Maximizing your PC gaming performance requires accurate data. Rivatuner Statistics Server (RTSS) remains the gold standard for tracking hardware metrics in real time. When paired with HWiNFO or MSI Afterburner, it delivers the most customizable on-screen display (OSD) available.
In the RTSS main window, you can change the overlay’s appearance globally or per‑game:
For PC enthusiasts, the difference between a smooth gaming session and a stutter-filled mess often comes down to data. On‑screen display overlays give you instant insight into your system’s behavior, helping you spot thermal throttling, CPU/GPU bottlenecks, and frame‑time spikes before they ruin your experience. Among all the tools available, remains the gold standard. Lightweight, incredibly flexible, and highly compatible, RTSS powers the most widely used overlays in the PC gaming world.
For competitive games with strict anti-cheat software (like Destiny 2 or Counter-Strike 2), turn on Stealth mode in the RTSS settings to help the overlay hook into the graphics pipeline safely. rivatuner overlays best
This tool allows you to import custom vector shapes, build complex tables, draw custom graphs, and even design completely custom bars that fill up based on hardware temperatures or utilization.
It is designed to work in real-time without consuming significant CPU/GPU resources.
How you arrange your data matters just as much as what you track. Here are three optimized presets you can build manually in the RTSS layout editor. Preset 1: The "Minimalist Competitor" (Best for Esports) Maximizing your PC gaming performance requires accurate data
: A comprehensive 1080p-optimized layout designed for deep telemetry, including detailed frametime graphs and hardware sensors.
FPS, 1% Lows, GPU Temp/Clock/Usage, CPU Temp/Clock/Usage, RAM Usage, VRAM Usage.
Modern games eat up video memory quickly. Tracking VRAM helps you adjust texture settings before running out of memory, which causes severe stuttering. In the RTSS main window, you can change
The community around RTSS overlays is equally vibrant. New preset collections appear on GitHub monthly, and users continue to push the boundaries of what is possible within the Overlay Editor. Experimental features like animated rainbow gradients and multi-color transitions have already been achieved by creative users, hinting at even more sophisticated overlay designs in the future.
If you have imported a custom overlay and some sensors do not display data, close and reopen RTSS completely. If the problem persists, open the Overlay Editor, go to Plugins → OverlayEditor → Data Sources → Edit, and verify that the required data providers — such as HWiNFO or MSI Afterburner — are enabled. If an API is missing, you can manually add the missing sensor sources using the editor’s Add function.
Your GPU is usually the primary bottleneck in modern gaming. Monitor these metrics to see if you are maximizing your graphics card's potential.