lol, still showing gpu temp? but how?

[LanMAn]

This question can be answered by anyone but I'm sure the only one who would know is the author of HWiNFO itself. and let me state that it's not an issue, it just something i'm curious about...

so i uninstalled my graphics card(Nvidia 8800gs) driver, unchecked "GPU I2C Support", unchecked "GPU I2C via NVAPI" and also "SMBus Support". Then i ran HWiNFO again and was amazed to see me that HWiNFO is still showing "GPU Temps", and it actually looks right. So my question is how is HWiNFO still able to get my GPU temps? Not even GPU-Z can do this.

 

[Martin]

HWiNFO uses two methods to access the nVidia GPU - direct hardware access and NVAPI. When you uninstall GPU drivers, then NVAPI values cannot be reported anymore, due to the lack of NVAPI driver. However direct access is still possible, because it doesn't rely on any other driver, so that's what you see. This allows users to see certain information even before they install drivers.

 

[LanMAn]

so by direct hardware access do you mean via i2c? because i disabled "GPU I2C support". so i guess there are even more ways than just i2C?
and the temp it shows is still correct, i thought only the driver could show correct temps? or is that just i2c temp with a temperature offset added to it?

 

[Martin]

Not via I2C, but direct access to memory mapped GPU registers.
The driver in the end does a similar access to read the temperature. So HWiNFO using direct access just talks straight to the GPU.

 

[LanMAn]

Not via I2C, but direct access to memory mapped GPU registers.
The driver in the end does a similar access to read the temperature. So HWiNFO using direct access just talks straight to the GPU.

now that right there is just awsome. +1 for HWiNFO.