How To Check Gpu On Windows

Brad Chacos/IDG

How hot is your PC'southward graphics card temperature? During normal operations, your GPU temperature shouldn't matter much—your graphics card should simply drive monitors and play games without overheating and shutting down. Just if you lot have an older PC, or if yous desire to try your hand at graphics card overclocking, beingness able to monitor your GPU temperature is vital.

The adept news? Checking your PC's graphics menu temperature is expressionless simple, especially now that Windows finally includes a native fashion to keep tabs on temps. All sorts of complimentary GPU monitoring tools are also available, and many of them can help you cheque your PC's CPU temperature, too.

Let's dig in.

How to check your graphics menu temperature

Microsoft windows 10 20h1 gpu temp edited — You can now find your discrete GPU's temperature in the Windows 10 Task Manager.

Microsoft finally answered our prayers with the Windows 10 May 2020 Update, adding a GPU temperature monitoring tool in the Job Manager. Certain, information technology took 24 years, but it's here at present!

To see how hot your graphics card is running, open the Task Managing director past pressingCtrl + Shift + Esc, past pressingCrtl + Alt + Delete and selecting Task Managing director, or by right-clicking on the Windows Start menu icon and selecting Job Manager. One time you're in, only caput to thePerformance tab and await for your current GPU temperature listed in the GPU section, as shown in the image in a higher place. This works merely if you lot have the Windows x May 2020 Update or a newer version of Windows installed; older versions lack the capability.

It'due south a bare-bones feature, showing only the electric current temperature rather than tracking it over fourth dimension. Information technology can also be abrasive to keep Task Manager open while y'all're gaming or fine-tuning an overclock. While nosotros're very glad to run into the option finally included in Windows itself, 3rd-party tools offer more robust GPU temperature options. Read on for alternatives if you demand more than oomph.

If you're running an AMD Radeon graphics card with an up-to-date version of the Radeon Settings app, keeping tabs on your graphics menu temperature is simple. AMD's Radeon Overlay provides handy-bang-up tools to tweak your game's visual settings when you lot summon it. It also includes a Performance Monitoring tool that displays your GPU temperature and other crucial data while y'all're playing games.

To actuate the tool, summon the Radeon Overlay by pressing Alt + R and select which performance aspects yous'd like to go on tabs on in the Overlay's Functioning Monitoring section. Once it's set up up, y'all tin bring upward the Functioning Monitoring tool alone by pressing Crtl + Shift + 0.

What if you're not actively playing a game? You can still check your Radeon GPU's temperature by wading into the Wattman overclocking tool in Radeon Settings. Right-click on the Windows desktop, select Radeon Settings, and and so head to Gaming > Global Settings > Global Wattman. After promising not to blow upwards your graphics bill of fare if you apply a wild overclock with the tool, you'll gain admission to Wattman, which tracks GPU temperature and other key statistics in graph course. Washed!

But what if you lot aren't packing Radeon hardware? Nvidia's GeForce graphics incorporate a whopping 75 percent of all GPUs in gaming PCs, according to the Steam hardware survey. After years of ignoring performance overlays, Nvidia's GeForce Experience software now includes those metrics, including the crucial GPU temperature, though it involves jumping through a few more than hoops for now.

To enable information technology, make sure you have GeForce Experience installed. Once it is, open it upward, then click the cog icon side by side to your proper noun to open the Settings. Turn on the "In-game overlay" choice.

gfe overlay — A screenshot showing how to enable GeForce Experience's operation overlay.

Click the Settingsbutton, and in the overlay that appears, selectHUD Layout > Performance > Avant-garde, and select where you'd like the overlay to appear on-screen. Yous'll run across the overlay appear in the called identify with several metrics visible, including your GPU temperature. PressAlt + R to summon or dismiss GFE'due south performance overlay at will once y'all've got it prepare up.

Many graphics card makers also offer specialized software that enable GPU overclocking. These tools usually include persistent on-screen brandish (OSD) options that show your graphics carte du jour's most disquisitional measurements, similar to AMD's Radeon Overlay. Tons are bachelor, only we tend to recommend MSI's Afterburner tool for its versatility. This long-popular utility works with both Nvidia GeForce and AMD Radeon graphics cards, and provides several additional features gamers volition welcome.

evga precision x1 — EVGA's Precision X1 lets yous check your GPU temperature either in-app or via an on-screen display while gaming.

If you prefer a more polished-looking app, nosotros admire EVGA'southward Precision X1, which was overhauled from the ground upward for the release of Nvidia'south new GeForce RTX twenty-series graphics cards. Information technology's seriously slick, though EVGA's software only works with Nvidia-make graphics cards.

You'll need to dive into the settings options of each of those programs to activate and fine-melody their OSD functioning monitoring tools, which evidence very helpful indeed when you're trying to dial in an aggressive overclock. As with AMD and Nvidia'southward tools, you lot can also open Afterburning and Precision X1 outside of games to check your graphics card's temperature outside of games.

What if you're non a gamer or don't care about checking your GPU temperature in-game? So yous'll want to install hardware monitoring software that taps into your arrangement's temperature sensors. HWInfo is our get-to monitoring program, because it provides a snapshot of about every aspect of your PC (click the Sensors icon to see temps), but SpeedFan and Open Hardware Monitor are solid options, also. Open Hardware Monitor too supports Linux.

hwinfo gpu temp — HWInfo's sensor info includes GPU temperatures and a lot more than. Awhole lot more.

If the sparse, data-dumbo look of those enthusiast-focused apps don't piece of work for yous, NZXT'due south superb CAM software performs the same task, fifty-fifty if you don't take any NZXT hardware in your PC. It offers a make clean, straightforward aesthetic and a handy mobile app for remote monitoring, but yous'll demand to create an business relationship to use CAM.

What's a good GPU temperature?

So now you know what tools tin aid you monitor your graphics card temperature, but numbers on a screen mean nothing without context. How hot should your graphics card run?

In that location's no easy respond; it varies from GPU to GPU. Google is your friend. Most modern chips can run at temperatures in the mid-xc degrees Celsius, though, and you lot'll often see them hit those temperatures in gaming laptops. In desktops, however, a graphics menu running at 90-plus degrees is screaming for help. In single-GPU systems with decent airflow, your graphics card temperatures shouldn't wander above the 80-degree range unless you're using a model with a single blower-style cooler, or an exceptionally powerful GPU. Custom graphics cards with multiple fans oft hover in the 60s and 70s, fifty-fifty nether full load, and h2o-cooled GPUs tin run even cooler.

radeon vega 64 liquid c — Some graphics cards, like this iteration of the Radeon Vega 64, include integrated closed-loop liquid coolers for even cooler temperatures.

If your graphics bill of fare was released in the final v years and runs hotter than 90 degrees Celsius, or y'all've observed a steep incline in your GPU temperature over several weeks or months of monitoring it, consider taking steps to help cool information technology down.

How to lower your graphics carte du jour temperature

If your graphics card temperature runs hot, there's not much you can do to ameliorate it aside from paying for hardware upgrades. Just before you invest more money into lowering your GPU temperature, brand sure that you really demand to. Over again: Graphics chips are designed to handle hot temperatures. If your PC isn't shutting down in the eye of intense gaming or video editing sessions, you lot probably don't have much to worry well-nigh.

First, double-cheque your system'due south wiring to brand sure the GPU is getting good airflow from your fans. Assuming your PC isn't a rat's nest of cables, you'll probable need to consider adding more fans to your case to meliorate airflow. Every PC should take at least intake and outtake fans for optimal functioning, and that goes doubly so for gaming PCs.

You tin find basic instance fans for nether $10 on Newegg, or swankier models with features like RGB lighting and magazine-lev suspension for much more if you lot want to get fancy. Our guide to setting upward your PC's fans for maximum system cooling can assist if you need information technology.

maingear geforce rtx 2080 ti pc — Your hot graphics card could cool down in a more spacious case.

Small form cistron systems tin can deliver a big punch these days, merely the constrained space can send hardware temperatures skyrocketing. If you have a particularly small case, and your graphics card keeps overheating and shutting downwards, consider upgrading to a more spacious model. Fifty-fifty larger cases can strangle airflow if they're poorly designed, yet. Our guide to picking the perfect PC case can help.

Finally, sometimes the thermal paste between the GPU and the heatsink can go dry and lose its effectiveness, most commonly in graphics cards that are many years old. And sometimes, graphics cards ship with poor thermal paste application, though it's very rare. Yous could endeavour to replace it if all else fails, though the procedure is highly technical, varies menu-by-card, and voids the hell out of your warranty. Our guide to making your old graphics card run like new is several years old, but the basic technique however applies to today'southward GPUs.

If you really wanted to get adventurous in your quest for lower temperatures, you could swap out your graphics card's cooling system for a liquid-cooling option while yous've got it disassembled, though it's overkill for most people. We've got a guide to water-cooling your GPU, and hot-running enthusiasts with zilch to lose might discover the upgrade worthwhile. "I saw significant reduction in heat and racket by going with liquid, and none of the throttling I saw on air cooling," hardware editor Gordon Mah Ung wrote after using a Corsair bracket to attach a CPU airtight-loop liquid cooler to a reference Radeon R9 290. "For a 20-minute project with a $35 subclass, that's non bad."

Just be sure to Google a disassembly guide for your specific graphics menu model earlier you start trigger-happy your precious, pricey hardware apart willy-nilly. And if you don't want to get to all that hassle, our constantly updated guide to the best graphics cards for PC gaming tin can help you pick out an all-new GPU lickity-split.

Editor's note: This article was last updated to refine the process for summoning temps via GeForce Experience, now that the feature has left experimental status.

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