MangoHud
On-screen overlay for games. Shows frame rate, frame times, temperatures and how hard the CPU and GPU are working.
Our verdict
MangoHud is the in-game overlay Linux gamers use. Once it is running you get frame rate, frame times, CPU and GPU load, temperatures and memory use drawn over the top of the game, and you decide which of those lines appear.
Getting it switched on is the awkward part. For a Steam game you add a short setting to the game's launch options, which means typing something into a box. Some distributions built for gaming turn it on for you. Changing what the overlay shows means editing a text settings file, or installing a small configuration app such as GOverlay to do it with buttons.
What it will not do is change anything. MangoHud is a monitoring tool only, so clock speeds, voltages and fan curves are all out of its reach. If the sliders were the part of MSI Afterburner you used, this is not that.
What's good
- Shows frame rate, frame times, load, temperatures and memory use over the top of the game
- Works in Steam games and in most other games without changing the game itself
- You choose exactly which readings appear, so it can be one small line or a full panel
- Free and included in the app stores of the main gaming distributions
What to know first
- It only measures. It cannot overclock, undervolt or set a fan curve
- Turning it on for a game usually means pasting a setting into that game's properties, which is fiddly
- Changing what it displays means editing a settings file unless you also install a separate configuration app
- It is not on Flathub as an app of its own, so it arrives as an add-on rather than something you click install on
The details
- Cost
- Free
- Open source
- Yes (MIT)
- How you install it
- Built-in app store, .deb installer, .rpm installer, App store (Flatpak)
Windows apps it can replace
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