Monitor CPU Temp?

[borgward]

Is it possible to monitor CPU temperature in real time? 13" Mid 2010 Unibody MacBook Pro Core2Duo.

 

[arw]

How "real time" do you mean? The most recommended monitoring app is probably iStat Menus.
It refreshes once per second in its fastest interval setting.
Maybe the Intel Power Gadget has a higher refresh rate. [edit: only compatible with 2nd gen Intel Core-i and higher]

 

[mrfunnypenguin]

TG Pro is also good. You can also control the fan in programs like these. I prefer colder CPU temps over quiet fan speeds lol.

 

[AlixSPQR]

Is it possible to monitor CPU temperature in real time? 13" Mid 2010 Unibody MacBook Pro Core2Duo.

You can try iStat Pro. I have it on my MBP Late 2011.

https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/istat-pro

 

[Cham2000]

I tried Temp Monitor and TG Pro, and the values aren't the same for the same computer parts. Which one is right?

TG Pro

Maximize your Mac's performance with TG Pro. The ultimate solution for fan control and extensive temperature monitoring: CPU, GPU, SSD, and more.

www.tunabellysoftware.com

Temp Monitor

Monitor your Mac's temperature.

www.vimistudios.com

 

[mrfunnypenguin]

Which one is right?

Have noticed this as well.

 

[f54da]

Read the TC1C SMC key for core 1 CPU temperature. I believe the processor also has an MSR for temperature (IA32_THERM_STATUS). I haven't checked if these are always equivalent, they probably are since I imagine the SMC ultimately can only get the core temp from the cpu itself.

 

[Cham2000]

I finally brought TG Pro. It's a great app. Its interface is very good, much better than iStat Menu. And you can quit it, which you can't do with iStat Menu.

 

[f54da]

Fyi there's an istats cli tool which works just as well to read the smc keys

 

[RUQRU]

I finally brought TG Pro. It's a great app. Its interface is very good, much better than iStat Menu. And you can quit it, which you can't do with iStat Menu.

I switched to TG Pto from iStat Menus after iStat started causing Finder freezes. Support at iStat said this happens because of the way iStat is constantly polling the drives.

TG Pro just works but with less features.

 

[B S Magnet]

Maybe the Intel Power Gadget has a higher refresh rate.
View attachment 2171118

Intel Power Gadget may, but it was designed first for Sandy Bridge, and all subsequent revisions are for later Intel CPUs.

I have tried IPG on my C2D MBP, and it invoked an instant kernel panic when I tried launching. C2D and IPG do not mix at all.

 

[Algus]

I mix TG Pro and iStats. TG Pro is limited but better overall with what it shows. iStats provides me metrics on other things I like to monitor. Among other things I like to watch my CPU/GPU usage. It's useful feedback on how hard I am running my system

 

[f54da]

>I have tried IPG on my C2D MBP, and it invoked an instant kernel panic when I tried launching.

Yes, reading an invalid MSR will do that (power gadget has kext which it uses to expose these msrs to userspace)

 

[B S Magnet]

>I have tried IPG on my C2D MBP, and it invoked an instant kernel panic when I tried launching.

Yes, reading an invalid MSR will do that (power gadget has kext which it uses to expose these msrs to userspace)

I was aware beforehand the IPG wouldn’t work, but as it was on a mirrored image of a drive from a Sandy Bridge MBP, I wanted to know how it would fail. Namely, I wanted to verify whether it would launch-abort; run (but zeroing all readouts because there’d be nothing useful from which the IPG could pull telemetry); or kernel panic. I was not disappointed with the show when the test scroll crash log of death rolled over WindowServer.

 

[MultiFinder17]

I'm really surprised there isn't more love for MenuMeters here. I've used it for ages and it lets you show RAM, Network, Disk, and CPU usage nice and compact in the menu bar, and even includes any temp you'd like to monitor in real time. I've never had any stability issues with it, and it's always been a fantastic experience - I've been using it since around 2006 or so under Tiger.

 

[eyoungren]

I'm really surprised there isn't more love for MenuMeters here. I've used it for ages and it lets you show RAM, Network, Disk, and CPU usage nice and compact in the menu bar, and even includes any temp you'd like to monitor in real time. I've never had any stability issues with it, and it's always been a fantastic experience - I've been using it since around 2006 or so under Tiger.

View attachment 2220753

MenuMeters is what I used when I first started looking around for this stuff. It's a great tool, but I primarily moved on to iStat because it has better graphics (IMO). As a graphic designer that's pretty much the only reason. iStat is a little more customizable as well.

For what it does in this space though, MM is good.

I'm not having any of the issues with iStat that's been reported here.