Steam Client Beta update adds FPS counter to overlay

Steam Holiday Encore Sale 2

Time to pack away your FPS counter add-ons because Steam now has one built in, provided you've opted in to the Steam Client Beta. The counter is now available in the client beta overlay as part of a January 2 update, meaning you're able to monitor framerate stats without having to fuss around with third party software.

There are other less exciting fixes and tweaks introduced with the new update as well. Peruse them all below:

General

  • Reduced CPU usage when drawing animated images or videos
  • Fixed video playback performance regression on Mac OS X and Linux
  • Added FPS counter to Steam Overlay
  • Fixed reloading settings values in the Steam Overlay

Broadcast

  • Improved capture performance in D3D9 games
  • Improved audio/video synchronization
  • Improved automatically adjusting video encoding bit rate when a change in available upload bandwidth is detected
  • Fixed opening the broadcast watch page from client UI (friends list, invite chat message, etc.) in the Steam Overlay
  • Improved capture performance in OpenGL games when hardware support is enabled on machines with newer Nvidia GPUs
  • Added first time use and other UI to Big Picture mode
  • Fixed first friend invite to a broadcast sometimes getting dropped

While most other major gaming platforms were experiencing downtime due to DDoS attacks, Steam managed to break its peak concurrent user record on January 1 with more than 8.4 million users logged in at once.

Shaun Prescott

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.