Steam adds an in-game performance monitor so you can brag about hitting 900 FPS in Deus Ex

A recent update to Steam has unveiled an enhanced in-game performance monitor, transitioning from its beta phase to a fully integrated feature. This new tool is essentially an upgraded version of the platform’s previous frame counter, now boasting a wealth of additional features and greater detail.

Performance Insights at Your Fingertips

Users can easily activate the performance monitor through Steam settings, allowing it to overlay on top of their games. This feature provides real-time insights into system performance, illustrating how various components are impacting gameplay. Among its capabilities, the monitor displays frame rate values and can differentiate between frames generated by technologies like DLSS or FSR and the actual game frame rate. For those who crave deeper analysis, the tool also offers the ability to examine minimum and maximum frame values, alongside a graph illustrating frame rate fluctuations over time.

In addition to frame rates, the performance monitor tracks CPU performance, GPU performance, and system memory usage. While there are numerous existing methods to assess these metrics, the integration into Steam streamlines the process, making it easier for users to identify potential bottlenecks—especially useful when experimenting with graphics settings.

The performance monitor presents users with four levels of detail:

  • Single FPS Value
  • FPS Details
  • FPS Details, CPU & GPU Utilization
  • FPS, CPU, GPU & RAM Full Details

Users can switch between these levels on-the-fly, customizing the display with options for color, text size, and opacity. Additionally, it features graphs for FPS over time and per-core CPU utilization, catering to a wide range of user preferences.

Valve describes this update as a “first step” toward enhancing user understanding of game and system performance. Future enhancements are planned, including features that automatically detect common hardware performance issues and alert users, adding another layer of utility to this tool. Currently, the focus is on Windows users and commonly used GPUs, with expectations for broader support in subsequent updates, although non-Windows users and those with older hardware may not yet benefit from the full range of data.

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Steam adds an in-game performance monitor so you can brag about hitting 900 FPS in Deus Ex