It was the NVIDIA app that updated itself, introduced or randomly enabled the performance overlay option in the "Alt+Z" menu, under "Statistics"and it was smooth sailing from there, got it disabled.
:)

🌐
FPS Monitor
fpsmon.com › en
FPS Monitor - Ingame overlay tool which gives valuable system information and reports when hardware works close to critical state
FPS Monitor - ingame overlay tool, which gives valuable system information in a real time, tests performance and does alerts when hardware works close to critical state.
🌐
How-To Geek
howtogeek.com › home › windows › how to show windows 10's hidden floating performance panels
How to Show Windows 10's Hidden Floating Performance Panels
December 7, 2022 - This floating window is normally found in the Game Bar overlay itself. However, you can "pin" it to your desktop and make it appear over all other windows---desktop applications and PC games alike.
Discussions

I got System Monitoring Overlay somehow, but I cannot turn it off
Method 2. If you are using an AMD ... overlay feature of Radeon Software. ... Find and open AMD Radeon Software through the taskbar notification area or the start menu. Click the settings icon (gear icon) in the upper right corner. Go to the "Performance" menu, find the "Performance Monitoring" option and turn it off. Method 3. The Game Bar that comes with Windows 10 and Windows ... More on learn.microsoft.com
🌐 learn.microsoft.com
1
12
December 8, 2024
What software is used to monitor pc performance whilst gaming.
Jayztwocents uses MSI Afterburner as do I. It is very customizable. I like to show the CPU load per thread. That way I can see how a particular game uses my hardware. I can also add external sources such as values from HWinfo64 to display things that MSI Afterburner doesn’t pick up. I am pretty sure Jay did a video on this and how to configure it. More on reddit.com
🌐 r/pcmasterrace
5
1
December 5, 2021
What Onscreen Performance Monitoring Overlays is Everyone Using?
Msi afterburner with RivaTuner. Nvidia's was good enough for me for the longest time for basic info, but once they moved to the Nvidia App, its been broken more times than I can count so I don't even use the NV App anymore. More on reddit.com
🌐 r/overclocking
19
3
June 1, 2025
Are there any good software's for monitoring resource usage?
Getting insane stuttering in GTAV and i dont feel like the windows task manager is telling me the truth because nothing is getting overloaded. Any tips appreciated, thanks guys. More on forums.tomshardware.com
🌐 forums.tomshardware.com
8
0
August 21, 2018
🌐
Steam
store.steampowered.com › app › 966610 › FPS_Monitor__hardware_ingame__desktop_overlays
Save 40% on FPS Monitor – hardware in-game & desktop overlays on Steam
FPS Monitor – hardware in-game & desktop overlays
FPS Monitor tracks your PC's hardware state and displays this information as an overlay in-game or over desktop. Does not require configuration, it works immediately after installation.
(7 / 10)
Price   $7.79
Top answer
1 of 1
6

Hello, Amir Akramov

Welcome to the Microsoft Community.

Thank you very much for your feedback. I have carefully read the information and problem description you provided. You mentioned that you accidentally turned on the built-in hardware monitoring display.

I understand your current needs, please don't worry, I have given three mainstream methods to turn off the hardware monitoring display below, which may help you.

Method 1. If you are using an NVIDIA graphics card, you may have enabled the "in-game overlay" of GeForce Experience

Open GeForce Experience:

Find and open GeForce Experience in the taskbar notification area or through the start menu.

Click the "Settings" gear icon in the upper right corner.

Go to the "General" option and find "In-game Overlay" and turn it off.

Method 2. If you are using an AMD graphics card, you may have triggered the performance overlay feature of Radeon Software.

Open AMD Radeon Software:

Find and open AMD Radeon Software through the taskbar notification area or the start menu.

Click the settings icon (gear icon) in the upper right corner.

Go to the "Performance" menu, find the "Performance Monitoring" option and turn it off.

Method 3. The Game Bar that comes with Windows 10 and Windows 11 also provides a similar monitoring overlay function, which can sometimes be accidentally triggered by shortcut keys.

Open Game Bar:

Press the Win + G shortcut key to open the Xbox Game Bar.

Close each widget:

In the Game Bar interface, find the widgets for FPS counter, GPU, and CPU usage, and click the close button in the upper right corner of each widget.

Click Settings (gear icon) in the Game Bar interface to make sure that the performance monitoring content displayed by default is not enabled.

You may have other third-party monitoring software installed, which will also provide similar overlay functions. Depending on the software you have installed, please open these software, find the corresponding settings, and close them.

Best regards

Brian - Microsoft Community Support Specialist

🌐
How-To Geek
howtogeek.com › home › video games › 3 in-game performance monitoring tools i recommend to every pc gamer
3 In-Game Performance Monitoring Tools I Recommend to Every PC Gamer
June 12, 2024 - After you enable the performance stats you want to see on the OSD, click the “Apply” button, and try out the OSD by entering the game and pressing the button you’ve mapped to open the RTSS performance overlay.
🌐
Microsoft Store
apps.microsoft.com › detail › 9p9j9tfq00ht
Smart System Monitor - Free download and install on Windows | Microsoft Store
May 12, 2026 - Smart System Monitor is the ultimate lightweight performance overlay designed to give you real-time hardware telemetry with live FPS and refresh rate, and CPU/GPU temps without slowing down your PC.
Find elsewhere
🌐
Time Doctor
timedoctor.com › home › insights and guides › 10 excellent pc monitoring software (key features, pricing)
10 excellent PC monitoring software (key features, pricing)
October 23, 2024 - This PC tracking software has a user-friendly user interface. The app displays all the core component data in a single window, which is easy to understand even for non-technical users. This computer monitoring tool is available for both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows versions and can be installed on Windows 10, XP, Vista, 7, and 8.
🌐
Windows Report
windowsreport.com › software › developer tools › debugging & diagnostics › 13 best system resource monitoring tools for windows pcs
13 Best System Resource Monitoring Tools for Windows PCs
November 28, 2025 - OP Manager is a great software that allows you to: Monitor important metrics: speed, packet loss, latency ... Get now the most powerful network supervising solution. Try OP Manager now!
🌐
AddictiveTips
addictivetips.com › home › best fps counter software for windows
Best FPS Counter Software for Windows to Monitor Performance
February 9, 2026 - Ensure NVIDIA overlay is turned on from the Features tab. Select Statistics at the bottom left of the program. Change the Statistics view to FPS. Ensure Show statistics in heads up display is toggled on at the top (press Alt + R to turn it on). Run a game. The FPS counter appears automatically at the top. Similar to the Nvidia App, AMD Radeon Software offers an FPS monitoring overlay for AMD graphics cards.
🌐
Microsoft Store
apps.microsoft.com › detail › 9nln9gdh60zs
CPU Monitor for Game Bar - Free download and install on Windows | Microsoft Store
CPU Monitor for Game Bar provides instant access to your CPU’s temperature and performance metrics directly within the Xbox Game Bar overlay. Designed specifically for gamers, this tool helps you identify and troubleshoot performance ...
Rating: 3 ​ - ​ 14 votes
🌐
Reddit
reddit.com › r/overclocking › what onscreen performance monitoring overlays is everyone using?
r/overclocking on Reddit: What Onscreen Performance Monitoring Overlays is Everyone Using?
June 1, 2025 -

Just curious what everyone is using and recommends for monitoring cpu and gpu performance/temps via an on-screen overlay. I'm trying to find an overlay solution that doesn't cause a massive hit in performance, or cause games to crash, or just plain does not work consistently.

-I really like the advanced Nvidia overlay, but it's behavior can be questionable at times. I'm not sure if it degrades performance or even contributes to crashes in some games.

-Intel PresentMon is really cool, and its customization options are good, but it causes performance degradation due to how aggressive it polls at stock. I haven't tried tweaking how often it polls system information yet to see if there's a way to get rid of the performance hit. It is also hit and miss in terms of being able to enable and disable it.

-HWINFO64 is god tier for monitoring, but not so much as an overlay in my experience. I've always had trouble getting it to even display info onscreen when configured with a hotkey. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

-RivaTuner with MSI Afterburner is probably the GOAT, but I have little experience configuring it and it seems old as hell. Is this still the best route to go?

Any recommendations?

🌐
Open Hardware Monitor
openhardwaremonitor.org
Open Hardware Monitor - Core temp, fan speed and voltages in a free software gadget
The free Open Hardware Monitor software runs on 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10 and any x86 based Linux operating systems without installation. ... Added AMD family 19h (Zen 3) CPU support. ... Added a check to the application startup to verify that the .NET ...
🌐
FBX
fbx.gg › blog › best-performance-monitoring-apps
Best Performance Monitoring Apps For Gamers - FBX Blog
June 15, 2021 - In particular, there is no support for UWP games from the Windows store. If you use Steam and all else fails, you don’t even need to worry about having to download and install any specialised monitoring software as Steam actually includes its own FPS counter which can be found in its in-game overlay options.
🌐
Cantech
cantech.in › home › 6 best gpu monitoring software for windows
6 Best GPU Monitoring Software for Windows - Cantech
May 26, 2026 - Some of the best free GPU monitoring tools include MSI Afterburner, HWiNFO, and GPU-Z. MSI Afterburner is great for gamers due to its overlay features, HWiNFO is ideal for detailed system analysis, and GPU-Z is perfect for users who want a simple, ...
🌐
Tom's Hardware Forum
forums.tomshardware.com › home › software › pc gaming
Are there any good software's for monitoring resource usage? | Tom's Hardware Forum
August 21, 2018 - Try CPU % GPU % Temps for both ... telling me the truth because nothing is getting overloaded. Any tips appreciated, thanks guys. you can get to Resource Monitor from Task Manager, bottom of Performance tab....
🌐
Appuals
appuals.com › home › gaming › pc games
The 5 Best Software You can Use to Monitor a Game’s FPS in Windows
March 18, 2019 - To activate the FPS counter in MSI Afterburner, go to settings and click on the monitoring tab. Click on Frame Rate, then select it to show in the overlay screen display. The frame rate will be displayed in the top left corner of your screen. ... If you are using a Ge-Force graphics card, then GeForce Experience is software that you will find extremely useful, not just for showing FPS.
🌐
myByways
mybyways.com › blog › cpu-and-gpu-monitoring-overlay-for-gaming
CPU and GPU Monitoring Overlay for Gaming | myByways
December 2, 2020 - Instead we want RTSS to get data from HWiNFO, so head back to RTSS, click Setup > Plugins, check the OverlayEditor.dll and hit Setup.
🌐
The Windows Club
thewindowsclub.com › the windows club › downloads › free game monitoring software for windows pc
Free Game Monitoring Software for Windows PC
December 14, 2022 - Also, FPS Monitor has a hardware alerts option that lets you know when your hardware is running in a critical or dangerous state. The tool has a very customizable interface, and it works a try if you are looking for free game monitoring software ...