So I'm highly confused at the moment. I've always used SpeedFan. But with my latest rig (Core i5 2500K, ASUS P8Z68-V/Gen 3) I'm doubting its accuracy. Basically, it was reporting CPU temps at well over 70 C with the stock cooler while running games. I thought, holy crap, I need a new cooler so I bought a CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Evo. Temps remained mostly the same (or so it appeared). Reapplied the thermal paste 3 times. I checked the BIOS CPU temp after letting run up to over 70 C and it was showing a mere 30 C.
Now I thought, there's no way it could cool that fast so I started getting suspicious. I tried out CoreTemp, RealTemp, and HWMonitor. I ran all side by side, but only HWMonitor and SpeedFan report overall CPU temps. There was a 30 degree discrepancy though. While testing it with BF:BC2 Single player, SpeedFan was reporting 70+ while HWMonitor was only reporting around 40-45. All 3 of the newcomers to my PC reported similar core temps too with SpeedFan being the only one different. It's core temp reports were at least close though and not a 30 degree difference.
Thing is, at idle, there seems to be far less of a discrepancy. HWMonitor reports 34 CPU overall while SpeedFan is reporting 42 CPU overall.
So, is SpeedFan just not accurate with Sandy Bridge, or just flat not accurate at all?
Now I thought, there's no way it could cool that fast so I started getting suspicious. I tried out CoreTemp, RealTemp, and HWMonitor. I ran all side by side, but only HWMonitor and SpeedFan report overall CPU temps. There was a 30 degree discrepancy though. While testing it with BF:BC2 Single player, SpeedFan was reporting 70+ while HWMonitor was only reporting around 40-45. All 3 of the newcomers to my PC reported similar core temps too with SpeedFan being the only one different. It's core temp reports were at least close though and not a 30 degree difference.
Thing is, at idle, there seems to be far less of a discrepancy. HWMonitor reports 34 CPU overall while SpeedFan is reporting 42 CPU overall.
So, is SpeedFan just not accurate with Sandy Bridge, or just flat not accurate at all?