Rivatuner Overlays Best !!hot!! Review

RivaTuner Overlays Best: The Ultimate Guide to Monitoring Perfection in 2025

If you are serious about PC gaming—whether you are chasing every last frame per second in Cyberpunk 2077 or trying to diagnose stuttering in Call of Duty—you have almost certainly heard of RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) . For nearly two decades, RTSS has been the gold standard for on-screen display (OSD) overlays. But not all overlays are created equal.

The question every enthusiast asks is: What are the RivaTuner overlays best practices, configurations, and setups? How do you transform a simple FPS counter into a full-blown diagnostic dashboard without killing your performance?

In this guide, we will break down the absolute best RivaTuner overlay setups, from minimal esports profiles to hardcore overclocking benchmarks. We will also pit RTSS against its rivals (like MSI Afterburner, NVIDIA Reflex, and CapFrameX) and show you why RivaTuner remains the undisputed king. rivatuner overlays best

Step 2: Link HWiNFO64 (The Pro Move)

This is the secret sauce. Generic overlays only show GPU stats.

Open HWiNFO64 in "Sensors only" mode.
Click "Configure" (gear icon) → "OSD (RTSS)" tab.
Check "Show in OSD" for up to 50 metrics (CPU package power, SSD temp, GPU hotspot).
Click "RTSS" tab within HWiNFO and set "Shared Memory Support" to Enabled.

Now, RTSS will treat HWiNFO sensors as native data sources. RivaTuner Overlays Best: The Ultimate Guide to Monitoring

How to achieve that:

In Afterburner: enable GPU temp, GPU usage, GPU clock, CPU temp, CPU usage, RAM usage, FPS, frametime.
Use custom layout names (e.g., rename “GPU temperature” to “GPU:”).
In RTSS, set zoom to 120%, choose a neon green/blue palette.

Pro Customizations: Taking Your Overlay from Good to "Best"

Most users stop at checking boxes in Afterburner. To claim you have the best RivaTuner overlay, you need to use advanced formatting.

Core Components of the Best RivaTuner Overlays

To build the best overlay, you must understand the two programs working in tandem: Open HWiNFO64 in "Sensors only" mode

MSI Afterburner (The Data Source): This application reads your sensors (GPU temp, CPU usage, clock speeds, RAM usage, fan RPM). You select which metrics appear.
RTSS (The Renderer): This takes the text data from Afterburner and draws it onto your game screen. It controls fonts, colors, background opacity, and positioning.

A "best" overlay balances three things: Relevance, Readability, and Aesthetics.

The Top 3 "Best" RivaTuner Overlay Configurations

Depending on your gaming preference, the "best" layout changes drastically. Below are three community-approved profiles you can replicate.