TemperatureCategory

Introduction

TemperatureCategory is a string literal union type that classifies hardware temperature sensors reported by the Windows performance monitor. It is used as a field on the TemperatureReading interface to indicate which part of the system a given temperature reading originates from -- CPU, GPU, motherboard, storage device, or an unclassified sensor.

Values

Value	Description
"cpu"	CPU temperature sensor -- reports temperatures from processor thermal zones
"gpu"	GPU temperature sensor -- reports temperatures from discrete or integrated graphics hardware
"motherboard"	Motherboard chipset sensor -- reports temperatures from the motherboard chipset or VRM area
"storage"	Storage device sensor -- reports temperatures from HDD or SSD drives
"unknown"	Unclassified sensor -- a sensor whose hardware source could not be identified

Note

Categories are determined automatically by the underlying LibreHardwareMonitor library based on hardware sensor metadata. You cannot manually assign or override a sensor's category.

Usage

You will encounter TemperatureCategory when working with temperature data returned by the getTemperature() function. Each element in the readings array of the returned TemperatureSnapshot carries a category field of this type.

Typical use cases include:

• Filtering readings by hardware type -- isolate CPU temps for a dashboard widget, or check storage temps for a health alert.
• Grouping readings for display -- organize sensor data into sections on a UI panel.
• Threshold logic -- apply different warning thresholds per category (e.g., CPU critical at 90C, storage warning at 55C).

Tips

When building UI components, use TemperatureCategory to create grouped displays. For example, show all "cpu" readings in one section and "gpu" readings in another, so users can quickly scan thermal conditions per subsystem.

Example

TypeScript

import { getTemperature } from '@eisland/windows-performance-monitor';
import type { TemperatureCategory, TemperatureReading } from '@eisland/windows-performance-monitor';

// Fetch the current temperature snapshot from all sensors
const snapshot = getTemperature();

// Check if temperature monitoring is available on this system
if (snapshot.isAvailable) {
  // Define a helper to filter readings by a specific category
  const filterByCategory = (
    readings: TemperatureReading[],
    category: TemperatureCategory
  ): TemperatureReading[] => {
    return readings.filter((r) => r.category === category);
  };

  // Get only CPU-related temperature readings
  const cpuReadings = filterByCategory(snapshot.readings, 'cpu');

  // Print each CPU sensor's label and current temperature
  cpuReadings.forEach((r) => {
    console.log(`${r.label}: ${r.temperatureCelsius}°C`);
  });

  // Get only GPU-related temperature readings
  const gpuReadings = filterByCategory(snapshot.readings, 'gpu');

  // Print each GPU sensor's label and current temperature
  gpuReadings.forEach((r) => {
    console.log(`${r.label}: ${r.temperatureCelsius}°C`);
  });
}

JavaScript

const { getTemperature } = require('@eisland/windows-performance-monitor');

// Fetch the current temperature snapshot from all sensors
const snapshot = getTemperature();

// Check if temperature monitoring is available on this system
if (snapshot.isAvailable) {
  // Define a helper to filter readings by a specific category
  const filterByCategory = (readings, category) => {
    return readings.filter((r) => r.category === category);
  };

  // Get only CPU-related temperature readings
  const cpuReadings = filterByCategory(snapshot.readings, 'cpu');

  // Print each CPU sensor's label and current temperature
  cpuReadings.forEach((r) => {
    console.log(`${r.label}: ${r.temperatureCelsius}°C`);
  });

  // Get only GPU-related temperature readings
  const gpuReadings = filterByCategory(snapshot.readings, 'gpu');

  // Print each GPU sensor's label and current temperature
  gpuReadings.forEach((r) => {
    console.log(`${r.label}: ${r.temperatureCelsius}°C`);
  });
}

Notes

Note

A single system may report multiple readings within the same category. For example, a multi-core CPU often exposes several temperature sensors (per-core, package, etc.), all categorized as "cpu". Use the id field on TemperatureReading to distinguish individual sensors.

Tips

If you only care about the highest temperature across all sensors, use the maxTemperatureCelsius field on TemperatureSnapshot instead of manually iterating and comparing readings. It is null when no readings are available.

Note

The "unknown" category appears when LibreHardwareMonitor cannot determine which hardware component a sensor belongs to. This is uncommon on modern hardware but may occur with proprietary or embedded sensors. Treat unknown readings as informational only -- do not rely on them for critical thermal throttling decisions.

Danger Avoidance

Caution

Never assume a specific category is always present on every system. Not all hardware exposes temperature sensors for every category -- a fanless tablet may have no "gpu" sensors, and a virtual machine may have no temperature readings at all. Always check snapshot.isAvailable and handle cases where a filtered category returns an empty array.

Caution

Do not use TemperatureCategory string values as unique identifiers. Multiple sensors can share the same category. If you need to track a specific sensor over time (e.g., for charting), use the id field from TemperatureReading, not the category value. Relying on category alone will cause data collisions when multiple sensors share the same classification.