Steam's performance tracking tool is becoming more like the Steam Deck's — you can try it out right now

If you've ever touched a Steam Deck (or any other handheld now running SteamOS) then you'll be familiar with the built-in performance tracking overlay.

It has several different stages of what it can show on screen for you, but one thing has always been clear is that it's leagues ahead of what Valve has in the desktop Steam client.

That's about to change though. Steam on the desktop is about to get its own juiced up performance tracking tools, and you can try it out right now.

The caveat there is that you'll need to be running the beta client, in which it's included with the latest update:

"The In-Game FPS counter is now expanded to become the In-Game Overlay Performance monitor. It can display various more detailed information about frame rates, CPU performance, GPU performance, and more. Some data is only available on Windows at the time of this writing, and some information is only available on certain hardware. You will see an FPS counter like you always have at the lowest level of detail, but can adjust detail and appearance in Settings -> In Game."

If you're not on the beta client already and want to give it a go, you can switch to it from your Steam settings, under the Interface tab and then select the Steam Beta Client from the dropdown.

The new performance tool has three additional settings over the standard FPS counter, and as before, you still have the freedom over which corner of the screen you want it to be displayed.

I've had a very brief look at it and it's decent. It's still a work in progress, clearly, and above all else, Valve needs to add some scaling options to it. On a high-res display, it's going to look a little small. I'm on a 1440p monitor, and it's a little hard to quickly parse.

I'd also like to see the white text a little bolder so it's easier to read, and the spacing definitely needs a little work.

I'd also like to see an option to have it as a vertical list as well as running along the top edge of the screen. You can at least make its background as opaque or transparent as you wish, though.

But it's a good start. If you play the vast majority of your games through Steam, it'll reduce the need to rely on a third-party app to get this information. It's currently only available on Windows, too, though naturally, Valve will eventually extend full support to Linux.