As modern CPUs keep getting more and more powerful, they also draw more power and consequently generate more heat. While it’s natural for your CPU, GPU and other internal parts to heat up during regular use, getting too hot can cause problems, including performance loss and internal damage. Hence, monitoring your CPU temperature becomes quite important.
In this article, we’re talking about how you can check CPU temperatures in Windows 11 using the following methods:
- Check CPU temperature using BIOS
- Check CPU temperature using third-party apps
Also read: How to cascade windows in Windows 11?
Check CPU temperature using BIOS
Windows 11 doesn’t have an in-built way of checking CPU temperatures. However, there’s a chance that your PC’s BIOS or UEFI might show the CPU temperature. Usually, you’ll find this under power settings or a separate hardware monitoring section. It’s hard to give specific instructions for this as your BIOS interface can vary greatly based on what motherboard you’re using.
That said, you can only open the BIOS before opening up your operating system. This means that unless you have a hardware issue that causes the CPU to excessively heat up as soon as you start your PC, the CPU temperature shown in the BIOS won’t be of much use. There’s also a chance that your PC’s BIOS doesn’t show the CPU temperature at all, in which case you’re going to have to use a third-party tool.
Check CPU temperature using third-party apps
There are plenty of free-to-use third-party apps on the internet that can help keep an eye on your CPU temperature and do a lot more as well. Some of the most common ones are as follows:
- Speccy: gives you in-depth information on your system specs and shows CPU/GPU temperature.
- Open Hardware Monitor: Free, open-source program that monitors temperature sensors, clock speeds, fan speeds, voltages, and loads of your CPU, GPU, memory and more.
- HWiNFO: Provides in-depth system information, real-time monitoring, and status logging.
- MSI Afterburner: MSI Afterburner is an overclocking utility that’s mainly used for GPU overclocking. However, when paired with the Rivatuner Statistics Server, it can give much information as an overlay when you’re running games (or other fullscreen applications), including CPU temperature, clock speeds, and even power consumption.
Using either of the three programs is also quite easy. Just head over to their official websites, download and install the programs and you’re good to go. Speccy and Open Hardware Monitor have quite simple, easy-to-understand interfaces that’ll get you going quickly.
HWiNFO is a bit more complex as it monitors just about everything that there is on your system, so sorting through the menus to get to the information you want can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. On the flip side, it does provide in-depth monitoring and logging capabilities that can help diagnose hardware flaws such as a failing CPU (or GPU) cooler and thermal throttling, among other issues.
There are, of course, other options available as well. Both Intel and AMD have their own overclocking program that can monitor CPU temperature, which is called Intel Extreme Tuning Utility and Ryzen Master, respectively. Even if you’re not overclocking your CPU, these are great programs from legitimate companies that’ll accurately show CPU temperature data.
Also read: How to defragment the drive in Windows 11?
