When it comes to PC gaming, performance is crucial. Whether you play video games for fun or compete in eSports, keeping your system operating at peak performance might be the difference between success and failure. It’s essential to keep an eye on your PC’s performance while gaming to make sure your gear is operating smoothly and effectively. Fortunately, you can monitor important data like CPU utilization, GPU performance, frame rates, and more using a number of free applications. To help you get the most out of your gaming time, we’ll look at the top free tools for tracking PC performance in this blog article.
1. MSI Afterburner
Perhaps the most well-known and often used program for tracking PC gaming performance is MSI Afterburner. It offers thorough information about the performance of your GPU, including temperature, voltage, fan speed, core clock speed, and memory clock speed. The unique feature of MSI Afterburner is its ability to overclock your GPU, enabling you to get better performance than what the factory settings of your graphics card allow.
In addition to GPU monitoring, MSI Afterburner provides real-time monitoring of CPU, RAM, and frame rate. Monitoring the performance of your system is made simple by the on-screen display (OSD) function, which allows you to examine all these information while gaming without having to switch windows. MSI Afterburner is a flexible tool for every gamer, since it works with the majority of graphics cards, not only MSI devices.
2. Razer Cortex
Razer Cortex is a tool for optimizing PC performance for games that does more than just track it. This application aims to improve game performance by more effectively allocating system resources, which will improve your gaming experience. With Razer Cortex, you may enjoy a function called Game Booster, which instantly ends unneeded background activities to free up CPU and RAM for your game.
A performance monitoring tool that measures your FPS (frames per second) in real-time is also included with the Razer Cortex. It offers a straightforward, easy-to-use interface that shows FPS statistics so you can determine how smoothly your game is running. Additionally, the program offers suggestions for system optimization, guaranteeing that your computer is constantly prepared for gaming.
3. HWMonitor
HWMonitor is a simple, lightweight utility that gives you comprehensive hardware information for your computer. It provides you with real-time information on temperatures, voltages, and fan speeds while keeping an eye on the health of your CPU, GPU, motherboard, and hard drives. Monitoring these measures is crucial for gamers since overheating or voltage dips may cause problems with performance or even damage to hardware.
The straightforward UI of HWMonitor makes it simple to comprehend and monitor the condition of your system. It isn’t as good as some other tools at providing an in-game overlay, but it’s still a great background software to keep an eye on your system’s key data while playing for lengthy periods of time. Additionally, the program is updated often to ensure that it works with new CPUs and GPUs and supports the newest hardware.
4. Fraps
For years, gamers have preferred Fraps because of its real-time frame rate measurement capabilities. Even if Fraps is a little outdated in comparison to other more recent tools, it nevertheless offers consistent benchmarking, video recording, and FPS monitoring. Fraps’ benchmarking tool is very helpful if you want to compare performance across games or settings.
The frame-per-second (FPS) counter of the program appears in the bottom left corner of your screen so you can monitor how smoothly your game is running without any annoying overlays. Fraps is a good option for gamers looking for a simple performance monitoring tool because of its simplicity and ease of use, even if it doesn’t have as many capabilities as Razer Cortex or MSI Afterburner.
5. Open Hardware Monitor
An open-source program called Open Hardware Monitor provides a thorough overview of the performance indicators of your computer. It provides a comprehensive report on the health of your system by monitoring temperature sensors, fan speeds, voltages, load, and the clock speeds of your CPU and GPU. Because of the app’s great degree of customization, you may choose the metrics you wish it to track and show.
Support for a large variety of hardware is one of Open Hardware Monitor’s best qualities. It works with the majority of AMD and Intel CPUs and Nvidia and AMD graphics cards. Additionally, the app’s user-friendly layout makes it accessible to people without much technical background.
6. NZXT CAM
Another effective tool for keeping an eye on the performance of your PC is NZXT CAM. The program was first created to operate NZXT hardware, but it has now developed into a comprehensive system monitoring tool. In addition to real-time FPS tracking, it offers comprehensive details regarding clock speeds, fan speeds, and CPU and GPU temperatures.
NZXT CAM is unique because of its slick, contemporary interface, which is both aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly. You may access your settings from any PC by using the app’s cloud storage feature for your profiles. You can also construct custom overlays using NZXT CAM, which gives you the ability to observe important performance information while playing games.
To guarantee a seamless and pleasurable gaming experience, you must keep an eye on your PC’s gaming performance. The programs mentioned above provide a variety of capabilities to meet your objectives, whether you’re attempting to prevent hardware overheating, enhance system performance, or just monitor your frame rates. The greatest thing is that you may improve your gaming setup without going over budget since all of these programs are free.
Open Hardware Monitor, NZXT CAM, HWMonitor, Fraps, Razer Cortex, MSI Afterburner, and HWMonitor all have special advantages that address certain aspects of performance monitoring. You can maintain your PC at its best and get the advantage you need to win your favorite games by selecting the appropriate set of tools.
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