xtop Mengsheng Wu

Use this command to install xtop:

winget install --id=MengshengWu.xtop -e

xtop is a terminal-based utility designed to provide live monitoring of GPU and NPU telemetry data, including utilization, memory usage, and per-process resource attribution. It offers a text-based user interface (TUI) for real-time visualization across different hardware vendors and operating systems.

Key Features:

Real-time monitoring of GPU and NPU metrics
Cross-platform support (Linux, Windows ARM, with limited support for other platforms)
Per-process resource attribution for detailed usage tracking
One-shot snapshots in text, JSON, or CSV formats
Responsive TUI interface with keyboard shortcuts

Audience & Benefit: Ideal for system administrators, developers, and power users who need detailed insights into GPU/NPU performance without requiring NVIDIA driver installations. xtop provides actionable data to optimize resource utilization and troubleshoot hardware-related issues.

xtop can be installed via winget, making it accessible for Windows users.

xtop

A simple top.

One terminal UI that shows live GPU + NPU telemetry — utilization, memory, per-process attribution — across vendors and OSes.

Platform status

Platform	Status
Linux (NVIDIA, incl. WSL2)	supported
Windows on ARM — Snapdragon X Elite	supported
Linux (AMD / Intel / embedded SoC)	not yet
Android (`adb shell`)	not yet
Windows x86-64 (NVIDIA / AMD / Intel)	untested — PDH path may work as-is

Install

Requires Rust 1.88+ (edition 2024).

cargo install --path .
# or
cargo build --release
./target/release/xtop

No system-level NVIDIA driver dependency at build time: the Linux backend dlopens libnvidia-ml.so.1 at runtime and degrades cleanly if it's missing.

Usage

xtop                     # TUI
xtop --once              # one-shot text snapshot
xtop --once --json       # one-shot JSON snapshot
xtop --once --csv        # one-shot CSV snapshot
xtop -d 500              # TUI, 500 ms refresh

Keybindings (TUI):

Key	Action
`q`, Esc	quit
`+` / `-`	grow / shrink the process-table row count
`F6`	cycle sort column
click	click a column header or CPU-legend row

Testing

cargo test --features fixture

23 tests run: 5 ratatui snapshot tests (via insta) rendering the TUI against a synthetic backend in four scenarios (empty | typical | stress | edge), plus unit tests for /proc parsing, CPU% math, and the process-table sort.

To iterate on the TUI from a headless environment:

cargo run --features fixture -- --render-snapshot typical --size 120x40
INSTA_UPDATE=always cargo test --features fixture  # accept intended changes