Valve launched a new GPU monitoring feature in the latest Steam beta version on August 14, which Valve said is more accurate than Windows Task Manager.
According to reports, this feature integrates all relevant processes during game running, avoids sampling errors, and is closer to the data of third-party tools such as MSI Afterburner.
Valve explains that Task Manager relies on graphics drivers to escalate according to the WDDM specification when stating GPU usage and measures it on a process-by-process basis. As a result, some of the GPU load may not be accounted for when the game calls additional processes outside of the main program, resulting in low utilization displays. The Steam Overlay provides a more complete GPU usage by aggregating data from all related processes.
The overall effect should be almost the same in most games, but in some cases, we underestimated overall GPU utilization in the past, and now the value is higher and closer to third-party tools like MSI Afterburner.
IT House noted that Valve’s statement has been changed to “This update has been re-released to roll back a GPU utilization monitoring change that still requires more testing”, indicating that the feature is still in the verification phase.
