"Core Temp" - A program for accurate K8 temperature monitoring

Question for DFI LanParty NF4 users (Ultra-D, SLI-D, SLI-DR, whatever):

How far off is your idle temp from what CoreTemp is telling you?

I'm using the MBM from DFI-Street, which most people probably use too because how else do we get it to wrok with our DFI boards.... and i'm reading 33 idle for my Opteron 170, but CoreTemp is telling me I'm at 37/39 for the 2 cores. Once I shoot up stress prime, my load reads 56/52 for the 2 cores. MBM is telling me I'm only at 41.

?????????????????

Which is correct?

Are you guys using any offset in bios?

Edit: With my Panaflo running full blast and an XP-120, should my temps really go that high?????

Edit #2: It says my casemax is 49 degrees, does this mean I'm killing my CPu because its running in the 50s according to CoreTemp?

Ahh, so yea just curious what excalty does this program read to produce the microarchitecture code name.... I just ran it on my secondary (3700+) and it Reads "Toledo" now my stepping for that chip is CCBIE which is a dual core opteron stepping... so whats it reading the chipitself or stepping?

Do i have a hidden core somewhere?

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/yaddam205/piv.jpg

Yep, you have a failed dual core chip. Nice TDP though.

@The Coolest

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AMD chips report the temperature by a special register in the CPU's NB. The way the temperature is calculated like this: 'Core Temp = Value - 49'.
They can report temperatures between -49C and 206C

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can you tell me which register you are using? or atleast point me to the data sheet where you got the info from?
thx in advance

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Originally Posted by Dragoran

@The Coolest

can you tell me which register you are using? or atleast point me to the data sheet where you got the info from?
thx in advance

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In the RevF K8 BIOS Design Guide
Its the Thermtrip Status in the NB registers, in my PDF its on page 163

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Originally Posted by yaddam205

Ahh, so yea just curious what excalty does this program read to produce the microarchitecture code name.... I just ran it on my secondary (3700+) and it Reads "Toledo" now my stepping for that chip is CCBIE which is a dual core opteron stepping... so whats it reading the chipitself or stepping?

Do i have a hidden core somewhere?

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/yaddam205/piv.jpg

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As was said above, you have a failed dual core.
I chose to make the program report the code name of the actual core that is used and not the code name for a given chip (in your case it'd be San Diego).

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Originally Posted by dmo580

...

Which is correct?

Are you guys using any offset in bios?

Edit: With my Panaflo running full blast and an XP-120, should my temps really go that high?????

Edit #2: It says my casemax is 49 degrees, does this mean I'm killing my CPu because its running in the 50s according to CoreTemp?

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1) I think that the higher temps are probably the correct ones, but we can't be 100% sure.
2) The TCaseMax == 49C now appears as "Unused" in official AMD docs, it will not be shown in the next release, I would just ignore that.

And one more thing.
Thanks Praz for having answers and sharing them with everyone. I don't think there's anything more I could add to them :)

I'm getting a 10 degree difference between cores on my x2 4200, but I know its not bad IHS contact because I took it off, lapped it (not the core side, the HSF side), and re-attached it with AS5.

Is this a technical issue with dual core chips?

@The Coolest
thx I have found it ;)

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Originally Posted by The Coolest

In the RevF K8 BIOS Design Guide
Its the Thermtrip Status in the NB registers, in my PDF its on page 163

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Have you come across anything that either states or can be inferred what the accuracy of the thermal sensor is? I have read in several AMD papers the accuracy (or lack there of) of the thermal diode but nothing on the sensor. Since the thermal sensor is being used to set Thermtrip I would assume the accuracy is pretty good. But there still has to some type of margin of error.

Nope, I haven't found any indicators on accuracy either.

Ambient: 20c

Core #1: Idle 22-26c
Core #2: Idle 26-30c

Something's not right, my coolant temperature is 25.5c right now O.o

*double post*

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Originally Posted by creidiki

Ambient: 20c

Core #1: Idle 22-26c
Core #2: Idle 26-30c

Something's not right, my coolant temperature is 25.5c right now O.o

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As I've said like a million times now:
The program is only as accurate as the sensor. It could be poorly callibrated, and underreport.

It´s the sensor that reads the temps the program only report them.

My processor seems a little too hot!!! I've never seen this 10°c extra before. Where does it come from? Is it legit? 62°c seems way exagerated. But maybe it's the real value? I'm puzzled. It doesn't make sense to have a Tcasemax of 55 and gettign to 62 (and eve 65...) no prob for a whole day... It's literally 10°c added to the temp I'm used to read.

So if I understand it properly, this is the right temp, and the 10°c less is the wrong temp. So, in my bios, I shoudl adjust the fan speedup according to this temp not the temp I'm used to read which is 10°c less(?). Say if it's above 40 (meaning 50 from this prog), then i should speedup the fan to cool.

Also A64Info 0.61 seems to report same temp reading from it's core 0 section then Core Temp Beta 0.9.0.91. This coudl explain why I would get hangs at cpu temps of 48-50°c.

it says i idle about 7c higher than mbm says. thats not cool. first time i used core temp, the sensors flipped out, going from -20 to 200c, and my computer shut off. if my temps are really that high, i guess i have to underclock :( my load temp according to coretemp is 60c. i dont believe that. the heatsink gets warm to the touch, 60c wouldnt be just warm.

theres a 4-6c difference between core 1 and core 2, core 2 idles higher and loads 1-2c lower. core temp says my processor has a 65w TDP, but its a 110w :(

People are reading way too much into this. All these programs are accurate to the point of reporting the temperatures that they are receiving. The only thing that is certain at this time is there is no way of knowing how accurate any temperature data is from any AMD processor. All these reading should be used as guidelines only. I think all the authors of these programs will agree.

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Originally Posted by breakfromyou

it says i idle about 7c higher than mbm says. thats not cool. first time i used core temp, the sensors flipped out, going from -20 to 200c, and my computer shut off. if my temps are really that high, i guess i have to underclock :( my load temp according to coretemp is 60c. i dont believe that. the heatsink gets warm to the touch, 60c wouldnt be just warm.

theres a 4-6c difference between core 1 and core 2, core 2 idles higher and loads 1-2c lower. core temp says my processor has a 65w TDP, but its a 110w :(

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you have a 110w chip, the TDP isn't the same thing as the 110w rating...

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Originally Posted by Praz

People are reading way too much into this. All these programs are accurate to the point of reporting the temperatures that they are receiving. The only thing that is certain at this time is there is no way of knowing how accurate any temperature data is from any AMD processor. All these reading should be used as guidelines only. I think all the authors of these programs will agree.

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Exactly.

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Originally Posted by breakfromyou

my load temp according to coretemp is 60c. i dont believe that. the heatsink gets warm to the touch, 60c wouldnt be just warm.

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one thing to consider is that no matter what your thermal contact is like, the heatsink will still be removing about the same amount of heat: the amount of heat the chip is producing.

if you have bad thermal contact, the chip will still be putting out roughly the same amount of heat. it'll just get a lot hotter due to the thermal resistance from ihs -> heatsink ;)

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Originally Posted by Praz

People are reading way too much into this. All these programs are accurate to the point of reporting the temperatures that they are receiving. The only thing that is certain at this time is there is no way of knowing how accurate any temperature data is from any AMD processor. All these reading should be used as guidelines only. I think all the authors of these programs will agree.

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so now, tell me the point of all these programs then? most people already have speedfan or something else which is just as inacurate as this little app.

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Originally Posted by Dave_Sz

so now, tell me the point of all these programs then? most people already have speedfan or something else which is just as inacurate as this little app.

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1. I prefer the temps it gives me.
2. It uses minimal mem. (Good for Screen Shot while benching)
3. Only displays what I need.

I dont really know what program to trust anymore.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y55...eTempvsMBM.jpg

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Originally Posted by yaddam205

1. I prefer the temps it gives me.

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I also prefer the temperatures reported by the thermal sensor.

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Originally Posted by Dave_Sz

so now, tell me the point of all these programs then? most people already have speedfan or something else which is just as inacurate as this little app.

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Although there is really no way of knowing the accuracy of the sensor or the diode I think a couple of assumptions can be made. The thermal sensor is what AMD decided to use to supply temperature data to the ThermTrip register. Evidently they feel this sensor is accurate enough to protect the processor in case of overheating. By their own admission they state the thermal diode could read as much as 14C low in a worst case scenario . They also state that manufacturers should not use the diode for thermal management design.

Since the sensor is used to protect the processor a person wouldn't expect an error of accuracy of more then ± a few degrees. AMD states the diode reads ~4C cooler then the center of the CPU junction (which is the hottest area) and ~1.8°C additional thermal margin should be used when using the thermal diode instead of the die surface temperature. Instead of a worst case scenario for the diode if a person uses a 6 or 7 degree of inaccuracy then both the sensor and the diode come close to reporting the same temperature.

I just tested another proc with this program. I trust the program but I'm wondering if there's any reason why 1 core would have about 13C difference than the other. I've remounted and repasted about 3 times but no difference.

Just wondering if there are any theories as to why 1 core would be so much different to the other besides the mount. I"m just using the stock amd cooler on a X2 3800.

Which core is reading off so much? Usually it's core 0. It appears that AMD only calibrated 1 sensor on dual core processors. Core 0 for the processor in my sig always read a couple of degrees below ambient at idle.