How to Check your GPU Temperature? Causes & Preventions

Have you been experiencing overheating of your PC or laptop? There can be many reasons why your GPU is getting too hot. Checking its temperature can help you prevent damage. Fortunately, checking your device’s graphics card temperature is simple since Windows finally includes a way to keep tabs on the temperature. Furthermore, we’ll see what can cause overheating and what to do to cool the temperature down.

How Can I Check My GPU Temperature?

On Windows 10, you can check the GPU temperature by going to the Task Manager’s monitoring tool.

1. Open the Task Manager by either pressing Crtl + Shift + Esc, pressing Crtl + Alt + Delete, and selecting Task Manager, or by right-clicking on the Windows Start menu icon and selecting Task Manager.

2. Once the Task Manager window appears, click the Performance tab and look for your current GPU temperature listed in the GPU section.

 

This feature shows the current temperature rather than showing its history. 

Suppose you want to keep track of when temperature spikes happen and what app or action is causing it; you can keep Task Manager open on the side. Thus you will get an idea of your patterns, which will help determine and troubleshoot future issues or provide you with an early warning in case something is going wrong with your GPU.

 

What Does a High GPU Temperature Mean?

Typically, a high temperature suggests that your GPU is working hard, leading to performance problems. As the temperature builds up, the GPU will begin to self-regulate its performance in order to cool itself down. In turn, if you’re doing a task like editing videos, the process will take way longer.

For normal GPU operating temps, consider 85 ° C as the max. While under serious pressure, your GPU will surpass this level, but it shouldn’t do so on a regular basis. For any GPU, the maximum operating temperature is about 100 to 105°C.

 

Causes & Preventions of GPU Heating?

Some of the most common reasons your GPU might be heating up and what you can do to help lower your GPU temperature are outlined in the table below.

Causes	Preventions
What can make your GPU  heat up are dust particles. As dust builds up on your graphics card, it eventually loses the ability to radiate heat, and so it does not cool down the way it is supposed to.	Open up your computer cover to clean your computer and clear any dust you find. Especially on your graphics card, pay particular attention to any dust in its heat sink or fan.
You might have overclocked your GPU. which will lead to it works itself into a frenzy and overheat.	Make sure to practice safe GPU overclocking, or you may push things too far. It’s time to scale things down if you’ve overclocked your GPU. Revert your GPU to its default configuration. Your GPU might also need to be underclocked. It’ll lose some strength, but it won’t burn up.
If fans get blocked up with dust, or if they stop working correctly, they won’t manage to lower the temperature of the device’s fragile internal components. Your graphics card may have its fan, so check that one too.	Place your device in a place where your fans are able to work best. Avoid putting them on carpet, drawer, or cabinet inside. On both sides of your device, make sure there’s enough space for airflow.  You can also use alternative cooling mechanisms, such as laptop cooling stands or liquid cooling systems.
There are some more powerful GPUs than others. You can overwhelm your GPU with tasks that are too complicated or too heavy for it to handle efficiently.	After upgrading your graphics drivers to the latest versions, it is normal to see the GPU temperature rise. Consider reverting to your previous driver if your graphics card is an older model.

So, these are some ways to ensure your GPU does not heat up anymore and how you can check on the temperature. Make sure to check what is causing the GPU temperature to heat up and implement these solutions.