On my new Windows 10 desktop I wanted an on-screen display (OSD) of system performance overlay while gaming - similar those benchmarking videos one finds on YouTube. While I don’t overclock my CPU or GPU, I still do want to know the utilization and temperatures, as these give me a hint as to whether the system is thermal throttled or bottlenecked.
This is also where you can view the system restore and startup settings, as well as other recovery options. This should load your BIOS / UEFI interface, which for many Windows 10 users will include a CPU temperature readout. Follow the steps below to enable FPS, GPU, CPU Usage in Games with NVIDIA GeForce Experience: Open the Nvidia GeForce Experience on your computer and ensure your graphics card drivers are up-to-date. Open the Nvidia GeForce Experience settings by selecting the gear in the top right.
Starting from knowing absolutely nothing, I started by trying a few tools recommended by various netizens. I started with MSI Afterburner, but removed it as I don’t like the skins, is missing temperature data for my chipset, and I’d prefer to avoid accidentally blowing up my system!
In reality, all I needed was two pieces of free software:
- RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) 7.3.0 Beta 6, which although is installed with MSI Afterburner, is actually a separate program.
- HWiNFO64 6.34-4300 which has support for my B550 / Ryzen 5000 combination.
The usual disclaimers - don’t download from untrusted sources, and don’t blindly follow what random stranges say (I am, of course, referring to myself).
There are three ways to setup the OSD, and all of them need RTSS running.
- HWiNFO sending data to RTSS, or
- RTSS using internal HAL data source (HWiNFO not required), or
- RTSS getting data from HWiFO.
In HWiNFO, Config > OSD (RTSS):
- Check Enable hotkey for toggling, and set the hotkey, I use Control-Shift-F12
- Select the stats you want sent to RTSS, and for each,
- Check Show value in OSD and any other options (I like Units in superscript)
- Define the Position (Line and Column)
- Under the Custom tab, you can rename the elements, e.g. rename
GPU Core Load
toGPU
- just to be consistent with the statistic calledCPU
which is actually the CPU temperature from the motherboard.
Note that in RTSS, the
OverlayEditor.dll
should be disabled (more on that later).Entry | Line | Column | Show Label | Colour |
---|---|---|---|---|
Total CPU Usage | 1 | 1 | Pink | |
Physical Memory Used | 1 | 2 | Pink | |
CPU (Temperature) | 1 | 3 | Y | Pink |
GPU Core Load | 2 | 1 | Green | |
GPU Memory Allocated | 2 | 2 | Green | |
GPU (Temperature) | 2 | 3 | Y | Green |
When running a DirectX game, hit the hotkey, and you’ll get something like this:
The downside is you don’t have the flexibility to design your own layout. So, on to Option 2...
In RTSS - the left side of the main window will show a list of Application profile properties with
Global
selected by default. Under that, click Setup:Navigate to the Plugins tab, check the
OverlayEditor.dll
(the check mark will darken when chceked), then select it and hit Setup. In the editor:- Click Data Sources > Edit.
- Hit Add, and under
Internal HAL
, check the statistic you want, e.g.- CPU usage
- RAM usage percent
- GPU1 usage
- GPU1 memory controller
- A couple of data elements are always available, i.e.
- Framerate (FPS)
- Frametime (ms)
- Back in the editor, click Layers > Add or hit Insert - this adds a new static label with the words
Text layer
: - Now we change it to display a statistic instead.
- Double click the newly inserted
Text layer
and in the Layer properties dialog: - Hit the + button under Hypertext.
- In the dropdown (that says
Framerate
by default), select what statistic to show, e.g.CPU usage
and check Add current value macro, then hit OK - Adjust any other properties like the text colour, background colour and alignment.
- Double click the newly inserted
- Keep adding labels for all the data elements.
- Save and close the Overlay editor.
Back in the main RTSS window, make sure Show On-Screen Display option is
On
. You can also adjust the position of the OSD relative to the corners. In the first screen shot above, I anchor the OSD to the top right corner which is shown in blue, offset by (45, 12) pixels.I designed the display to look like this:
Being able to design your own layout is rather sexy, but the internal HAL data source has limitations - it can retrieve the GPU temperature but not my motherboard and CPU temperatures.
So, on to option 3...
This is my preference, and not so complicated once you understand how it works. First off, make sure all the HWiNFOShow value in OSD that we checked previously is unchecked. We don’t want HWiNFO to send data to RTSS.
Instead we want RTSS to get data from HWiNFO, so head back to RTSS, click Setup > Plugins, check the
OverlayEditor.dll
and hit Setup. In the editor:- Click Data Sources > Edit.
- Hit Add, and under
HWiNFO64
, check the statistic you want. You can use HWiNFO exclusively or mix data sources, e.g. here I use both HWiNFO and the Internal HAL: - Back in the editor, hit Insert to add one layer per statistic to display. Layout everything the way you want it to be displayed, including graphs! To do this:
- Double click the newly inserted
Text layer
and in the Layer properties dialog. - Hit the + button under Hypertext.
- In the dropdown (that says
Framerate
by default), select what statistic to show: - Previously we displayed text by checking Add current value macro, but to display the statistic as a charts, check Add embedded graph instead.
- Select
use custom template
then hit ... to edit the graph properties, e.g. choose a graph style (bar chart, filled area chart or line chart) and set other properties:
- Double click the newly inserted
By overlaying charts for
CPU usage
, RAM usage percent
and GPU1 usage
one on top of the next, I landed up with this:You can use the menu options to set the z-order (i.e. “bring-to-front” or “send-to-back”) so that in my case, CPU is the top-most, followed by GPU, followed by RAM. The bottom most chart has a semi-transparent purple-ish background color set as well.
To summarize the options:
- If all you need is simple statistics without temperatures, Option 1. RTSS using internal HAL data source is the most resource efficient, but a bit of work to layout.
- Option 2. HWiNFO sending data to RTSS is very simple, absolutely no fuss (with fewer options), though it may be less pretty.
- But, me, I prefer Option 3. RTSS getting data from HWiFO because it gives me a more complete set of statistics, and if you take the time to design the layout, you’ll get graphs to boot!
However, Option 3 does consume the most memory. I did a non-scientific test of RAM usage by RTSS (RTSS, RTSS Encoder Server and RTSS Hooks Loader) and HWiNFO64. Strictly, since the statistics displayed were different, the results are not directly comparable, but for illustration:
Option | RTSS processes | HWiNFO64 process |
---|---|---|
1. Internal HAL | 7.8 + 1.1 + 2.8 MB | |
2. HWiNFO sending to RTSS | 4.4 + 1.1 + 2.8 MB | 25.3 MB |
3. RTSS getting from HWiNFO | 7.8 + 1.1 + 2.8 MB | 25.3 MB |
Have fun!
The RTSS overlay does not work with some games! More often than not, this applies to on-line games with some form of anti-cheat - if so, best not to use RTSS, lest it triggers a ban. Don’t loose heart, try it with another game.
Updated 2 Dec: edits for clarity, since a reader informed me he couldn’t find the Plugins in RTSS.
Added 13 Dec:
The next post RTSS layout for Cyberpunk 2077 briefly describes my RivaTuner Statistics Server setup to display the framerates.
Home >Blog > [2020] 5 Best CPU Temperature Monitor Tools for Windows
[2020] 5 Best CPU Temperature Monitor Tools for Windows
Is your computer suffering from overheating? Why not get yourself a CPU temp monitor? This article introduces 5 best CPU temperature monitor tools for your Windows PC. Let’s read and get a reliable tool to keep an eye on CPU temp as well as your computer.
by Jeremy | Jun 18, 2020
Cpu Gpu Temperature Monitor
The overheating is one of the common reasons that causes computer processors' damage. Fortunately, there are more and more people realizing the importance of the temperature monitoring. If you have no idea about how to monitor computer temperature or how to make the right choice among multiple temp monitor tools, here it is.
In the following article, we put the emphasis on monitoring CPU temp, and introduces 5 best CPU temp monitor tools in 2020. They are Smart Game Booster, Speedfan, HWMonitor, Real Temp, and AID64 Extreme. Let’s see how these CPU temperature monitor tools help our computers avoid the overheating issue, and live healthy lives.
Best CPU Temperature Monitor Tools in 2020
[Editor's Choice] Best CPU Temp Monitor for Gamers
Among multiple programs, we highly recommend you use Smart Game Booster as your CPU temp monitor on Windows. We all know that CPU usually running too hot especially when gaming, while Smart Game Booster is designed for gamers and it helps acquire in-game temperatures.
Smart Game Booster not only monitors your CPU & GPU temps inside the game, but also displays all the details of the temperatures of motherboard as well as fan speed. Once any of your hardware gets overheated and raise to an unnormal temperature, this temp monitor will give you a warning alert, effectively helping the hardware and your computer from being damaged and data loss. More importantly, its CPU temp monitor feature is completely free to use, and the interface of Smart Game Booster is top and user-friendly.
By using Smart Game Booster, you can make full use of its other advanced features, including 1-click game boost, overclock, disk defrag, free driver updater and so on, to get the better PC performance and gaming experience.
Check Gpu And Cpu Temps
Smart Game Booster 4
- Overclock Hardware
- Boost Game Speed
- Monitor PC Temperature
- Increase Game FPS
- Free Download
- Windows 10/8/8.1/7/Vista/XP
Speedfan – Popular CPU Temp Monitor
Speedfan is one of the most popular CPU temp monitors in the marketplace. The tool has very typical Windows XP interface, but don’t worry, the tool is updated on a regular basis and it provides helpful features for you to monitor CPU temperature and fan speeds. Besides the CPU temp monitor, we use its “change fan speed” function as the main feature, just like its name.
Speedfan can access digital temperature sensors on computer and change fan speeds based on the system temperatures. You are allowed to change parameters for the maximum and minimum fan speed: raise the speed to 100% when CPU gets overheated; lower the fan speed for reducing noise. In this way, you easily control the fan speeds for better performance. Speedfan is 100% compatible with Windows PC, and it works fine with all Windows OS versions.
HWMonitor – Hardware Monitoring Tool
For anyone who is looking for a great CPU temp monitor tool, HWMonitor is one of the best CPU temperature monitor programs for computers’ elements like temperatures, voltages and fans speed. It is developed by CPUID, a reliable and well-trusted software provider. Due to its frequent updates, HWMonitor supports the latest CPUs and works perfectly on Windows computers.
With this CPU temp monitor, you are able to check the temperatures of CPU, GPU, motherboard and voltages. The values will be displayed in 3 sets: current value, maximum value as well as minimum value, which makes pretty easy to catch up the situation of your PC system. If you only want a tool to monitor CPU temperature, this one is good. If you higher requirements, HWMonitor does contain the unavailability of some advanced features like fan speed control or temperature warning alarm, and it cannot meet your needs very well.
Real Temp –CPU Temperature Monitor for Intel Processors
If your computers are equipped with Intel processors, then this Real Temp is your CPU temp monitor. As one of the best CPU temperature monitor tools, Real Temp is well designed and developed for monitoring all Intel single, dual, quad core and core i5, i7 processors.
Based on temperature data gathered using a Fluke 62 IR Thermometer, Real Temp can keep track of and display your CPU temperature in real-time. Additionally, it offers useful high temp alarm and shutdown features as well.
Like we reviewed, Ream Temp is for monitoring Intel core-based processors. If your computers are running on Pentium or AMD processors, you have to look into other CPU temp monitor programs.
AIDA64 Extreme – Comprehensive Monitor Tool
No doubt, AIDA64 is another great option of monitoring CPU temperature. But in fact, it offers more than just CPU temp monitor, this feature-rich program is mostly used by power users. For example, if you have demands on overclocking your computer, you’ll like and take advantages of AIDA64 Extreme premium features.
Show Cpu Gpu Temperature Ingame
AIDA64 Extreme supports over 250 various sensor devices to monitor temperature, fan speeds, voltages and etc. Besides this, the main features include 50 pages of information on hard configuration, stress testing module, the most accurate hardware detection capability, benchmarking, software audit and much more.
See Gpu And Cpu Temps
Bottom Line
Hardware overheating issue can cause very bad results, and everyone (especially gamers who expect top gaming experience) should realize that CPU temp monitoring is essential. We hope the 5 best CPU temp monitor tools listed above can really help you out.