“Manage GPU Performance Counters” is a setting in the NVIDIA Control Panel that decides who on your PC may read low-level hardware performance data from the GPU. By default, only administrators can, and regular users and ordinary programs cannot. You only need to change it if a profiling or developer tool asks you to.
- What GPU Performance Counters Are
- Who Actually Needs It
- The Two Options Explained
- Why Access Was Restricted
- How to Allow or Restrict Access
- Troubleshooting the Permission Error
- Security and Performance Notes
- What You Can See With the Counters
- Where the Setting Lives and Why It May Be Missing
- Related guides
- Frequently Asked Questions
Gamers can safely ignore this setting. It does not change frame rate, image quality, or game behavior, and leaving it at the default is the safer choice. This guide explains what the counters are, who needs them, why access was restricted, and how to allow or restrict access when a tool requires it.
What GPU Performance Counters Are
A GPU contains hardware counters that record detailed activity as it works: how busy the shader units are, how much memory traffic occurs, how caches behave, and other internal measurements. These counters are far more detailed than the usage percentage you see in Task Manager. Performance engineers use them to find out why a graphics or compute workload is slow and where its bottleneck is.
Reading the counters requires permission from the driver. The Control Panel setting is the switch for that permission. It appears under the Developer section of the NVIDIA Control Panel menu on systems that have it, with the label Manage GPU Performance Counters.
Who Actually Needs It
Almost nobody outside software development needs to change it. The people who do are usually:
- Game and graphics developers using NVIDIA Nsight Graphics to analyze frames.
- CUDA and compute developers using Nsight Compute or Nsight Systems to profile kernels.
- Engineers using other profilers built on NVIDIA’s performance-measurement interfaces.
- Researchers tuning machine learning code at a low level.
Regular gaming, streaming, video editing, and everyday use do not read these counters. If a program you are not familiar with asks for this permission, treat that as a prompt to be careful rather than a routine step.
The Two Options Explained
| Option | Who can read the counters | When to choose it |
|---|---|---|
| Restrict access to administrators only | Only users with administrator rights | Default; suitable for nearly everyone |
| Allow access to all users | Any user account and any program they run | Only when a profiler needs it and administrator launch is not practical |
The wording in the control panel may differ slightly between driver versions. Check the manufacturer’s current documentation if the labels do not match what you see.
Why Access Was Restricted
Earlier driver versions allowed any user to read the counters. Security researchers showed that the counters could, in principle, leak information about what other programs were doing on the GPU, creating a side-channel risk. In response, NVIDIA published a security notice and changed the driver, beginning with a 2019 release, so that access is limited to administrators by default.
That history explains the setting. It is a balance between convenience for developers and protection for ordinary users. On a single-user home PC the practical risk is small, but on a shared machine, a workstation used by several people, or a computer where you run untrusted software, restricting access is the better choice.
How to Allow or Restrict Access
In the NVIDIA Control Panel
Open the NVIDIA Control Panel by right-clicking the desktop. If the Developer section is not visible, make sure the driver is installed and the control panel is up to date. Open Developer, then Manage GPU Performance Counters. Choose the option you want, then apply. Changing it requires administrator approval, and Windows may show a prompt. After a change, close and restart the profiling tool, and in some cases restart the PC.
Run the tool as administrator instead
If you only need the counters for one session, it may be simpler to leave the setting restricted and run the profiling tool with administrator rights. This keeps the PC protected for everything else. It is a good first option when the tool allows it.
Linux systems
On Linux, the equivalent is a driver module option that controls whether profiling is limited to administrators. NVIDIA’s profiler documentation describes the exact option, and you should follow the current instructions for your distribution and driver version, because the steps involve system configuration and a reboot or module reload.
Troubleshooting the Permission Error
If a profiling tool reports that it cannot access GPU performance counters, it often shows an error code that mentions a permissions problem. A common fix path looks like this:
- Confirm you are on an NVIDIA GPU supported by the tool, and check that the driver version is compatible with the profiler.
- Close the tool and relaunch it as administrator.
- If that does not help, open the control panel setting and allow access for all users.
- Restart the tool, and restart the PC if the error persists.
- When you finish profiling, set the option back to restricted.
Keep drivers and profiling tools updated together, since version mismatches can cause similar errors. Also check that no other program is already holding the counters, because some tools allow only one session at a time.
Security and Performance Notes
Allowing access does not make the GPU faster or slower in games. It only changes who can read data. Because the security concern relates to untrusted software reading data about other activity, the safest habit is to enable it temporarily and switch it back. On a managed or shared computer, consult the administrator before changing it.
If you never use profiling tools, there is nothing to gain from changing the setting, and the default protects you at no cost.
What You Can See With the Counters
To understand why developers want this access, it helps to see what the data answers. A frame analysis tool uses the counters to show how long each draw call takes, which stages of the graphics pipeline are idle or saturated, and how well the caches are working. A compute profiler uses them to show whether a kernel is limited by arithmetic throughput, by memory bandwidth, or by how work is scheduled across the chip.
That information drives practical decisions: whether to change a shader, reorganize memory access, or reduce the amount of data a workload moves. It is also why the counters are not interesting to ordinary users. A normal usage graph tells you whether the GPU is busy, while the counters tell an engineer why.
Where the Setting Lives and Why It May Be Missing
The option is part of the NVIDIA Control Panel’s developer area, and its visibility depends on the driver version and on how the control panel was installed. If you cannot find it, check these points. Make sure the NVIDIA Control Panel is installed and current, since some systems use the newer NVIDIA app for most settings and keep the classic panel for developer options. Confirm that you are signed in with an administrator account. And verify that the GPU is supported, because the feature relates to current driver branches.
If the option is still absent, check the manufacturer’s current documentation for your driver, because menu layouts change between releases. On managed work computers, an administrator may have hidden or locked the setting, in which case the policy should be respected, and any change should be requested through the proper channel.
Whenever you change the setting, write down the original value so you can restore it. Treating it as a temporary switch for a specific task, rather than a permanent configuration, keeps the system in its safer default state.
Related guides
- What Does Manage Gpu Performance Counters Mean On Nvidia Hardware
- Low Profile Nvidia Graphics Cards For Small Form Factor Pcs
- Nvidia App Error Your System Configuration Is Not Supported
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I allow access to GPU performance counters?
Only if a developer or profiling tool needs it. For gaming and daily use, leave it restricted to administrators, which is the default and the safer option.
Does this setting improve FPS?
No. It controls permission to read hardware measurements, not how the GPU renders. Changing it has no effect on frame rate or image quality.
Why does Nsight ask me to change this setting?
Profilers read low-level counters from the GPU, and the driver blocks that for non-administrator accounts by default. Either run the tool as administrator or allow access in the control panel.
Is it a security risk to leave counters open to all users?
It can be on shared or multi-user systems, since researchers showed the data could reveal information about other GPU activity. On a private single-user PC the risk is lower, but restricting access after profiling is still good practice.
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