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How to Check CPU Temperature

One of the pillars of good PC custodianship is ensuring all your gear isn't running out of spec, which can cause slowdowns, crashes, and frustration. The chief culprit for something running too hot is the CPU, as it's always active when you're using your computer, and when stressed, the heat it generates can sometimes overload the attached cooler even if you thoughtfully specced your system. Today's CPUs can run exceedingly hot, requiring both constant vigilance and a beefy cooler, and this is especially true for folks that might be harboring any overclocking fantasies. Thankfully, checking the temperatures of your CPU is easy to do, and there's a great selection of free utilities out there that will let you examine your CPU's temps to ensure they're within an acceptable range.

Before we dive in, we should state that it doesn't matter if you have an Intel or AMD CPU, as both companies embed temperature sensors in their chips that can be read by any utility that requests this information. The motherboard constantly monitors those sensors while you're using your PC. If they exceed acceptable levels, the system will just turn off to avoid damaging the CPU. PCs today also won't boot if you don't have a CPU fan attached to the appropriate fan header on the motherboard, so CPU temperatures are serious business.

Here's a quick guide for what you should be looking for when you fire up one of the utilities below and see your CPU's temperatures.

Idle Temp: This is when you're not stressing your CPU with a PC game or application, so just using Windows. This temp will be based on the ambient temperature in your room, but you should expect temps between 30C to 40C typically.

Full-Load Temp: This will vary greatly, but you generally want to keep your CPU below 80C in most scenarios. Intel and AMD CPUs can hit 95C or thereabouts when all cores are under full load, but that's the upper limit for a modern processor. Though both companies will state that its spec allows it to run at those temps just fine, you should try to keep that down to around 80C to prolong its lifespan.

With that out of the way, here are the best free utilities to examine the temps on your own.

NZXT CAM

This is a free utility designed to be used with NZXT's coolers, but it works fine on any hardware and is free to boot. It has a simple interface that shows your CPU’s temp in real-time, along with your CPU’s maximum boost clock and current CPU usage.

If you click the module with the CPU information, it’ll expand to show you more details about your chip’s operation, including a line graph of CPU usage over time. The best feature of CAM is that you can go into settings and choose a “mini” mode, which will show you real-time monitoring data in a handy little applet you can put anywhere on your desktop to keep an eye on things while you’re working. CAM will also show you the specs of your entire system, which can be useful at times.

CORE TEMP

This small, no-frills utility is great for everyone because it’s responsive, has a small footprint, and tells you exactly what you need to know with no filler or extraneous data. It can monitor your CPU temp in real-time along with power consumption, which is very useful for determining how much certain applications are taxing your system. The only downside is you must be vigilant when installing it, as it will ask you to install some crapware, so just be cautious.

Even better, this is an app that can live in your system tray, so you don’t need it to clog up your desktop with an app that's always open. You can set it to display all your cores’ temperatures or just the hottest one if you want to have one number instead of a dozen.

Double-clicking the system tray icon makes the app appear, and if you double-click the app itself, it goes into “mini" mode, which hides some of the CPU information. It’s an easy-to-use, well-made app that everyone should try out.