Abstract: A melting hearth includes high temperature walls, a melting cavity having a specific topography, and conformal fluid cooling passages configured to provide a flow path for a cooling fluid that is substantially parallel to the topography of the melting cavity. In addition, the topography of the melting cavity mirrors a heat signature of a heat source used to melt a feed material in the melting hearth into a molten metal. A cold hearth melting system includes the melting hearth, a magnetic stirring system, the heat source having the heat signature, a tilting mechanism for tilting the melting hearth to a desired tilt angle, and a fluid cooling system having a fluid source in flow communication with the conformal fluid cooling passages. A process for producing high temperature metal alloys uses the cold hearth melting system and an algorithm for controlling the pouring of the molten metal from the melting hearth.