Multiple temperature readings, which to believe?

Associate
Joined
3 Jun 2007
Posts
218
I have some temperature programs, and they mainly report different temperatures.
Code:
Intel TAT: 48
CoreTemp: 45
The BIOS: 34
Everest: 32
SpeedFan: 35
Which one do I believe?

Thanks in advance,
- dark0r.
 
What CPU and motherboard have you got?

I've always tended to go with Coretemp and TAT, because they've always been within a degree or two of each other, and they read the internal temp of modern CPU's, ie the bit that's doing the work!
 
Some read the temps of the cpu itself, others, such as TAT read the individual core temps

I use TAT and go by the individual core temps.

Everest (I use ultimate version 4) shows the CPU, and both core temps.
 
Yes those are all the CPU Temperatures, which one is right though. I personally would believe in the BIOS, to say it has direct... contact to the ITE temperature-reading chip?
 
I always believe TAT + CoreTemp, and now Everest. That Everest one seems wrong thought like mine is, it has a sensor for "CPU" which is way off, more like Speedfan numbers, but it also has a "Core1" and "Core2" sensor for my C2D which reports the same as TAT and CoreTemp.
 
Saul said:
I have some temperature programs, and they mainly report different temperatures.
Code:
Intel TAT: 48
CoreTemp: 45
The BIOS: 34
Everest: 32
SpeedFan: 35
Which one do I believe?

Thanks in advance,
- dark0r.

The CPU temp is measured by a thermal diode on the CPU die, while core temps are measured by a digital thermal sensor near each core. The location of the two digital thermal sensors is significantly hotter than the location of thesingle thermal diode.

But even know that doesn't help with which of the temps we should be going by. If it's the CPU die temp then i'm fine, if its the sensor on the cores then i'm probably slowly boiling my cpu to death :p
 
Last edited:
Black Dragon said:
The CPU temp is measured by a thermal diode on the CPU die, while core temps are measured by a digital thermal sensor near each core. The location of the two digital thermal sensors is significantly hotter than the location of thesingle thermal diode.

But even know that doesn't help with which of the temps we should be going by. If it's the CPU die temp then i'm fine, if its the sensor on the cores then i'm probably slowly boiling my cpu to death :p

Oh yes I just noticed, on TAT it says "Digital Temp", so that must be what CoreTemp must go by. Is the Core temperature different to the CPU Temperate?! Must be, there is a 10oC difference :eek:
 
Tat reads from the cpu itself. Speedfan and most 'motherboard supplied monitors' such as asus probe etc read from a sensor in the cpu socket which is why it is usually lower.

Imo use either TAT (if it works on your board) or CoreTemp for accurate readings.
 
Thats the thing though, speed fan is reading from both. You have the CPU temp then you have the internal core temps. Which one is the one that we should go by? Because right now Speedfan tells me my CPU is sitting at 35C idle and the internal core temps are 50C and 51C on each core.
 
Black Dragon said:
Thats the thing though, speed fan is reading from both. You have the CPU temp then you have the internal core temps. Which one is the one that we should go by? Because right now Speedfan tells me my CPU is sitting at 35C idle and the internal core temps are 50C and 51C on each core.
You should go by the internal core's temperature, because it's the more important one.
 
Hmm even when not overclocked i still get a reading of 48C for the core temps.

Oh is there a workaround to get TAT or Coretemp to work on Vista Ultimate 64? Neither of them work for me, core temp just tells me driver fails to load and the the same message box just keeps appearing filling up my screen till i task manager out of it. Tat when installed just makes the error noise and a box flashes up on the screen and disappears before i can read it.
UAC is turned off and no i dont fancy turning off the digital signatures things as i've heard that just creates more problems, well i'm unwilling at least unless people can verify that they dont get problems through it. It's a pain not being able to use at least coretemp, i used to use it on my last machine :/
 
Black Dragon said:
core temp just tells me driver fails to load and the the same message box just keeps appearing filling up my screen till i task manager out of it.
Odd... Core Temp works perfectly fine on my Vista install. Have you tried running it with Windows XP SP2 compatability? (right click->properties->compatability tab).
 
Yeah i tried that and it didnt work. I found a thread on the coretemp forums that says it's to do with Vistas driver certification and gives you a work around her http://www.alcpu.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=211&highlight=driver+failed+load But as i said i'm a bit unwilling to disable this for the whole system.

Everest and Speedfan give almost exactly the same readings, CPU readins are the same and on the core readings Everest reports one of the cores as being 1C higher than speedfan does so i'm probably getting pretty accurate reading just a bit wary of being told my cores are running at 51C and 52C idle. The 35C that i get for the CPU reading is fine obviously but if thats not the one i should be watching then i have no idea if there is something up with my CPU as the temps of the cores only drop a few degrees when i lower the clock down to 2.5 from 3.17.
 
Black Dragon said:
Oh is there a workaround to get TAT or Coretemp to work on Vista Ultimate 64? Neither of them work for me, core temp just tells me driver fails to load and the the same message box just keeps appearing filling up my screen till i task manager out of it. Tat when installed just makes the error noise and a box flashes up on the screen and disappears before i can read it. :/

I have the exact same on Vista 64. SpeedFan is the only one i can get working and the difference in temps compared to the BIOS is sometimes 15c! Annoying cos i dont know what to trust.
 
Back
Top Bottom