Valve has announced that the Steam Performance Monitor will now support CPU temperature readings on both Windows and Linux. While users on Windows will need a kernel mode driver to enable this feature, there is an option to disable it if preferred.

The beta client update states: “Performance Monitor now supports CPU temperature on Windows and Linux. On Windows this requires a kernel mode driver, and an optional way to disable it if you don’t want that.”

Operating at a kernel level offers deeper system access to read hardware sensor data but also poses security risks. Hence, users are reminded to carefully consider enabling this feature.

For those hesitant about this new functionality, it can be turned off in the settings. This enhancement completes the monitoring toolkit, filling in the gap left by previous features that already included GPU temperatures.

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(Image credit: Valve software)