These help me understand which options I need to tweak to get the best performance out of my games.
Here’s how it’s possible for you to do the same.
Why Monitor Game Performance Stats Anyway?
Justin Duino / How-To Geek
Monitoring in-game performance metrics is greatfor spotting bottlenecks, whether on theGPU or CPU side.
you’re able to do this by watching the usage percentage of your graphics card and CPU.
Another use case is when I notice in-game stuttering.
In-game performance stats can also display your CPU and GPU thermals and the amount of GPU memory used.
That said, I dont monitor each and every stat available.
If the GPU usage drops below 90%, somethings wrong.
The CPU is the bottleneck in this particular case.
The game Ive used to show which in-game stats I monitor isStar Wars Jedi: Survivor.
I specifically chose this game because it has highly unstable performance and a bunch of stuttering of various origins.
The game also hits the CPU pretty hard, especially in larger, semi-open-world levels such asKoboh.
That said, low GPU usage can have a plethora of other causes.
Next, you might have accidentally limited the frame rate and forgot about it.
For example, I limit the frame rate to 60fps in a number of games I play.
Another potential cause of low GPU usage is if the game suffers fromshader compilationor traversal stutters.
This leads to noticeable stuttering for a few seconds, during which the GPU usage percentage drops.
It gets back to the high nineties shortly after.
Aside from the GPU usage percentage, I also monitor the GPU temperature and power used.
The case looks great, which is the main reason I purchased it.
This is why I like to have my GPU temperature always shown on the in-game performance overlay.
GPU Memory Used
GPU memory is yet another in-game stat I always have on.
As you might see below,Jedi Survivorcan punish your CPU.
This led to performance drops when swinging around the city.
This is a clear sign that my CPU is the main bottleneck.
Per-core CPU usage can also help you spot CPU-limited games that dont use all your CPU cores.
For example,Gotham Knightsis a poorly optimized game that uses just a few CPU cores.
This means your CPU is the main bottleneck, even if the overall CPU usage is relatively low.
The video analysis below, courtesy of Digital Foundry, does a great job of showing theGotham Knights’CPU issues.
Since I have 32GB of RAM, this isnt an important stat for me personally.
Real-Time and Average Frame Rate
Regarding frame rates, I only monitor current and average frame rates.
Frame Time Graph
Lastly, weve got the frame time graph.
The line has some inconsistencies, but those are because of the variable frame rate.
What you dont want to see is the example below.
Those massive spikes on the frame time graph represent traversal stuttering that plaguesJedi Survivor.
