Valve Says Its New Steam Overlay Can Help PC Gamers Understand the Causes of Bad Performance

Steam has launched a new in-game monitor designed to help players identify the root causes of poor PC game performance.

In a blog post, developer Valve explained that this updated performance overlay displays framerate values, much like the traditional FPS counter, "but it can also distinguish generated frames from DLSS or FSR against actual game framerate." This release coincides perfectly with the ongoing Steam Summer Sale.

"It provides min/max single frame values and a real-time graph of framerate," Valve elaborated. "Additionally, it displays CPU performance metrics, GPU performance data, and system memory usage statistics. These insights are valuable for diagnosing poor game performance, whether caused by a bottlenecked CPU or GPU, or graphics settings that exceed your video card's capacity or available system RAM."

The following screenshot illustrates all four current display modes; note that only one can be active at any given time — we have combined them here to clarify what each setting offers: FPS Single Value, FPS Details, CPU & GPU Utilization, and Comprehensive FPS, CPU & RAM Details.

A composite of all current display options. Image credit: IGN.To activate the new overlay or modify its size and position, navigate to Settings->In Game and locate the Performance Overlay section.

Valve described this feature as "a first step" toward helping Steam users better understand their game and system performance, with plans to incorporate additional data points in future updates.

Steam, the leading digital distribution platform for PC gamers, has once again shattered its own concurrent user record, surpassing 40 million players for the first time in March 2025.

The platform has since eclipsed that milestone, logging 41,239,880 simultaneous users and breaking the previous peak of 40.2 million set just days prior.

Although this figure includes idle accounts — meaning Steam is open but not actively gaming — the number of users currently engaged in games has also reached an all-time high, climbing to 13.2 million active players.

Valve recently dispelled rumors of a "major" data hack on its platform, confirming there was "NOT a breach" of Steam's systems. Amidst the surge in global data breaches and considering that over 89 million people hold Steam accounts, users had ample reason to be concerned about potential security vulnerabilities.