PC gaming has evolved over the years and nowadays, you can see a variety of games with high-quality graphics which are a pure blessing for the eyes to see. These types of games require high-level hardware to operate them, and of course, when you use high-level hardware which costs a whopping amount, you should know which CPU and GPU temperatures are best suited for you while gaming.
Temperatures should be maintained in a stable state, to keep the long life of your hardware. Many users face different types of errors and issues which are somehow connected to the temperature issues Like if you use the CPU at a high temperature for a long time you can face the “blue screen of death” and so on.
The Big question that arises here is what are the Ideal temperatures for CPU and GPU for gaming, and how to maintain the optimal temperature while gaming? In Short, the optimal temperature for a CPU in gaming should not exceed 176°F (80°C) and in normal use, it should not rise above the limits of 167°-176°F (75°-80°C).
If you want to know how to maintain CPU and GPU temps while gaming, don’t worry because you will find the best possible ways to check and monitor your CPU and GPU temperature in this post.
Choosing the Best CPU for Optimal gaming temperatures
Whenever we talk about CPUs, no matter what they are for gaming or office, only two big vendors appear in a person’s mind. Intel and AMD. Coming back to our topic we are going to choose which one is best for gaming in terms of performance and temperatures.
But, before we start I need to tell you that the optimal temperature for a CPU in gaming should not rise above 176°F (80°C) and in normal use, it should not exceed the limit of 167°-176°F (75°-80°C).
Both the companies are offering some top-notch CPUs in their flagship gaming category and we will be discussing the pros and cons of both. If we talk about Intel we have the Core series and in AMD we can find the Ryzen series. Intel Core i9 is the latest addition to its CPU models and if we talk about AMD, then have the Ryzen-9 series like AMD Ryzen 3950X there.
Both series are made for high-level gaming and in this post, we will tell you about how you can monitor your CPU temperatures and also some tweaks to keep your CPU cool.
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How to Keep your CPU Cool?
Here are some ways to keep your CPU cool and obtain optimal temperatures.
- Clean out your Fans (Having dusty fans can be a major reason for the high temperatures and to overtake it, you can simply clean your fan on a weekly or monthly basis to have a dust-free CPU fan.
- Install a new CPU Fan ( Your old fan can give your CPU a hard time in maintaining the temperatures and you would also not like it if your CPU gets wrecked just because of the fans. If you are looking for the best fans available for CPU in the market, you can check our post on that also.) (Please add a reference to any of your posts if you have)
- Install a water cooling kit (If all the above ways do not help you to keep your CPU cool then you should install a water cooling kit on your CPU. Water cooling will help you more than any CPU cooler and are also relatively affordable.
Optimal GPU Temperatures And Some Tweaks
The most important component of PC gaming is its GPU or graphics card. All the high-quality graphics and smoother gameplay are not possible if you do not have a graphics card for gaming.
As told in the CPUs, the GPU category is also ruled by the two giant companies, AMD and NVIDIA. Both companies have a stronghold in the market and they provide some of the best GPUs available. AMD has recently launched its newest addition to its Radeon RX series and if we talk about NVIDIA, we have the RTX series there, starting from RTX 2060 to the recently released 3090. Besides, the Newly released RTX 30 series is worth buying, provided that you have the capacity to invest above $1,000 just for a GPU.
Coming on to the main point now we are going to tell you about the Optimal Graphics card temperature while gaming for both vendors.
For the AMD Radeon RX series, the temperature should not rise above 110 degrees Celsius, and for the NVIDIA RTX series, the GPU temperature should remain at the level of 93 degrees Celsius.
How to Optimize Your GPU Temperature?
If your GPU is giving you temperatures above these, then you should do the following listed tweaks.
- Clean the GPU fan and heatsink ( This looks very simple and easy but is a very effective tweak, sometimes only cleaning your GPU and making it dust-free can help in reducing the temperatures.)
- Change your System Case ( Sometimes your case can be the major reason for high temperatures of your CPU and as well as GPU, a narrow place ultimately leads to limited airflow thus adding some extent of degrees in your temperatures. If you want to choose between the best case for your System then you can check our post on the Best CPU cases available in the market) (Please add a reference to any of your posts)
- Use GPU utilities ( You can use software for GPU like MSI Afterburner and can increase the speed of your fans. This will help you a lot in keeping your GPU cool and many users have experienced low temps after this tweak.
- Avoid Overclocking (Overclocking is one of the biggest reasons for high GPU temperatures, You can simply override this by reverting the settings to the original. Although GPU Overclocking helps in increased performance but is not recommended by any Vendor.
- Use Thermal paste (Getting your thermal paste changed can help you fix this issue. The thermal paste gets old as time passes by and it is better to get it changed. You should not try this by yourself and we recommend that you should visit an experienced person to get your job done.
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How to track your GPU/CPU temperatures?
We have already explained the possible reasons for high temperature and also how to fix it for both your CPU and GPU. If you are thinking that how you can monitor your temps to take them into the idle state, then don’t worry we got this covered for you.
There are many ways to know your actual CPU/GPU temps but in this post, we will be covering the most effective and easy ways which would help you to get your results.
1. Using Bios
This is the most simple way to get the actual temps of your CPU without even wasting time on downloading third-party applications is through entering into your motherboard bios. If you don’t know how to enter the bios then don’t worry we will tell you how you can access them
- Restart your system
- Press the DEL key or F10 in some systems to access your Bios.
2. Using the GPU/CPU software
This is the most detailed way of obtaining the actual results. You can simply download the Utilities provided by the vendor to check your temps.
AMD users can use the Ryzen Master Utility to get a detailed overview of their CPU temps and for the GPU’s they can get the information from the AMD control center.
For Intel CPU holders, Intel has provided the Intel Extreme tuning Utility for its users to get every required information of their CPU including the temps as well. For now, NVIDIA does not have any particular software for its users which can help to monitor their GPU information but don’t worry you can always use third-party software to get results.
3. Using Third-Party software
If the above-mentioned ways don’t work for you then we would advise you to simply use a third-party application to fulfill all your needs. There is much software available out to get information about your CPU/GPU temps and below we are listing some of the best available out in the market.
Conclusion
We have covered everything in this post for you from the start, How to check Temps and how to fix if you have high temps. The optimal temperatures can vary as per the vendors and we will only advise you that they should not increase over 95 degrees Celsius for any vendor.
The simplest yet important question that arises in the mind of anyone is “Do the CPU/GPU temps affect performance?”
The simple answer to this question would be NO, although the temperatures affect the CPU/GPU life. And if you want a long life for your hardware, then you should keep the temperatures in an idle state. Going above that will cause you some massive hardware loss.
We hope that the tweaks we provided to you should help you in sorting out your problem. That’s it if you have any questions in your mind you can reach us by commenting in the comment section below.
