Question A8 7500 wrong temperature reading (HWMonitor, OpenHardwareMonitor, Core Temp)

[Mk56TClaire]

Hi
Firstly, in case anyone never heard A8 7500, it's prebuilt PC only processor. The CPU and GPU cores are similar to A8 7600. Also afaik, apparently it doesn't have boost clock.

I have old Athlon II PC, with Jetway TA97MG motherboard. The RAM slots are getting faulty after years of usage. Fortunately I have spares so I swapped the processor and motherboard.
The new cpu and MB are A8 7500 and ECS A68F2P-M4 V1.0. The cooler is A8 7650K stock cooler (the one with red fan and 2 heatpipes). OS is still the same old Windows 7 64-bit, no reinstall (I use Paragon Adaptive Restore).

Here's the weird problem:
When I checked the processor temperature with HWMonitor, OpenHardwareMonitor, and Core Temp, all of them gives wrong reading.
How can the cpu be as cold as 10°C at idle (sometimes it gives -5°C reading)? I can feel warm air when I put my hand near the heatsink. But when I checked in the BIOS, temperature reading is right. Also HWMonitor and OpenHardwareMonitor gave right reading when I was using old processor and motherboard.
I wonder what caused the wrong readings. Is that caused by no reinstall OS when I swapped motherboard?

 

[Obakasama]

Those old AMD CPUs require AMD Overdrive for a correct reading. It does use 'thermal margin' which is the amount of headroom to overheating, so the lower the thermal margin the closer to overheating.

https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/amd-overdrive

As long as the thermal margin is positive on a full load then you're fine.

 

[Mk56TClaire]

Those old AMD CPUs require AMD Overdrive for a correct reading.

Thanks. I never use old APUs so I didn't know the 3rd party monitoring softwares are always gives wrong readings.
I tried AMD Overdrive, unfortunately it always crash after opening the program.

 

[Obakasama]

Hm... tried reinstalling it to see if it'll work?

 

[Mk56TClaire]

Hm... tried reinstalling it to see if it'll work?

Yes I reinstalled it but crashed again. Is there any other software for reliably monitor old APU temperatures?

 

[Obakasama]

Not that I'm aware of (or personally used). You've already used Core Temp, which I've seen some suggest.

Have you noticed any lag or performance issues? If games, I'm thinking MSI Afterburner might be able to detect some things but in a roundabout way.

 

[Mk56TClaire]

If games, I'm thinking MSI Afterburner might be able to detect some things but in a roundabout way.

Sorry for the late reply.
The pc isn't intended for gaming, but there is one online game installed. Here's the screencaps (also from HWinfo, HWmonitor, Overdrive crash):

Spoiler: image

Standing still on the quiet part of the lobby area, the temperature readings are 17-18 on Afterburner, HWMonitor, HWInfo.
But there are Cores on HWMonitor and CPU Package (TSI) on HWinfo. Are those the correct temperature readings?

 

[Obakasama]

I see. Not sure on the temperature readings personally, been a while since I had my x4 760k (and the reporting went the other way in being in the 100s). It was possible to cross reference making the assumption that a 1 deg C difference is a 1 deg C difference, though it did require Overdrive to work.

I was hoping to see whether Afterburner would record any drops or lag due to CPU thermal throttling. Insofar you haven't mentioned any performance issues you're probably safe (but it's nice to get confirmation). Couldn't find much on the AMD Overdrive crash unfortunately.

 

[Mk56TClaire]

I was hoping to see whether Afterburner would record any drops or lag due to CPU thermal throttling. Insofar you haven't mentioned any performance issues you're probably safe (but it's nice to get confirmation).

Oh, actually I've tested it before creating new thread here, although I haven't installed Afterburner when I did the test.
Game setting: medium (because I only use R7 igpu), iirc 1-2 hours of play. First test when before I put everything into the case. Second test, the next morning.
In quiet area the fps are between 50-60 (I think, because it's smooth enough). But when there are many people in one place, or there are many enemies in the map, the fps went down to [i guess] somewhere between 30-40 fps. If they're gone or I moved to quiet place again, the fps went back to 50-60 again.

 

[Obakasama]

From memory it doesn't sound too dissimilar to my experience with Dragon Age: Inquisition on the x4 760k; 60ish fps in an empty space but drops to 40ish fps in more heavy NPC areas. In which case it doesn't sound like thermal throttling as those are more often 'hard drops' at certain intervals.

 

[Mk56TClaire]

In which case it doesn't sound like thermal throttling

Hmm.. so although currently there is no known method to correctly read the temperature due to Overdrive always crash, will this PC be allright?
Because as I said before the pc isn't mainly for gaming (although there is one game, my leftover after moving to new pc build).
It's intended for general usage (word processing, internet browsing, etc) because the main user is my parents.

 

[Obakasama]

If a bit of gaming doesn't cause thermal throttling then general usage is even less likely to do so (less intensive workloads). Good air flow for the case and general maintenance (clearing of dust) will help in the long run to keep temperatures down.