The first block features the CPU's status, which shows the load, temperature, clock speed and cooler fan speed.

Once installed, CAM offers a well-presented user interface (UI). While it's intended to be used with their product, it works really well as a casual monitoring tool even if you don't own any NZXT hardware. These three are just a few examples of many, and for the purpose of this how-to we'll show you how NZXT's CAM and Core Temp work because we have found that these two are the easiest to use for casual purposes.ĬAM is developed by PC case, power supply and CPU cooler manufacturer NZXT. Examples of these programs are HWMonitor, Core Temp, or NZXT's CAM. How to Monitor Your CPU's TemperatureĬhecking your CPU temperature is as easy as firing up a monitoring program and using it to read out the value. We consider an ideal stress test to be one hour long, though your maximum temperature will likely level off after 10-15 minutes. When running such a stress test, keep a close eye on the temperatures, using the tools mentioned below, and back off once they reach too high a number, i.e. More advanced users who want the utmost confidence that their CPU can handle aggressive workloads should stress test their CPU to 100% using a program like Prime95 or AIDA64. At this point, some CPUs will begin throttling, meaning the clock speed will slow down to ensure it doesn't overheat, and your PC may turn off. You have some wiggle room to creep past 80 degrees Celsius, but anything above 95 degrees Celsius (203 degrees Fahrenheit) is critical. Under load, you want your CPU to ideally stay under 80 degrees Celsius (176 degrees Fahrenheit), though some CPUs may run hotter when they're in ultrabooks, gaming laptops, or small-form-factor (SFF) computers.

This is more important than idle temperatures (assuming idle temps are fine) and you'll want to periodically monitor your CPU temperature under load to ensure it's adequately cooled during such conditions. Under higher load, such as when playing a game, rendering a video, or other intensive tasks, your CPU consumes more power and, thus, runs at a higher temperature. When the CPU is idle, or not being used by any program, a healthy temperature is anything under or around 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).

Cpu z temp monitor