Steam Frame Generation: Performance Tracking Now Available
- Valve has added a new performance monitor to Steam that can help you understand why a game may or may not be running smoothly.
- The change is included as part of an update to the Steam Client that’s available now, though Valve notes that this “first version” focuses on “Windows users and...
- The company says the new performance monitor currently offers up to four different levels of detail: a single FPS value, FPS details, CPU and GPU utilization, and “FPS,...
Steam players, rejoice! Valve introduces a new performance monitor, empowering users to track frame generation and optimize their gaming experience. This innovative feature allows you to dissect frame rates, distinguish between fully rendered frames and those generated by technologies like DLSS and FSR, enhancing your understanding of in-game performance. Identify potential bottlenecks and ensure smoother visuals on your high refresh rate monitors. The update, currently focused on Windows users, provides detailed insights-from single FPS values to extensive CPU, GPU, and RAM utilization data. This addition, building upon tools integrated into the Steam Deck, makes performance tracking more accessible. News Directory 3 knows this is a game changer. The monitor helps you determine the truth behind perceived smoothness. Discover what’s next as Valve continues to refine and expand the performance overlay.
Valve has added a new performance monitor to Steam that can help you understand why a game may or may not be running smoothly. Not only does it break out a game’s overall frame rate, it can tell you how many of those frames were generated by techniques like Nvidia’s DLSS or AMD’s FSR, according to a post.
The change is included as part of an update to the Steam Client that’s available now, though Valve notes that this “first version” focuses on “Windows users and on the most common GPU hardware.”
The company says the new performance monitor currently offers up to four different levels of detail: a single FPS value, FPS details, CPU and GPU utilization, and “FPS, CPU, GPU & RAM Full Details.” The more you choose to show, the more of your screen will be taken up by the performance monitor.
Steam previously offered a simple FPS counter, but separating out generated frames from the frames fully rendered by your graphics cores can help you better understand key differences between what you see and how a game feels. “Frame generation can’t help with things like input latency that matter to competitive gamers, but it can make things look visually smoother on today’s high refresh rate monitors,” Valve says in a detailed support document about the performance monitor.
In practice, what that should mean is that you can see whether your game feels like it’s running at just 30 fps because it actually is running at 30 fps inside the game engine, even though you’re seeing a visually smoother image due to Nvidia and AMD’s added “fake frames.” (It’s a whole debate in the PC gaming community, and it appears Valve isn’t taking sides here.)
Valve has already given handheld gamers a taste of these quick insights by building tools like MangoHud into the Steam Deck and SteamOS, which similarly let you monitor your CPU, graphics, RAM, and carefully ration out your battery life. But having a way to do so built into desktop Steam will make the insights much more accessible to many more gamers.
Valve says that it has plans to “add some additional pieces of data to the performance overlay going forward, to detect certain common bad hardware performance scenarios, and to show a larger summary of your game’s performance in the overlay itself when you hit shift-tab.”