Xbox Game Bar is a useful built-in Windows app for gamers. It allows PC gamers to quickly access the Friend list, Audio section, and Performance section, and a recent update introduced what can be nicknamed the Task Manager for Xbox Game Bar.
When playing games on PC, if you suddenly notice that the resources are slow or the CPU usage is higher, and it’s not the game, then both the Performance monitor and the Resources section (Task Manager) can help.
Use Xbox Game Bar to check system performance while gaming
While Windows offers Task Manager checks, which program uses more resources, opening it while playing a game will spoil the game experience. That’s where Xbox Game Bar Performance and Resources Monitor comes into play.
Launching the Xbox Game Bar will reveal a set of widgets, including these two. While the Performance monitor offers an umbrella view of CPU, RAM, GPU, and vRAM usage, the Resources monitor offers a list of applications with details on CPU, GPU, RAM, and Disk usage.
These widgets stay afloat while gamers continue playing the game, allowing them to monitor resource consumption without leaving the game. They can also be pinned. If any applications not related to the game are taking resources, you can click on the X next to the process to terminate it. It can be a backup process that started while you were playing a game or any background process.
You can further customize the widgets by clicking on the settings icon next to the top right. The options include how often you want to update (low, normal, medium) or pause it. Next, you have transparency options, color choice, percentage or values, and include services in the list.
That said, I will also discuss the Audio section, which can help you figure out the sound source if it happens suddenly. Microsoft does not have a Gaming mode that can suppress such things, so these widgets come in handy. You may have a browser in the background that starts playing a video, but using the audio widget will give you instant control.
Microsoft’s approach to tracking resources is well done. Whenever you want to see the widgets, press WIN+G, and they will instantly pop up. Pressing the same again will hide them.
