Which CPU Temp Software To Trust?

[datkins91]

Hey all,

I was hoping someone might be able to advise me... I currently am looking at temperatures across 4 programs:

1. ASRock Utility (motherboard software)
2. Core Temp
3. CPUID HWMonitor
4. Speedfan

What's frustrating is that 2 of the programs report one temperature.. and the other 2 programs report another temperature! Please see images.

Core Temp and CPUID HWMonitor give me the readings I am expecting.. when using internet browser, etc.. about 33 degrees centigrade..

The other 2 give around 50-55 degrees which to me seems wrong.

I have installed a Coolmaster Hyper 212 Evo heatsink with Arctic thermal paste and inside of computer is cable tidy with decent airflow.

So why are these temps all over the place??

If someone can confidently answer this I will give them my sincere thanks!!

 

[iPwn]

They're reporting two different places.

The 33° reading is the CPU core
The 50-55° reading is the CPU socket

Both are normal and accurate (except speedfan... I wouldn't trust that for temps), just reporting different sensors as the same metric.

EDIT: Notice in HWMonitor, you have a CPUTIN metric under the MoBo, that's the same as what ASRock is reporting as the CPU temp. Different sensors, that's all.

EDIT2: Nice choice in parts

 

[datkins91]

They're reporting two different places.

The 33° reading is the CPU core
The 50-55° reading is the CPU socket

Both are normal and accurate (except speedfan... I wouldn't trust that for temps), just reporting different sensors as the same metric.

EDIT: Notice in HWMonitor, you have a CPUTIN metric under the MoBo, that's the same as what ASRock is reporting as the CPU temp. Different sensors, that's all.

EDIT2: Nice choice in parts

Ahh excellent, thank you so much. The CPU core is of course the most important to myself... how concerned should one be over the CPU socket's temperature?

I considered 33 degrees to be a rather good temperature actually!

Oh and, very nice parts yourself... we're rocking a very similar build. Radeon 270x myself .. except not Crossfire!

Edit: Additionally, you'd have thought that the temperature, between the socket and core temperature, to show on a mobo utility would be the core, if one of them!

 

[iPwn]

how concerned should one be over the CPU socket's temperature?

If you're not going above ~60°C, not at all. That's the max according to AMD, but chatter on the interwebz and overclocking sites is around 70°C

I considered 33 degrees to be a rather good temperature actually!

That is a good temp to be at. Generally < 40°C is what I've always gone by.

Oh and, very nice parts yourself... we're rocking a very similar build. Radeon 270x myself

I noticed! It's a sweet a$$ setup!!!

Edit: Additionally, you'd have thought that the temperature, between the socket and core temperature, to show on a mobo utility would be the core, if one of them!

Yea proprietary software utilities serve a purpose (sometimes), but I've found over the years that they're not always the best thought out with other tasks. Things like HWMonitor are for that purpose and that purpose only, so I tend to stick with programs that are designed to do exactly that.

 

[datkins91]

If you're not going above ~60°C, not at all. That's the max according to AMD, but chatter on the interwebz and overclocking sites is around 70°C

Well under Prime95 the CPU Socket temp will hit maybe 62, 63 at most? I'd have thought that if the max for the CPU core was 70 then the socket would have a higher threshold? Or perhaps not!

Thanks again man.

 

[iPwn]

Well under Prime95 the CPU Socket temp will hit maybe 62, 63 at most? I'd have thought that if the max for the CPU core was 70 then the socket would have a higher threshold? Or perhaps not!

Going over 60° for the socket won't "break" anything, per say, but it will certainly reduce the lifespan, or Mean Time To Fail (MTTF) for the chip/MoBo. At 71°C, the chip/board will shut down as that's the max the socket can take and may even cause damage.

 

[datkins91]

Going over 60° for the socket won't "break" anything, per say, but it will certainly reduce the lifespan, or Mean Time To Fail (MTTF) for the chip/MoBo. At 71°C, the chip/board will shut down as that's the max the socket can take and may even cause damage.

I see.. it seems as though the temps, post installation of EVO 212 heatsink, didn't actually affect the socket temps much whatsoever.. which makes sense. I presume the best way of keeping a nice, cool socket would just simply be good air flow?

 

[iPwn]

I presume the best way of keeping a nice, cool socket would just simply be good air flow?

Correct.

A member of Tom's Hardware sums it up pretty well here and a hint at what he does to provide additional cooling for the socket. My socket temps sometimes hit ~65°C when gaming on uber high settings, which my cooling isn't currently the best, but I haven't done much to fix that since I add the second GPU... shame on me

 

[datkins91]

Excellent stuff Pwn, really appreciated! It's good to know that it is the airflow.. though provides a bit more of a challenege! Will check that thread out more once I return from work.

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Computer Forums mobile app

 

[datkins91]

Hey.. bit of an update here.

I decided to test my system out with a game.. that being Thief.

The game is actually pretty demanding!

Check out these temps after running the game for a couple of hours... on absolute max settings, resolution: 1920 x 1080

It seems the max temp my CPU core hit was molten lava temps which is quite hilarious... I think the max for the GPU was very good .. but seems to the CPU socket got up to 77!

However, nothing happened to my computer at all.. all kept running just fine!