overlay hotkey if necessary.
- Launch the game through Steam.
- Use the Steam overlay hotkey to show the performance display.
The available levels include:
- Single FPS value.
- FPS details.
- FPS details plus CPU and GPU utilization.
- Full details with FPS, CPU, GPU and RAM.
You can also adjust options such as an FPS graph, text size, color saturation and background opacity. This is an excellent no-install solution for basic diagnosis, but it is not a guaranteed dedicated-VRAM monitor. Non-Steam games added to Steam may also behave differently from native Steam titles, and the Steam overlay must be supported and enabled for the game.
Most flexible method: MSI Afterburner and RTSS
For a customizable CPU, GPU, VRAM and RAM overlay, use MSI Afterburner together with RivaTuner Statistics Server. Afterburner selects and reads the monitoring values; RTSS supplies the in-game on-screen display. MSI says RTSS is required for Afterburner’s hardware-monitoring OSD.
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Install and configure it
- Install MSI Afterburner.
- Install RivaTuner Statistics Server when the installer offers it.
- Open MSI Afterburner.
- Click Settings, then open the Monitoring tab.
- Select the readings you want, such as GPU usage, GPU memory usage, CPU usage, RAM usage, FPS and frame time.
- For each selected reading, enable Show in On-Screen Display.
- Click Apply.
- Leave Afterburner and RTSS running, then launch the game.
- Use the configured OSD toggle or RTSS controls to show the overlay.
MSI’s OSD guide illustrates the Monitoring-tab workflow. The exact sensor names depend on your hardware, drivers and software version.
Recommended overlay presets
Start with a readable set rather than putting every sensor on screen.
FPS
Frame time
GPU usage
GPU memory usage
CPU usage
RAM usage
GPU temperature
CPU temperatureFor troubleshooting, add:
GPU clock
CPU clock
Per-core CPU usage
Power draw
Percentile FPS or 1% lows, if supportedAfterburner can expose separate integrated and discrete GPU entries. Do not assume GPU1 is the chip rendering the game. Compare the GPU name and activity, particularly on laptops and other hybrid-graphics systems.
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First-party alternatives
AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition
AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition can display real-time performance metrics and save performance data to a file. AMD documents CPU utilization, GPU metrics and GPU-memory utilization among the available readings. The precise labels and hotkeys vary between driver releases.
- Open AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition.
- Open Performance.
- Open the metrics or metrics-overlay settings.
- Enable the in-game overlay.
- Select the available CPU, GPU, GPU-memory, system-memory, FPS, temperature and clock readings.
- Launch the game and use the configured Radeon hotkey.
See AMD’s documentation for performance metrics and Radeon overlay controls. This is the simplest choice for compatible Radeon systems, but it is less useful when you want one uniform tool across mixed-vendor hardware.
NVIDIA App
NVIDIA users who already have the NVIDIA App can configure its performance overlay without installing Afterburner.
- Launch the game.
- Press Alt+Z.
- Select Statistics.
- Open Configure heads up display.
- Choose the metrics and presentation.
- Return to the game.
NVIDIA documents this path and lists readings such as frame rate, clock speeds and GPU temperature. The exact CPU, VRAM and RAM fields depend on the installed NVIDIA App version, driver, hardware and game. See NVIDIA’s support instructions.
Intel PresentMon
Intel PresentMon is better suited to serious performance analysis than a simple corner counter. It provides real-time charts, histograms, raw values, rolling-window averages, percentiles and GPU telemetry. Its GPU Busy metric is intended to help investigate whether the CPU or GPU is limiting frame production.
Use PresentMon when average FPS is not enough and you need to investigate stutter, frame-time behavior or repeatable performance changes.
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NVIDIA FrameView
NVIDIA FrameView is designed for benchmarking and logging. It can record frame rates, frame times, power, performance per watt and CPU/GPU utilization in an overlay and log file. NVIDIA documents support for NVIDIA, AMD and Intel graphics in its guide.
There is an important limitation: NVIDIA’s documentation says the FrameView overlay is not shown in DX9/DX10 games, although capture and logging are supported. See the FrameView user guide.
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As a built-in fallback, press Win+G and open the Performance widget. Select the metrics available on your system, pin the widget, and return to the game. Windows Game Bar can provide FPS and other readings, but the available fields are not identical on every Windows build. Intel documents the FPS path in its Windows support article.
What the metrics actually mean
CPU usage
Overall CPU usage is an average across logical processors. A game can be CPU-limited while total CPU usage looks modest if one important game thread or a small number of cores is saturated.
For diagnosis, show overall CPU usage alongside per-core or per-thread usage, CPU clock, temperature, FPS and frame time. A high reading on one or two busy cores can matter more than a low system-wide average.
GPU usage
GPU utilization describes how busy the selected GPU is. High GPU usage with a stable frame rate commonly indicates a GPU-limited workload, but it does not by itself tell you whether performance is good.
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Low GPU usage can result from a CPU bottleneck, an FPS cap, V-sync, display synchronization, an incorrectly selected GPU, a menu or loading screen, or an engine that is not continuously submitting work. On a laptop, verify that the overlay is monitoring the GPU actually rendering the game.
VRAM usage
VRAM is dedicated graphics memory. It is separate from GPU utilization: a GPU can be highly utilized while using moderate VRAM, or have a large allocation while doing little work.
High VRAM allocation is not automatically an error. Games and drivers may reserve or cache memory. More meaningful warning signs include VRAM approaching the available dedicated memory together with texture pop-in, sudden traversal stutter, large frame-time spikes or improvement after lowering texture quality, ray tracing or resolution.
Tools may report different things: process usage, total allocation, dedicated memory, shared memory, a memory budget or reserved space. Compare trends from the same tool rather than treating every “VRAM used” number as interchangeable.
System RAM usage
System RAM is used by the game, Windows, browsers, launchers, recording software and background applications. It is not the same as VRAM.
A tool’s “RAM” value might mean total system memory in use, the game process’s working set, commit charge or available memory. Check the label before comparing it with another utility. Sustained high total use, very little available memory, disk activity and stutter that improves after closing background programs are stronger evidence of RAM pressure than one large process number.
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FPS and frame time
Usage percentages do not describe smoothness on their own. Always include FPS and frame time. FPS is the number of frames produced per second; frame time is how long each frame takes. A few large frame-time spikes can feel like stutter even when the average FPS looks high.
PresentMon and FrameView are useful when you need rolling averages, percentiles or frame-time-oriented analysis rather than a single instantaneous FPS value.
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Use the overlay to find the bottleneck
Likely GPU limit
- GPU usage remains near its practical maximum.
- GPU clock and temperature are elevated.
- Lowering resolution or graphics quality substantially increases FPS.
- No important CPU game thread is consistently saturated.
Likely CPU limit
- GPU usage remains well below its potential.
- One or more CPU cores or game threads are heavily loaded.
- Lowering resolution changes FPS very little.
- Reducing view distance, simulation, crowd density or similar CPU-heavy settings helps more than lowering texture quality.
Likely VRAM pressure
- VRAM approaches the available dedicated memory.
- Textures pop in or look temporarily degraded.
- Traversal causes hitching and large frame-time spikes.
- Lowering textures, ray tracing, resolution or texture-cache settings improves the problem.
Likely system-RAM pressure
- Total memory use is high and available RAM is very low.
- Disk activity or paging increases during gameplay.
- Closing browsers, launchers or recording tools reduces stutter.
- Lowering world-streaming or asset-heavy settings helps.
Make comparisons in the same scene with the same settings. One screenshot is not enough evidence for a hardware upgrade.
Fix an overlay that does not appear
- Confirm that the monitoring utility and RTSS or its equivalent are running.
- Confirm that every selected sensor has Show in On-Screen Display enabled.
- Check that the OSD hotkey is not being intercepted by another application.
- Try borderless windowed mode instead of exclusive fullscreen, or the reverse.
- Temporarily disable other overlays, including Steam, NVIDIA App, AMD Adrenalin, Xbox Game Bar, Discord and recording software.
- Test another game to determine whether the problem is game-specific.
- Update the GPU driver and monitoring utility.
- If the game runs with higher privileges, run the monitoring utility with an appropriate permission level.
- Use Game Bar or a vendor overlay as a fallback.
- If anti-cheat blocks injected overlays, use desktop monitoring or log data before and after the session instead.
Some protected games, rendering modes and anti-cheat systems intentionally prevent injected OSDs. MSI also recommends alternatives such as Windows Game Bar or HWiNFO when its OSD cannot appear; see MSI’s troubleshooting guidance.
The overlay shows the wrong GPU
Integrated and discrete GPUs can appear as separate entries. Check the GPU name and activity, then confirm which adapter Windows or the game has assigned to the title. On a laptop, Windows Graphics settings and the manufacturer’s graphics controls may let you select the preferred GPU. Do not choose a sensor merely because it is labelled GPU1 or GPU2.
VRAM is missing
The utility may not expose VRAM for that hardware, may be reading a different memory category, or may be unable to access the value because of driver or API limitations. Integrated graphics may report shared rather than dedicated memory. Try Afterburner/RTSS, AMD Adrenalin or a vendor-specific tool, and read the metric’s exact label.
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Different utilities can legitimately report different values because they measure different categories: dedicated allocation, per-process usage, shared GPU memory, memory budget, reserved memory or cached memory. They may also sample at different times. Use one tool consistently when comparing settings and performance.
The overlay causes stutter or crashes
- Disable every overlay except one.
- Remove unnecessary sensors from the HUD.
- Temporarily disable logging and reduce hardware-polling features.
- Test without overclocking or undervolting.
- Re-enable features one at a time.
- Avoid overlays in competitive or anti-cheat-sensitive games unless the game and anti-cheat provider permit them.
Practical presets
Casual monitoring
FPS | GPU usage | CPU usage | VRAM | RAMTroubleshooting
FPS | Frame time | GPU usage | GPU clock | VRAM
CPU usage | Per-core CPU usage | CPU clock | RAM | TemperaturesBenchmarking
Average FPS | Percentiles or 1% lows | Frame time
GPU/CPU utilization | Clocks | Power | TemperaturesWhich tool should you use?
Use Steam’s Performance Overlay for the fastest basic view in Steam games. Choose MSI Afterburner plus RTSS when you need the most flexible free HUD, especially for CPU, GPU, VRAM and RAM together. Choose AMD Adrenalin or the NVIDIA App when you prefer a vendor-integrated solution. Use PresentMon for detailed frame-time and bottleneck analysis, and FrameView for repeatable logging, power and performance-per-watt measurements.
A paid option such as FPS Monitor can provide a turnkey, presentation-focused HUD, but buying monitoring software is not necessary for most players. The free tools above are sufficient to identify whether a problem is primarily CPU-, GPU-, VRAM- or RAM-related.
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