Windows 10 Adds GPU Utilization Panel to Task Manager

One of the great or not so great things about Windows 10 is the continuous upgrades it gets. Since launch, we have seen several major updates targeting different parts of the OS. One area of particular focus is gaming, with features like Game Mode and UWP games. Microsoft is keen to extend an olive branch to the lucrative gamer market. One upcoming feature, to the Windows 10 Task Manager, GPU utilisation, is sure to have gamers excited.

As with all hardware, monitoring the utilisation is important for selecting game settings, troubleshooting and determining which part to upgrade next. For gaming, there is nothing like the GPU in terms of importance. Despite this, Windows has never had a monitor for this part. This has proved gamers to turn to great third party programs like GPU-Z. However, there is nothing quite like going Ctrl-Alt-Del to check your usage.

Separate Monitors for Each GPU Unit

In the latest preview update, Microsoft is adding the base GPU monitor to Task Manager. There will be different trackers and graphs for 3D usage as well as video encode/decode usage. These parts of the GPU are often separate and can be utilised to different degrees at the same time. Microsoft is also adding in a GPU VRAM usage tracker as well. In some ways, this utilisation tracker is better than some of the third party tools out there.

For now, this feature is still under construction so expect plenty of bugs. It will still be a couple of months for the feature to make its way into the mainstream stable releases. In the meantime, it may pick up more features as well. Next up, I hope that GPU monitoring will make its way into the Resource Monitor as well.