HOW TO: Monitoring CPU and GPU Temperatures In-Game/In-Benchmark with On-Screen Display

No worries Brother Fox, you didn't misread about my gender. I'm female. And my better half is also female. I'm the computer geek in my household, and aside from my Dad the gamer and the tech geek in my family. I don't often openly state my relationship, but when directly brought up I don't believe in lying about it either. Hope that's OK.

LOL, when it comes to tech I often talk about my Dad. Always been a Daddy's girl. He's the one that I get my love of Tech and Games from, and my partner isn't a techie or a gamer.

OMG, just noticed your benches pointed out by Revelator! WOW! 4.7GHz.... Awesome! One day I hope.... *dreamy*...

 

OK, that makes sense now. Sounds like your dad and I have a lot in common being the gamer/tech geek. My problem was being the tech geek and car geek for many years, some relative always wanted free computer support and free auto repairs, LOL.

Glad you like the OC... fortunately, these beasts have great cooling systems.

 

No kidding! Dad "snowbirds" half the year in FL now he's retired, so guess who everyone comes to when he's away? Usually when I'm neck deep in another project, too. But it's also often fun for me, so I don't mind too much.

I've heard rumors of liquid cooling in the latest m17x & m18x? Are you using that, or is the standard heatsink working fine?

I'm pretty impressed with the cooling on my m17x R3. I had read it was good, but wasn't expecting this good, and I haven't had to repaste at all.

 

I am using a 3-pipe heat sink, which is highly effective. I am using stock Dell thermal interface material and it's working outstanding for my CPU and both GPU. I have no reason to use aftermarket paste, which don't seem to last a very long time under harsh conditions. And, for extreme benching I use a 10,000 BTU portable AC unit. (When traveling, I just crank up the hotel AC unit.)

The Asetek liquid cooling system is a prototype intended for OEM distribution and it's not available as an aftermarket add-on at this time. I have seen nothing to suggest Alienware will make it an option, but I would love to have that. If it becomes available aftermarket, I will most likely buy it.

 

Bro Fox seems we all have a lot in common. Everyone around me where I live turns to me. Family neighbors etc. Being tech saavy means being very busy most of the time lol. I also share the same passion of tech as you two

To the users above looking into multiple sensors on the OSD... I had no prob on any reading up to about 30lines. The last line for me unlike the rest showed half the reading and everyother second showed it the right way. Seems the limit is the amount of lines from HWiNFO and Afterburner at once. My suggestion... Including Afterburner try to keep at most 30 lines beteen both apps total and I see no issues then. If there more over that they start to glitch and not always show all of them. It will require further testing from others thoughas this is how it handled for me but may be different for others and their systems. I'll try to post a screenshot soon.

 

Brother RV - does Mumak have the new version of HWiNFO64 posted yet?

 

I'll let you know if I hear anything about it. Mr Fox how do you see the osd in 3dmark2011? It's either my prob or the 7970M. It's not there when I run it and it's enabled. Also how your 7970M treating you?

 

OSD only works with 32-bit software. (This is mentioned in the MSI Afterburn OSD documentation and I think I mentioned it early in the thread.) You would have to run the 32-bit 3DMark11 for it to work.

The 7970M is a non-bencher's delight. They run awesome stock, very powerful GPUs, but they do not overclock very well. I hope it is just drivers, or I'll find them boring to own. I'm reading on other forums that 7970M has a defective design and that is why Malibal, Sager, Eurocom and others have not released any of their Clevo-based system with this GPU. I hope they are wrong. It would suck to be stuck with graphics cards that are only partially functional.

 

I would take that with a grain of salt... They tried to say that on 6990m I think... Turns out nothing panned out. Have faith as it's seems all they are held back by is the beta drivers. They clock extremely well... Prob is the drivers cause instability early which I think has to do with the black screens we load to sometimes.

 

Hi again!

Please forgive me, Mr. Fox, if I am possibly taking this thread on a tangent and should maybe create my own in the relevant model section for my machine. But I think this could be useful info for other people since we're talking about temp monitoring, and I'm having a hard time searching for precise info and advice here... I'm finding a lot of opinion though. LOL

The following is all in Skyrim at High settings, usually after about an hour.

My CPU temps have me concerned. It's a wet and chilly summer so far in my State, so for at least the last week I have not had my AC on - and I know that ambient room temp will affect your machine's temps. But the temp in the house hasn't fluctuated that much according to my Thermostat. When my AC was on during a hot week, the temp in the house was 72 F, and my CPU temp in game never got much above 75 C, and that only about a third of the time. It would fluctuate mostly between the high 60's and low 70's unless there was a lot of motion in the surrounding environment - foliage and water combined for instance, when it would then jump up to the higher temp.

In recent days though, that has risen quite a bit. My room temp is about 74 or 75 F, not a large jump in degrees C for ambient temp. Roughly 24 C, I think. But the CPU is running between 72 & 76 C more often than not now, and has spiked to a high of 80 C. Once, I think I saw 82... but it popped right back down so fast I'm not certain of that. At least one core will also be spiking to almost full load when that happens as well, something I haven't seen until this temp increase.

I'm a bit worried this is the start of something not so good. Last night when coming out of Sleep, Intel's graphics caused the machine to freeze twice and finally blue-screen. I have read that a recent update may have caused this, but I'm a worrier and in conjunction with the temps...

I know that Intel says that the mobile i7 CPU is good to 100 C, and also that as long at you're under 90 C you should be just fine. Still...

Should I be considering a repaste? Or should I not be worried? It's tough when I know the ambient temp has gone up a bit, and clearly the CPU is under a greater load than it was before so should be generating more heat - though why it's suddenly handling more load in game than it was a week ago I can't imagine. I never have anything else running when I'm playing (except HWInfo64 & Afterburner now). Being a gaming laptop noob, I could use some good advice on this, and I'm betting there are others that may in the future.

My GPU has stayed between 62 & 67 C. I have never seen it get higher than that. Now that I've said that, watch it change tonight.

Sorry, this post is pretty long even for me. And again, if it would be better to start a thread, just let me know.

 

Salticid, long story short - nothing to worry about. Those temps seem perfectly in line to me, infact your gpu's are actually running nice and cool at 62-67c.

82c is nothing to worry the cpu over either, as you know, they are good to go at much higher temps.

 

Your cpu temps aren't bad, Skyrim and BF3 and many more could bring you into mid 80's but most time temps should be around the first range you mentioned. Your welcome to repaste but I know MrFox has made good mention that the stock paste may last longer than aftermarket pastes. A lot of us use them but how long under heavy use they last is still seeming to be less than Alienwares stock paste.

Yes there a lot of opinions and only some straight facts but often we see those atleast reporting from personal experience. Opinion may not be dependable but it still is usually better than no input at all.

Turbo is probably what's putting you into 80c+. Basically if your in 75f like I have been in this summer in your room it probably is adding a good 5c overall. Yes seems strange but 5F is enough to raise temps more than 5F in the system.

My system recent has shown slightly higher temps than they did two months ago... I don't have an AC set up in the room currently so I have noticed the temp change too. I do think it has more to do with the other aspect you mentioned... Humidity. We could have same ambient temps at low humidity and high humidity but we could see higher computer temps on the higher humidity.

If your a careful person repasting is an option but it's also just as easy to end up with higher temps. Working with repastes is hard sometimes because tightening the heatsink screws all the way as designed doesn't necessarily equate to the best temperature scenario.

I'm sure others have better advice than that. If the temps don't go up more than low 80c on cpu then you should be fine. CPUs will always be higher in temps unless a slow clocked one is used with less turbo ranges.

Could be the area of the game before had less cpu load than the point your at now.

Edit:
Lol what Stevie said...

 

Salticid - I agree with Steve and residualvoltage. You have nothing to worry about with those temps. They are fine.

 

How can I monitor CPU temps on an five year old plain computer it doesn't have decanted graphics so CPU only

Would like to monitor it to see how it compares to the m17x with the 3720QM my guess is will be about the same temp wise

Sent From My Rooted EVO 3D

 

My thanks and extreme gratitude to you all, Steviejones, Residualvoltage and Mr. Fox! Very relieving to hear, and I really appreciate your responses.

Very true, and I certainly didn't mean to imply that opinions, particularly opinions informed by experience, aren't useful. I was basically asking for yours, after all. But I don't know a whole lot of people on here yet, and a lot of the threads coming up in a site search on Google were also in entirely different brand forums and the opinions were kind of all over the map. A good portions were lending support to my fears. So I really wanted to come post somewhere I knew people have very similar machines and more experience with them than I, and who I know I can give a lot of weight to their opinions. Yup, you guys.

Man I am just entirely too nervous with laptops I think. I'm used to gaming on desktops and game systems, not a laptop - no matter how powerful and well built. My experiences with Laptops in general have not shown them to be particularly heat tolerant or good at cooling, or well-built for that matter... Even the developers and bioinformaticians at work only get standard HP crap machines & 15" slim notebooks that break about as often as they work. This is really my first foray into a seriously performance beast laptop. And while I've been incredibly impressed so far, I'm also kind of waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop. LOL

I've also not really had an iCore CPU before. I'm used to the last generations of CPU with lower heat ratings. My last laptop has lasted me longer than it had any right to, really. So those numbers kind of made me stop and blink and in a laptop... Yeah, I'm a worrier.

Good to know about the internal temp change even with a low change in the room, Residualvoltage. And I hadn't thought about humidity, but that makes a lot of sense. Thanks so much for that, gives some perspective.

My thanks to you all again, and more rep owed for the kind help!

 

Great Saltacid... No biggy on anything... We all start somewhere. No worries... I can recomend you to keep the back end raised perhaps more than the feet of the system do by default. I hear of bottle caps, sop bars pretty much anythinbg to raise a half inch to an inch so hot air doesn't recirculate through the system ie hot exhause being sucked into the cold air intake. Other than that you should have no probs with system as is.

Your system should last for years to come vs their crap disposable comps at your work. I hear of 5-7 years+ Alienware laptops still working good to this day.

 

Yay! That's something I was hoping for when I bought it!

My last laptop, I wanted a custom barebones box - there were a couple of companies that sold them back then - but just couldn't afford one at the time. I got something else instead and babied that thing like no tomorrow, I had to. The series was known for severe build defects - it was included in a class action suit involving overheating and use of incorrect solder which would melt when the system got too hot. I had to replace the hinges and a screen bezel just 4 months after purchase. It lasted almost 6 years, with a lot of servicing.

What I wanted this time was to never have to deal with that kind of thing again, yet have a machine I could pull apart and upgrade like a desktop so it would last me a long time. Well, and something I can game on. I think I got that. I do love it.

In my haggling with Dell, I got a cooling pad thrown in for free, and I use it every time I game. It lives on the pad, which is on a lap platform, even if the pad isn't blowing air, because it elevates the machine in the way you mention, and because it keeps the heat that little bit further from my lap.

 

Great what more could you ask for lol. I used to use Zalmon notebook cooler NC-2000 and moved to a NC-3000U later on. First uses dual 75mm fans I think and is a solid body annodized aluminum body stays cool without fans. My NC-3000 uses 1 220mm fan and has a anodized aluminum sheet with even more holes and thinner piece of metal but a plastic body.

If you prefer absolute cool you can set your fans at full with HWiNFO but can be a bit loud for some. Only use it if HWiNFO is configured right or it can also stop the fans completely if not set correct. Otherwise just continue on as is

 

love it. it is cool thanks a lot brother Fox

 

Wicked cool for dropping the knowledge +rep and thanks. I have this OSD now.

Actually got a screenshot of the bullet on the way






Updated to, since fan info is bummed.

GPU:
VRAM
API : FPS
TEMP : USAGE
CORE : MEM

CPU:
CORE1, CORE2
CORE3, CORE4
USAGE : TEMP

SYSTEM MEM:
USED : AVAILABLE

 

I first learned about Notebook Review when I was trying to upgrade my Presario C700 laptop (RAM, CPU, etc), but have been using Desktop Review ever since I built me a PC last July (one year anniversary, yay!). Lucky I stumbled onto this thread, though. I always forget about the "Add Reputation" button, but you definitely got some from me, Mr. Fox. No chance in hell I could have done this on my own (or without screenshots). Thank ya, sir.

Only issue I've had: Yours is labeled "CPU Package." I have no such thing, but I did find "CPU 0 (with a thermometer next to it) under "AMD 10h+ CPU Thermal Sensor." I'm assuming "CPU 0," in my case, is congruent to your "CPU Package." I'll probably just rename it to "CPU Temp" if that doesn't mess with anything.

EDIT: I'm also getting "Access is denied" when I attempt to "Save" the new Notepad document (in order to stop HWiNFO64 from launching when Windows starts). I thought I could just type "msconfig" into the Start menu and not have it boot on start up, but the program wasn't listed. Wonder what the parameters of a program need to be to show up on msconfig's list...

 

Thank you, sir. I sincerely appreciate the compliments. I like your user name and avatar, too.

What you are noticing may be a sensor that is present on my motherboard that is different than yours. I noticed a few minor changes in sensors when switching from GTX 580M SLI to 7970M CrossFire. The configuration of HWiNFO64 can also change what sensors are visible and hidden.

If you have a sensor labeled "CPU Core Max" available, that would represent the highest temperature reading among all the cores in the CPU, very similar to CPU Package.

 

Our Compliment Department has reviewed your statement and would like to return "Thanks," free of charge.

Always figured Honest Abe would be more of a rebel in modern times. "Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure" portrayed him pretty well, I think

I'll take a stab at this one. You changed from having two Nvidia GPU's (SLI) to two AMD GPU's (CrossFire). Yea, yea, yea, I'm still a nub

Gotcha

By the way, would you be so kind as to please check out my "EDIT" from my previous post? I'm sure it has something to do with being an administrator and will probably make me want to "facepalm" as I usually do with those issues. Thanks, once again.

EDIT: Anyone know why Notebook Review's site didn't get "upgraded," but Desktop Review's site did? I prefer this layout, though.

EDIT EDIT: Does anyone know how to check who gave you +rep? I just realized I have "4" (dunno how it's measured), LOL.

I have more questions

Sorry to look like the tool who can't help himself, but posting a sizable amount of questions is usually what happens when I come across something new (this time being hardware monitoring, obviously). I apologize since this isn't exactly showing forum etiquette. I'm impatient and I want to learn -__-

I have a screenshot of HWiNFO64 after playing Battlefield 3 on mainly High settings, the "Max" column being the result of the game being so demanding. What bugs me:

- Does anything look out of normal? The voltages for my tri-core all are the same across the board. This scares me because it just looks wrong (as does "Chassis Intrusion").

- The first green arrow points to "CPU Temp (originally "CPU 0")." The second green arrow points to "CPU (currently "CPU Temp 2")." I have no idea which one is actually monitoring the CPU's heat output. I'm assuming the first one is because the current and minimum temperatures displayed seem like that's what they should be when idling (what the computer was doing at that time).

- I have no idea what the heck "Temperature 3" is (in red). So non-descriptive it hurts.

- Are all three cores being used up normal while gaming (almost 100% for each core)?

(If I've done this correctly, the image will either "unfold" in its original size or be very small, but have the option to open in its original format in another tab)

Spoiler

My new slogan should be "Thanks for putting up with me." But in all seriousness, guys, thanks for your help... (and thanks for putting up with me )

 

Try shutting down HWiNFO64 before saving as the file is locked while in use with HWiNFO64 still running.

The CPU temp is the temperature reading for the CPU sensor so you should be fine there. I don't know what Temperature 3 means. It must be something specific to your system or CPU. It is not a bad thing that all three cores are being utilized while gaming. That would be a problem if you were not using your system for something demanding or at idle. Overall, it seems like things are as they should be.

We are doing a roll-out of vBulletin software upgrades and NBR will be upgraded soon.

Click into your user control panel and you will see the most recently received rep, along with any comments, down near the bottom of the page.

 

No luck with saving the new file so I'll probably just leave it.

Also, just so I can be absolutely positive and without doubt, you said "The CPU temp is the temperature reading for the CPU sensor so you should be fine there." You're talking about the sensor named "CPU Temp" underneath "AMD 10h+ CPU Thermal Sensor," correct (the first green arrow)?

I'm just puzzled as to why there's also something called "CPU" that displays entirely different readings (a 15 degree difference? the heck?!), but is also claims to be the CPU (the second green arrow).

Everything else I get the gist of, but I wouldn't mind that ^ in layman's terms so I can put my mind at ease. Just wanted to say thanks for all of your help, though, Mr. Fox. I'm really grateful for your assistance. Definitely more +rep for you when I can.

EDIT: Apparently my computer tower beeps when "CPU," the second green arrow, reaches over 60 degrees Celsius. My BIOS is, apparently, set to beep when the CPU reaches over 60 degrees Celsius. I don't understand because I ran Prime 95 and this "Core Temp" program said the CPU temps were closer to that of "CPU Temp (first green arrow)" than "CPU." *headache*

 

Thanks Mr.Fox, I will try to use this tonight.

 

Metallica93, I'm not sure about that additional "CPU" sensor you have with the AMD processor. It may be something particular to your AMD processor, and I have not owned a system with an AMD CPU for several years. I don't know why there would be a system beep at 60°C, as that temperature seems too low to be a problem.

 

Mr. Fox, I would just like to thank you for all the help you've been. I know I've asked an unusually large amount of questions in the past few days, but, more importantly, I've learned a lot from asking those questions. It's my hope that, one day, I can return the favor to others on these forums or ones like it.

Enjoy your day, good sir!

 

You're very welcome. Always glad to help, and I am sure you will be a valuable member of our community.

 

Why are my "Clevo EC" temps negative?

CPU shows: -273.2 (current, min, max)
Temp2 shows: -273.2 (current, min, max)

All my other readings are normal but those two. And thoughts?

 

Not sure why that is, but I also do not use the Compal EC information on the M18x R1. I'm not sure the EC sensors are providing accurate information. It may be an error in the way HWiNFO64 is interpreting the information from your Clevo EC.

 

Mr Fox thanks for your guide , i have set it up runs great +Rep !! and your teardown video was brilliant thanks for that as well

 

hi there,

got myself a weird problem with hwinfo64 (v4.00-1680 + v4.01-1693).

everytime i try to start it up, when the status-bar says "enumering buses" >> it crashes with windows7 giving me the "program stopped working"-error.

since "sensors only" works perfect without any glitches, i´m kinda confused what might cause this error when i try to start the main program.

any ideas on this are much appreciated...

 

Try changing some of the configuration settings. Something probably needs to be checked or unchecked to work correctly.

 

Agreed but its kind of ironic to see this guide on NBR seeing as it's author Martin (Mumak) was banned.

 

I don't know the reasons or circumstances behind it. At any rate, he is a very intelligent person and I really do like his utility.

 

The sensor under the AMD 10h+ heading is the on die (aka. on chip) sensor, the second "CPU" sensor is in the chip socket on AMD boards and your Temp 3... well it's probably one of three things: Northbridge chipset, southbridge chipset or near the memory array.

 

Just updated HWiNFO64 to the latest beta.zip (due to BSOD caused by compatability between HWiNFO version I was running and the new Intel RST 11.5 http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/679498-rst-11-5-whql-released-finally.html ) and was just curious as to how we proceed with this message I get when launching HWiFO.....should the Compal EC sensor be disabled? - I have the rest of the settings set up as per Mr. Fox's "update" on the first post dated 07-14-2012

 

You can safely disable that sensor. It's only disabling HWiNFO64 reading from it, not the actual sensor.

 

is it possible to monitor my 6970s xfire temps with rivatuner and gpu monitor 2.3 or any other similar windows 7 sidebar gadget? i would prefer this than the hwinfo gadget.

 

Thanks for the clarification Bro. I just re-read at the top of the page - d'oh.....I need better eyes sometimes.

 

Yes, but that will not do a lot of good if you cannot see the temps on screen while playing games or running benchmarks... that's where the temps matter most. The side bar gadget sometimes will only report information from the primary GPU with AMD cards.

 

So what do you suggest then Mr.Fox?

 

As far as sidebar gadgets go, options are very limited. Even more so with AMD GPUs in some ways. For in-game monitoring, I think your best option is what you find in the opening post of this thread. I modded the HWiNFO64 gadget to suit my fancy cosmetically, but the AMD sensors sometimes come and go, same as they do with the GPU Observer gadget.

 

This is odd. Although I have the same HWiNFO64 Sensor and Main settings as per page 1 (disabled Compal EC monitoring as per abvoe too) and my MSI Afterburner OSD is set up the same too, I am no longer getting any CPU info from the configuration. Included screenshots of my settings below so ..... how do I get my CPU readings to "re-appear" ???? LOL

I notice that my main HWiNFO settings have some other options available that are not shown on the screenshot fro mthe July update on post #1......

HWiNFO64 Settings:

Spoiler

MSI Afterburner v 2.2.3 Settings:

Spoiler

EDIT: Never mind, I fixed it LOL.

 

Scrub that. Still having problems getting cpu readouts........

 

CPU readouts in AB OSD in game? All of your settings look to be correct. Mine are pretty much the same and it's working correctly for me.

Here is a thought of something it could be... Did you delete the HWiNFO64 profile in MSI Afterburner OSD and recreate it? If not and you have HWiNFO64 installed in a different folder than it was in before, Afterburner OSD may not be finding the file(s) because the profile is looking in the wrong place for HWiNFO64.

I have a static folder (D:\HW64) that I always drag and drop the newer version HWiNFO64 files into so the installation directory name never changes on my system. That keeps all of my shortcuts working, including the TactX keys.

 

Hello all,

I need suggestions on a good hardware monitor application.

I tried using Speccy, HWMonitor, Speedfan, and a lot of other applications and they work fine except for the fact that they don't detect my GPU's temperature.

The only application that works so far is the Open Hardware Monitor but it only works when switchable graphics is turned on (ie when a game is active).

Also, I don't like working on a dedicated GPU mode FN+F7.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

Have you tried Everest?

 

I don't believe so. Do you have a link?

My google skills are failing me today