CPUID has just released HWMonitor version 1.65, which reintroduces the previously abandoned hotspot temperature reading for NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 50 series "Blackwell" GPU. When NVIDIA originally launched its "Blackwell" GPU lineup, the company removed the ability for popular utilities like GPU-Z and HWMonitor to access hotspot sensor data, even though the sensor was present on the die. We initially thought it was impossible to access this data again without using NVIDIA's internal tool, Modular Diagnostic Software (MODS), which is not publicly available. However, the latest HWMonitor update has restored this capability. Although we are unsure how the update accomplishes this without public API exposure, which NVIDIA restricted with the RTX 50 series, the software reportedly bypasses this limitation and successfully performs a normal hotspot reading.

An extreme overclocker known as "Madness" on X has already tested the latest HWMonitor version 1.65 on a shunt-modded and water-cooled RTX 5090 GPU, which is drawing over 900 W from the wall. Under the water block, the GPU's hotspot sensor measures around 68°C, while the normal temperature reporting shows a delta of about 17°C, indicating that the reported GPU temperature is around 51°C. Although this delta between the overall GPU die temperature and hotspot temperature isn't ideal, it provides overclockers with more detailed information about their GPUs.