How [And Why] To Check Your CPU Temperature [Feb 2022]

Everyone knows that having an overheating computer can lead to much worse problems. That’s why you should continuously monitor the temperature of your CPU (central processing unit), as it’s the part that takes over many operations during your time on the computer. Regardless of whether you are using a PC or a laptop, you should take care of your CPU temperature.

The first thing to learn is the average temperature, how to check it, and how to monitor it constantly. That way, you can prevent many situations from causing damage to any of your software or hardware parts.

Usually, you should pay attention to your CPU temperature while gaming or doing anything that requires your computer to work harder. Lately, new games that are being released are more demanding and are performing several processes simultaneously, which is why CPU temperature monitoring is a must.

How To Check Your CPU Temperature

Believe it or not, Windows itself doesn’t give you an option to monitor your CPU temperature. With all of the pre-installed apps that are mostly useless, we haven’t got one as important as this. Of course, you can check everything through your PC BIOS, but it’s a lot of struggles, and you’re risking messing something up if you do not have a lot of experience. BIOS or Basic Input/Output System is showing all the processes going on at the back. Whatever you do and whatever part of your PC you’re using, it will be shown there. If you still want to try and check your CPU temperature through BIOS, here are the steps:

1. Open the Windows menu
2. Click Power
3. Hold Shift
4. Select Restart

Once your device restarts, you will see several menus, including Troubleshoot. From there, navigate to Advanced options > UEFI Firmware Settings > Restart.

Once again, this method is pretty uncomfortable for numerous reasons, starting with needing to restart your device.

Luckily, third parties gave us far better and far more straightforward solutions for this matter.

For example, if you have an Intel or AMD processor, both offer the option to check CPU temperature directly through their software.

Besides, there’s a Core Temp, a free app used the most for temperature checking and stress-testing your CPU. Stress-testing is a check where you can let your CPU work full speed and check how many processes it can run before it overheats. Basically, you’re checking its capability to work, which can never be too bad. You will get a clearer picture of how much you can exploit it before overheating.

1. Download Core Temp and install it
2. Make sure to uncheck Goodgame Empire, otherwise, it will be installed as well
3. You will find a word document with instructions on how to use Core Temp, you might find it helpful
4. Open the Core Temp and check at the bottom of the screen where it says “Core #0”
5. By default, your CPU temperature will be shown in Celsius. If you want to switch to Fahrenheit, follow these steps: Options > Settings > Display
6. From left to right side, you will see – current temperature, minimum and maximum temperature, and current workload percentage

If you want to see more details, you can tap on the Show Hidden Icons at the right edge of the Windows taskbar. Then you will see a list of all of your CPUs and their individual temperature.

This is the simplest option to see if your CPU is overheating or performing as it should. However, we will mention a couple of other solutions such as HWinfo, NZXT’s Cam Software, Open Hardware Monitor, SpeedFan, etc. All of these programs can be used for CPU temperature monitoring.

How To Monitor Your CPU Temperature Over Time

Of course, most of us are checking the CPU temperature once we notice that something is wrong. However, to prevent “wrong” and make sure your CPU is performing well, you should constantly monitor its temperature over time. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to do, and it doesn’t take a lot of your time. Since you cannot monitor the temperature constantly from BIOS since you need to enter it manually, the best is to use Core Temp again. If you already have it installed, here is how to set CPU temperature monitoring:

1. Click the upward-pointing arrow on your taskbar
2. Multicolored numbers will show you the temperature of all of your CPUs
3. You can check them here or drag them to the taskbar and show them permanently
4. To save some space on the taskbar, you can select to see only the highest temperature, which will indicate what’s happening with other CPUs as well

To fix this, follow the steps below:

• Go to Options
• Choose Settings > Notification Area
• Select Highest Temperature per Processor

If you’re playing a game or watching a movie, this solution is not practical since you don’t see your taskbar. In this case, you can download RivaTuner along with MSI Afterburner for optimal performance. Once you do so, try setting up CPU temperature monitoring like this:

1. Open background apps and click on MSI Afterburner
2. Go to Settings > Monitoring
3. Choose the CPU Temperature > Show in On-Screen Display
4. Switch the tab on and you will get a hotkey to check your CPU temperature at any time

Conclusion

The optimal CPU temperature under normal circumstances should be 40-65 degrees Celsius. Of course, it may vary depending on what kind of a PC you have, is it business, gaming, how many cooling units you have, etc. If you’re using a laptop, a normal temperature can be up to 75 degrees due to limited cooling space. If you notice that your CPU temperature is going over 80 degrees, you might experience slowness, and some of the performances might malfunction. That’s precisely why you should monitor everything to prevent more significant issues. Make sure to check your CPU temperature from time to time if you cannot observe it constantly, which would be the best.