How to Check GPU Temperature in Windows 10/11?

It is necessary to check GPU Temperature repeatedly, A high graphics card temperature can also be a sign that something is wrong, no matter whether you are using one of the best graphics cards or one that is older and less powerful.

Fortunately, it is easy to check how things are going quickly. Dust buildup inside the PC can cause higher temperatures, lower performance, and even component failure if users don’t clean it out regularly. It can be enlightening to check your GPU temperatures before and after cleaning if you’re one of those people.

There are several utilities you can use to determine the temperature of your graphics card, but we recommend MSI Afterburner, HWiNFO, or GPU-Z. These three utilities are all free and support virtually every graphics card on the market today.

Since we know where the files are and can overwrite them if necessary, we like the portable version of HWiNFO. In addition to MSI Afterburner, you can use it to overclock your graphics card, but it does not report on as many components as the other two, so you should grab it too.

As well as GPU-Z, MSI Afterburner, and HWiNFO, you’ll need programs that will stress your graphics card. We recommend using actual games rather than benchmarks like 3DMark, which also report temperatures. We provide detailed information on how to test your graphics card in our guide to testing graphics cards.

FurMark reports temperatures and other details when stress-testing graphics cards. In addition, it is not often representative of gaming performance, which is what most people care about, because it puts a heavy load on your GPU and may cause it to fail, especially if your GPU is already experiencing problems.

Why Monitor GPU Temperature?

During work, your GPU generates heat. If it becomes too hot, you may experience thermal throttling, resulting in dramatic performance drops. A hot GPU also places greater wear and tear on the fans in your GPU cooler, making them more likely to fail. To protect itself from damage, a GPU may even shut down at a critical temperature.

In most cases, GPUs that run too hot can be fixed. It might be as simple as giving your computer a thorough cleaning or figuring out what cooling and airflow setup is right for your PC, but you need to be aware of the problem first. Make sure your GPU’s temperature is staying within an acceptable range by monitoring the temperature.

Warning: It's a good idea to stay away from any programs in this article that include overclocking features. Overclocking can make thermal problems worse and can damage your hardware. Make sure you've read about safe overclocking before using them.

What Are The Benefits Of Monitoring GPU Temperature?

Monitoring your GPU temperature serves a variety of purposes, but they all have one goal in common: maximizing performance.

Overclocking

Keeping a close eye on the GPU’s temperature after overclocking is important. It’s very crucial to keep the GPU’s temperature in that sweet spot.

Overclocking has become a very popular hobby among gamers in recent years, leading manufacturers to carefully design graphics cards to support overclocking without compromising the integrity of their products.

Adding additional cooling may be necessary when you overclock your GPU.

It is essential to maintain a stable GPU temperature. If your GPU is overheating, consider this as your first step.

Resource-intensive games

If you play a game with higher-quality graphics for an extended period, it can strain the GPU, causing more severe issues.

It is important to know how well your graphics card can handle the load. Even if your graphics card meets the minimum requirements or even the recommended requirements, it might still have difficulty running higher graphics settings for an extended period.

The degree of damage you sustain depends on how long you ignore obvious problems while playing (such as stuttering or beeping inside the PC case). Modern graphics cards are built in such a way that they turn off before things get too hot, preventing physical damage to the graphics card.

While this may prevent other related hardware from malfunctioning, it doesn’t completely prevent the GPU from being damaged if it shuts off when it reaches dangerous temperatures. If you ignore this problem and the GPU shuts off multiple times, you may end up having to replace the card.

What’s a good GPU temperature?

Having learned which tools can be used to monitor graphics card temperatures, it is important to understand how hot they should be running.

Google is your friend if you want to know how much it differs from GPU to GPU. Modern chips can run at temperatures in the mid-90s Celsius, and they’re typically found in gaming laptops. Desktop graphics cards running at 90 degrees or higher call for attention.

Your graphics card’s temperature should not exceed 80 degrees on single-GPU systems with decent airflow unless you’re using a model with a blower-style cooler or an exceptionally powerful graphics card. Under full load, custom graphics cards with multiple fans can run in the 60s or 70s, and water-cooled GPUs can run even cooler.

How to Check GPU Temperature in Windows 10/11 [7 Methods!]

Here is the free software using which you can monitor GPU temperature in Windows 11/10:

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Windows built-in Task Manager

A convenient tool for managing processes, services, startup apps, and more is the built-in Task Manager in Windows. With Windows 10 18963 and newer builds, you can now monitor GPU temperature without using any third-party tool. The GPU temperature can be monitored under Performance in Task Manager.

GPU temperature can, however, only be viewed and monitored through Task Manager if you have a dedicated GPU, not an integrated or onboard GPU card. To use this feature, you will need an updated graphics driver. A graphics driver upgrade to WDDM 2.4 or a newer model is required.

How to check GPU temperature in Task Manager in Windows 11/10:

Checking GPU temperatures in Task Manager on Windows 11/10 is as simple as following these steps:

Using the Ctrl + Shift + Esc hotkey, open Task Manager.
Click on Performance now.
You can view several statistics about the GPU card including GPU temperature by tapping on the GPU item in the left pane.

There are several GPU statistics and information to be found, including GPU utilization, GPU memory, GPU shared memory, driver version, and hardware reserved memory.

GPU-Z

There are several basic details about your graphics card on the main GPU-Z screen, such as the GPU, memory clock, VBIOS version, and driver version. It is better to head to the Sensors tab if you want to see the current clocks on your card. A CSV file can also be imported into any spreadsheet application to log temperatures, clock speeds, fan speeds, and other details.

Try playing a game or other graphics workload with GPU-Z running on the Sensors tab — with or without logging. Make sure your GPU has had enough time to heat up completely before leaving the game or utility.

You can then exit the game or utility, and return to GPU-Z to see how things progressed. You will need to log the data to determine the peak temperature, fan speed, etc. since the column of numbers only shows the current data.

FurMark was run on an RTX 3090 Founders Edition for a few minutes. The green section on the “PerfCap Reason” indicates that the GPU is throttling performance, possibly to prevent overheating or overusing power. If you don’t interact with FurMark, you won’t see the exact temperature of the GPU, but it heats up pretty quickly.

NZXT Cam

With NZXT CAM, you can monitor your gaming PC’s CPU temperature, monitor devices, and monitor performance from one app. It is a fast, efficient, and easy-to-use application that makes controlling everything on the computer easy.

Using NZXT CAM, you can see an enormous amount of information about your computer, including the load on the processor and the amount of bandwidth consumed. You can also see exactly what the application is doing on each machine and analyze the issues quickly to improve your computer’s performance.

With NZXT CAM, you can track time played, FPS, GPU/CPU temperature, battery level, GPU/CPU load, and more with a super stable and low-impact in-game overlay.

Download the next-generation CAM software and check the temperature of your CPU with a beautiful and intuitive interface.

HWMonitor

Using HWMonitor, you can monitor your GPU, including its temperature, voltage, fan speed, power, utilization, clock frequencies, capacities, and more for Windows 11/10. In addition to GPU, CPU temperature, SSD temperature, utilization, etc., can also be monitored.

HWMonitor allows you to monitor GPU temperature by downloading and installing it on your computer. You can then launch the program and it will show you several real-time statistics about your hardware.

In the Detail section, you’ll find your graphics cards listed. When you expand the detail, you’ll see a Temperature component that shows you the GPU temperature in real time. Furthermore, you can evaluate the current GPU temperature based on its minimum and maximum values.

Whenever you want to keep an eye on GPU temperature, you can download and run this free, handy software from here.

HWiNFO

The HWiNFO system information and diagnostic software system are designed for diagnostics, reporting, and monitoring of both DOS and Windows systems.

Utilize the latest hardware technologies and standards to get in-depth information about the hardware, as well as monitor system components for failure prediction and status accurately, and customize the interface according to your preferences.

You can access comprehensive reporting through multiple reports, integrating with various add-ons and tools, and logging statuses. It also helps detect overheating, overloading, and performance loss.

As well as monitoring GPUs, CPUs, peripherals, drives, motherboards, and other hardware and system parameters, the tool also allows you to export the results into CSV, HTML, and XML reports. Furthermore, the software will display the results in various shapes, including tables, OSDs, tray icons, etc. Download the software and start investigating your computer.

MSI Afterburner

Even though MSI Afterburner can be used for overclocking, our main focus is on its monitoring capabilities. As shown in the screenshot above, the card runs Forza Horizon 5 for a while then exits and launches FurMark.

The graph shows GPU usage, temperature, core clock, and memory clocks. As a result, the GPU clocks are much lower with FurMark, allowing for lower power consumption and thermals.

The nice thing about Afterburner is that it displays the maximum value reached for each sensor, so you can see that the GPU reached 1980 MHz, for instance, while the temperature reached 73C.

You can also detach and enlarge the hardware monitor in Afterburner, and a variety of skins can also be used. The v3 skin is the one we used because we’re old and don’t like change.

If you’re interested in CPU clocks, temperatures, and utilization per core, it can monitor those data. If you want a CSV file, you can also right-click on the monitor screen and select to log the values over time.

AIDA64

Invest in AIDA64. The hardware detection engine provides detailed information about the software and offers diagnostic support and overclocking functions. The diagnostic function also identifies and prevents hardware issues, while monitoring the sensors for accurate temperature, fan speed, and voltage readings.

Moreover, AIDA64 Engineer is compatible with Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019 as well as 32-bit and 64-bit editions.

With a multi-threaded stress module, it performs system stability tests, as well as a hard disk, GPGPU, and SSD video adapter stress testing, and gives accurate results every time. The manual includes more than fifty pages of information about the hardware configuration, installed programs, security applications, and Windows settings.

With SensorPanel, you can build a custom panel that matches your design to monitor all the sensors, security, utilization, cooling, and many more. The latest release supports iPad, iPhone, and Android tablets, and lets you monitor sensor values remotely via the internet.

For this task, you will need a Windows operating system, an Intel Pentium processor, 80 MB of free space, and a Razer SwitchBlade LCD.

$199.90 is the price of the software.

EVGA Precision X1

EVGA’s Precision X1 has the same basic features as Afterburner and Radeon Software, except that it exclusively supports NVIDIA GPUs. Like Afterburner, the temperature indicator is in the middle of the first page, and it supports logging temperature data to a file.

Open Hardware Software

Open Hardware Software is an Open-source software for monitoring fan speeds, load, clock speeds, voltages, and temperature sensors in computers. It is compatible with a wide range of hardware monitoring chips.

To check CPU temperature, the tool reads sensors from AMD and Intel processors, as well as video card sensors, SMART, and hard drive temperatures.

The values are displayed in the main window and on a customized desktop gadget on 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, and 10, as well as on Linux-based x86-based systems.

It also features improvements in AMD GPU support, AMD GPU, and CPU labels, along with Nuvoton NCT679XD super I/O RPM calculation for fans. It can detect ITE IT8655E, IT8686E, and IT8665E super I/O chips now.

Start monitoring by downloading the Zip file, unzipping it, and installing the tool.

Bonus tips to keep CPU healthy

To prevent the CPU from overheating, clean your computer frequently, including the fans and the room in which it is located.
Ensure that dust particles are not attracted to the computer by windows or vents.
Regularly scan your computer for malware, viruses, worms, Trojan horses, etc., so that they do not build up.
To maintain optimal performance, drivers need to be updated regularly.
Make sure your computer’s airflow is not restricted by obstacles
You should be cautious when overclocking a CPU
If possible, increase the number of cooling fans
In case of a malfunctioning CPU fan, upgrade it
Video gaming or other intensive uses of your computer may require liquid cooling.

How to Stress Test Your GPU’s Temperature

The graphics processor will have to work hard during a stress test program, which puts a lot of pressure on your GPU. When your GPU keeps itself cool during the test without crashing, it’s a good sign it’ll perform well in a graphically demanding video game as well.

In Heaven, your camera flies through a fantasy world that features some intense graphical scenes in 3D. You can adjust the settings to suit your needs, then let your GPU work while it roams the pretty landscape. You can monitor your GPU’s temperature while it renders, and ensure it stays within acceptable limits.

To torment your GPU without seeing pretty scenery, try Furmark. Though the graphics look simple, the ‘fur donut’ is an intense workout for your GPU despite appearing to be easy to render. You should be aware of Furmark’s power because it proudly displays a charred GeForce GTX 275 in its gallery.

Your GPU will be put under tremendous stress regardless of which tool you choose. Therefore, if you don’t have the money to replace a burned-out graphics card, keep an eye on the temperature and listen for strange or distressing noises coming from your PC. In case of doubt, stop the test right away!

Why does it matter if the temperature isn’t right?

You need to work on your GPU if it runs at or above 85 degrees and its clock speed under load is lower than its advertised base clock. It is important to check your case for airflow and dust filters first. In addition, check the GPU heatsink for dust buildup and remove it if any. Reassemble your PC, test it again, and clean it.

The problem with your GPU temperature might be caused by a bad install from the factory or dried-out paste from old age, so there is a good chance your GPU cooler is not making good contact with your GPU’s core.

After about two years of heavy use, thermal grease begins to degrade and dry out, and after about four years, it can lead to significant performance loss.

Having left a GTX 780 Ti untouched for about four years, you can see that the thermal paste is no longer working and needs to be replaced. In addition to running cooler, the GPU ran much quieter when it was replaced, because the heat was finally able to dissipate properly through the heatsink, so the fan didn’t have to work as hard as it did before. Moreover, this increased performance.

You should note that disassembling a GPU is a specialist task and you should be able to do it yourself if you are proficient in disassembling electronics.

You can send your GPU to the manufacturer for repair or take it to a local PC hardware shop if you don’t feel comfortable taking electronics apart.