Steam overlay just got a major upgrade — here’s what’s new

Valve has quietly rolled out a big update to Steam’s in-game performance monitor, now available through the Steam Beta Client. The once-minimal overlay that only showed frame rate has been revamped with new detail levels, customization options, and hardware insights.

Steam performance monitor gets layered detail options

Players can now choose between multiple views in the updated monitor. The simplest still shows a single FPS number. But users can scale up to versions that display frame graphs, CPU/GPU utilization, and even RAM usage. The most detailed view covers just about everything, including generated frames and real-time performance graphs.

It’s not just the data that’s new. You can now tweak where the monitor sits on screen, change contrast and saturation, and adjust background opacity — all directly from Steam’s overlay settings.

Designed to help spot performance issues

Valve says the new monitor aims to help players “understand your frame rate” better, including both base and frame-generated rates. It can also reveal if your CPU or GPU is the bottleneck, or if you’re low on system or video memory.

For now, the full feature set is limited to Windows. While some reports suggest that it won’t appear on other platforms just yet, Valve says more support is coming. If you want to try the new tools early, you’ll need to opt in to the Steam Beta Client via Settings > Interface. Then head to Settings > In Game to pick your preferred performance monitor level.

Valve has also published a detailed FAQ explaining each setting and how to troubleshoot issues like micro stutter or memory limits using the new overlay. Not to forget, the recent update follows the announcement of a native app for Apple Silicon Macs and accessibility upgrades.