In the realm of science, SI prefixes are important, unless you’re in computing where ‘mega’ versus ‘mebi’ can create confusion. Recently, a programmer at Valve encountered issues with the CPU clock readings shown in the Steam performance overlay. Fortunately, a small patch has corrected this problem.

Last week, Valve introduced a new performance overlay feature in the Steam beta that displays framerate, clock speeds, processor usage, and memory statistics. However, the patch notes indicated a fix regarding “Mhz/Ghz conversion for CPU speed values in Performance Monitor” to ensure the values are accurate.

Previously, many users experienced their CPU speeds displaying around 2.4% lower than actual, due to using a computing prefix instead of the correct SI value. To clarify, if your CPU runs at 3,500 MHz and you want to convert that to GHz, the correct display should be 3.5 GHz. Using ‘gibi’ instead of ‘giga’ caused these discrepancies.

While this error is minor, it’s commendable that Valve rectified it promptly. Updating performance overlays should be a priority across the board, as other companies have been slower in similar matters.

I have a preference for MSI Afterburner and RivaTuner Statistics Server for customizable performance overlays, yet it’s good to have options available. It’ll be interesting to see how Valve continues to develop this feature.