Intel PresentMon vs Magpie

Intel PresentMon is a free Windows application for monitoring and measuring gaming performance. It combines a customizable overlay, GPU telemetry, and capture functions for viewing data during or after a gaming session. The overlay can show real-time multi-line charts and histograms, plus raw numbers, percentiles, and rolling-window averages. Its GPU Busy metric presents CPU and GPU balance and resource use to help locate performance bottlenecks. PresentMon works with Intel Arc graphics cards and Intel Core processors, as well as hardware from other vendors. It supports applications using DirectX 12, DirectX 11, DirectX 9, OpenGL, and Vulkan on Windows 10 and Windows 11. Command-line functions support batch testing and automation. Intel describes it as open source, with third-party integration through the PresentMon SDK and API. Starting a trace requires Windows Performance Log Users membership or administrator privileges. GPU execution metrics may be less accurate with Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling enabled.

Magpie is a free Windows tool for scaling windowed or fullscreen content with built-in algorithms and filters. These include Anime4K, FSR, CRT shaders, and other effects. Effects can be combined, most have adjustable parameters, and users familiar with HLSL can add effects. The WinUI-based interface supports light and dark themes, and the tool supports multiple monitors. Release notes describe a screenshot hotkey that defaults to Alt+Shift+S, with customizable filenames, and SGSR, a lightweight upscaling algorithm designed for 3D content. The FAQ says frame generation is not planned because Magpie focuses on visual quality and post-processing, which can add latency when used for frame generation. Magpie requires Windows 10 version 1903 or later, or Windows 11, and DirectX feature level 11. It is licensed under GPLv3, and downloads are linked from GitHub Releases. The repository says it has no SECURITY.md file and no published security advisories. Magpie is associated with a maker founded in 2021.