How to Check Temperature in Windows 11

Heat is the ultimate enemy of computer hardware. If the thermal paste on your CPU dries out, or if dust clogs the fans on your graphics card, your computer will literally begin to cook itself. To prevent a catastrophic hardware failure, Windows will automatically throttle your performance (making your games lag and your apps run slowly) before eventually executing an emergency shutdown.

If your Windows 11 computer sounds like a jet engine and is constantly freezing, you must check the internal temperatures immediately. Unfortunately, Microsoft does not provide a single, unified dashboard for this. You have to check the GPU natively, and use a third-party tool for the CPU.

Method 1: Check the GPU Temperature (The Native Way)

Windows 11 actually has a built-in thermometer for your Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), located directly inside the Task Manager. This is the fastest way to check if your graphics card is overheating while playing a video game.

1. Right-click anywhere on the blank space of the Windows Taskbar at the bottom of your screen.
2. Select Task Manager from the context menu. (Alternatively, press Ctrl + Shift + Esc).
3. If the Task Manager opens as a tiny, blank window, click More details at the bottom.
4. Look at the navigation menu on the left side of the window and click on the Performance tab (it looks like a small line graph).
5. Scroll down the list of hardware components on the left and click on your GPU (e.g., GPU 0 – NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070).
6. Look closely at the bottom of the right-hand panel. You will see a reading for GPU Temperature.

Note: A healthy GPU should idle around 40°C to 50°C, and will peak around 75°C to 85°C during intense 4K gaming. If it hits 90°C or higher, you have a severe cooling problem.

Method 2: Check the CPU Temperature (The Third-Party Way)

Bizarrely, the Windows 11 Task Manager refuses to display the temperature of your Central Processing Unit (CPU). To see how hot your processor is running, you must download a free, lightweight hardware monitoring tool. The industry standard is Core Temp.

1. Open your web browser and navigate to the official Core Temp website (alcpu.com/CoreTemp).
2. Click the large Download button and install the software. Crucial Warning: During installation, uncheck any boxes that offer to install bundled “freeware” or browser toolbars.
3. Open the Core Temp application.

Core Temp provides a hyper-detailed, raw data feed directly from the thermal sensors embedded inside your processor. Look at the bottom half of the window under the Temperature Readings section.

• It will list every single “Core” inside your CPU (Core #0, Core #1, Core #2).
• The first column shows the current, real-time temperature of that specific core.
• The “Min” and “Max” columns track the lowest and highest temperatures recorded since you opened the program.

How to use this data: Leave Core Temp open in the background, launch a heavy video game or render a 4K video for 15 minutes, and then check the “Max” column. If your CPU is hitting 95°C or 100°C, it is thermal throttling. You need to clean your fans or re-apply thermal paste.

Method 3: The BIOS/UEFI (The Hardware Level)

If your computer is overheating so badly that Windows 11 instantly crashes before you can even open the Task Manager, you must check the temperatures outside of the operating system.

1. Turn the computer completely off.
2. Turn the computer on. The exact millisecond the screen lights up, rapidly and repeatedly tap the Delete key or the F2 key on your keyboard. (The specific key varies depending on your motherboard manufacturer; look for a prompt on the screen that says “Press DEL to enter Setup”).
3. You are now in the motherboard’s BIOS/UEFI menu.

Every motherboard looks completely different (some are red and aggressive, others are blue and corporate), but almost all of them feature a prominent “Hardware Monitor” or “PC Health Status” dashboard right on the front page.

Look for the CPU Temp and Motherboard Temp readings. Because the computer is doing absolutely no work while sitting in the BIOS, the CPU temperature here should be very low (30°C to 45°C). If the BIOS says the CPU is at 80°C while doing nothing, your water cooler pump is likely dead, or your heatsink has completely detached from the motherboard.