What tuning and monitoring software is recommended by XMG?

Keep it simple!

We would not recommend overloading the system with third-party tuning and system software from the start. For example, Windows already comes with very effective anti-virus protection - installing additional security software is usually unnecessary and can sometimes be detrimental to system stability.

The best virus protection is between the ears... ;-)

Nevertheless, there are a number of additional programs that you can definitely try.

The all-rounder: Windows Task Manager

The task manager integrated in Windows has learned a lot since its early days. Here are a few practical tips:

Ctrl+Shift+Esc opens the Task Manager via hotkey with one hand.
In the "Performance" tab, both iGPU and dGPU are displayed. Thus you easily check if a performance-hungry program or game is running on the correct GPU.
Right-click on CPU usage graph: show by logical cores (see screenshot) to see if a task is saturating only a single core.
In the "Detail" tab sort by "CPU" to see which program is using the CPU the most at the moment.
With a right-click on the header of the Detail list you can add further columns. The most useful one is "GPU engine" as it allows you to check in detail which app utilizes which GPU (see screenshot).
In the "Startup" tab sort by "Status"and deactivate programs that don't have to start automatically.

You see, you can already do quite a lot of analysis without even having a single third-party program installed.

Advanced Monitoring with HWiNFO64

In our opinion, the best program for monitoring energy consumption and system temperatures is HWiNFO64. Our XMG Control Center can also display CPU and GPU temperatures, but for a true system analysis you can't get around HWiNFO64.

By double-clicking on any sensor value, graphs can be displayed that very nicely show how the respective value develops over. This way you can see immediately with HWiNFO64:

How many watts is my CPU currently consuming? (CPU Package Power)
Is my NVIDIA graphics card sleeping properly? (GPU Power)
How much battery power is currently being consumed? (Charge Rate; shows minus values when consuming battery power).

The graphical diagrams have an upper and lower limit predefined by HWiNFO64. CPU Package Power for example has an upper limit of 300 watts by default - this is a bit too high for a laptop. You can modify this value to e.g. 80 or 120 watts. Just replace 300 with the desired number in the small text field in the upper right corner - the change will be applied immediately.

Screenshot of HWiNFO64 with 3 sensor diagrams

In this screenshot you see CPU+GPU power and GPU temperature. As you can see on the GPU Power chart, we ran a little GPU benchmark before the screenshot was taken. For CPU Package Power, 80 watts was set as the diagram\u2019s upper limit, for GPU Power it's 165 watts.

Alternatively, you can simply click on \u201cAuto Fit\u201d in each diagram \u2013 then the limits automatically adjust to the smallest and largest measured value. This function can also be deactivated by clicking on "Auto Fit" again.

Sensor logging and system report with HWiNFO64

For a deeper analysis you can create a complete sensor log with HWiNFO64:

To do so, click on the green [+] symbol in the bottom right corner of the sensor view.
Define the folder and filename of your new log file.
As soon as you click on "Save" HWiNFO64 will start logging.
The green [+] symbol has now changed to a red "X" you can stop logging with this symbol.

During logging all sensor values are written to a CSV file every 2 seconds. This CSV file can later be analysed with the free tool GenericLogViewer or further dissected with a spreadsheet program.

See full FAQ article: Creating a HWiNFO64 sensor log (CSV file) to provide hard data for tech support

Creating a System Report with HWiNFO64

A system report lists all installed hardware components and all driver and firmware versions. This can be helpful later on when troubleshooting.

Restart HWiNFO64, uncheck "Sensors-only"and click "Run"
In the big window you will find a big disk icon in the upper left corner, labeled "Save Report".
Now click on "Browse" and define folder and filename for your report file.
Click on Next and leave all other options as they are.
Afterwards a HTML file will be created, which we can comfortably read in our browser.

The system report does not contain any personal data - even the name of the user account is not included.

However, it does contain serial numbers of components from which we can derive the customer number and production date through our inventory management system. Such details can help our support team in troubleshooting as well.

Beware: Some other programs keep the NVIDIA GPU awake

Another reason which HWiNFO64 holds in its favour: it operates very light on system resources, and it does not proactively wake up the NVIDIA graphics card during monitoring. It will only monitor the NVIDIA GPU if another program actually uses it. Thus, HWiNFO64 does not interfere with the system behaviour during monitoring.

In contrast, there are other programs that constantly keep the graphics card awake and which should therefore not be run permanently on laptops with hybrid graphics (especially not in battery mode). These include:

AIDA64 (with open sensor window)
ASUS GPU Tweak II
CPUID HWMonitor
MSI Afterburner
NVIDIA GeForce Experience
NVIDIA Inspector
NZXT CAM
Open Hardware Monitor
TechPowerUp GPU-Z

Note: this list is based on a survey done in early 2020. If any of the programs have rectified their behaviour in the meantime, please let us know via one of our usual contact channels.

Any of these programs might be fine and well on their own, but \u2013 in our opinion \u2013 they might be rather unsuitable for permanent system monitoring on laptops with hybrid graphics. This also makes them unsuitable for a quick analysis of idle power consumption or and battery life, because by activating the NVIDIA GPU, they inadvertently intervene with the object of their observation.

Other tuning tips

There are many programs that claim to slim down the system. Popular examples are ShutUp10 and Win10Debloater. These are probably not bad, but there is always the risk of unexpected side effects, if e.g. system components are deactivated or uninstalled, which are needed later (possibly after a Windows update) for some function. When using such programs, you should at least be sure that you can undo changes if necessary or that you are willing and able to perform a clean Windows reinstallation in future instances of troubleshooting.