What is a normal CPU temperature while gaming?

What is a normal CPU temperature while gaming?
Amaar Chowdhury Updated on by

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If you’re wondering what’s a normal CPU temperature while gaming – your processor is probably running too hot. When you’re gaming, it’s important to optimize your hardware to prevent it from overheating. However, it’s difficult to figure this out yourself – so we have some suggestions for the optimal CPU temperature.

Ensuring your hardware runs at the right temperature is important as you can prevent bottlenecks between different devices. This isn’t particularly easy though, as maintaining PC hardware temperatures is physical, technical, and complicated issue.

Normal CPU temperature for gaming

Gaming squeezes the most out of your computing hardware. As we’ve seen with the recent launch of Hogwarts Legacy, which has been filled with frame drops and crashes, AAA games are obviously quite taxing and demanding on hardware. This results in extra stress on the components, which is expelled through heat.

This is a very normal, and expected, process for computer hardware, so if you feel your gaming laptop begin to warm up, don’t fret. It’s only a problem when you start wondering if it could cook an egg.

The first step in finding a normal CPU temperature for gaming is to use one of the best CPU temperature monitoring tools.

For example, we’ll be using HWMonitor to assess what the best temperature is for your CPU while gaming.

We’ve had a conversation with WePC’s CPU expert – Jack Howarth – on what’s a normal temperature for gaming, and here’s what he’s said:

“You’ll want to keep your CPU below 176°F (80°C), roughly, and ideally between the following temperatures: 167°-176°F (75°-80°C). However, if you’ve overclocked your CPU, you might expect slightly higher temperatures. If that is the case, you’re going to want to ensure you have a functioning cooler looking after your processor.

If you’re on a long-haul gaming session, your CPU temperature might exceed what we’ve recommended, but as long as your power down your PC at some point to let it cool, you should be sound.”


We hope this has helped you gather what the normal CPU temperature is for gaming. Seeing as you’re here, you might be interested in what the best CPU for RTX 4080 is, or what the best cooler is for Intel. Be sure to check back in with us in the future for more updates on CPU temperatures.