Stress Testing

[Nexus]

What programs do you use to stress test your systems and what do you consider a stable overclock.

 

Personally I use prime 95 and run for 24 hours.

I use a 30 min run of furmark to test gpu overclocks.

[T.Vengeance]

I use a 30 min run of furmark to test gpu overclocks.

Hehe, I go the extra mile. I run Heaven Benchmark for an hour. 30min used to be my stop time, but then there was one time where it crashed at 48min. So I'm like..nope...now I gotta do it for an hour...then run it for 8 hours while I sleep LOL.

[Nexus]

Hehe, I go the extra mile. I run Heaven Benchmark for an hour. 30min used to be my stop time, but then there was one time where it crashed at 48min. So I'm like..nope...now I gotta do it for an hour...then run it for 8 hours while I sleep LOL.

Seriously 8 hours of furmark? Isnt that bad for the card due to the way it loads it?

[D3MON]

An hour of AMD overdrive and/or an hour of prime 95 blend, occasional small fft and large fft.
Never had a crash due to unstable overclocks (after an hour that is when i used to.) and i don't have the time or money to run them for a month to see if they're stable in a scenario they're likely to never come across, its not a server, nothings ever perfect and if you can do without your pc for 3 days you probably don't need it. the most demanding thing i do is convert the odd video with freemake for maybe an hour or 2 and even then its at 90% (2 pass on a phenom b55).
occasionally run intel burn test to test temps if i dont already have prime 95 or AOD installed..
ill sit and watch furmark for maybe 20-30 minutes for any artificating, if its up to temp and not doing it after 20 mins its probably fine.
still wanting to get a copy of memtest 86 but the inability to test in windows is annoying.

[kaneandtaker]

I often use more than 1 stress test software just to be sure.

 

CPU

- 2 hours of Prime 95

- 5 runs of Intel Burn Test

- Maybe a few runs of OCCT if I feel like it.

 

GPU

- 2 hours of Heaven benchmark

- 50 runs of Metro 2033 ingame benchmark

- 50 runs of Crysis 1 ingame benchmark

- 10 mins of OCCT

 

Might not be an ideal stress test for rock stable overclock, but the most intensive stuff I do on my desktop is gaming so I only need a gaming stable overclock not a rock solid one.

[D3MON]

Seriously 8 hours of furmark? Isnt that bad for the card due to the way it loads it?

technically its only going to get as stressed as it would in a game, the difference is not many people game for 8 straight hours so while its no more "damaging" or "stressful" you are putting the card under abnormal conditions so if something "might" be on the edge it'll probably be pushed over.

jurys out on this 1, that said if you can burn 200Watts of electric for 8 hours you probably dont care about the price of a graphics card.

[D3MON]

I often use more than 1 stress test software just to be sure.

 

CPU

- 2 hours of Prime 95

- 5 runs of Intel Burn Test

- Maybe a few runs of OCCT if I feel like it.

 

GPU

- 2 hours of Heaven benchmark

- 50 runs of Metro 2033 ingame benchmark

- 50 runs of Crysis 1 ingame benchmark

- 10 mins of OCCT

 

Might not be an ideal stress test for rock stable overclock, but the most intensive stuff I do on my desktop is gaming so I only need a gaming stable overclock not a rock solid one.

how long does it take to run those benchmarks? and unless im mistaken heaven fully loads the gpu? if you can pass 2 hours of that id say your wasting good gaming time with the others, 2 hours of heaven then get gaming  :D

[Godlygamer23]

Seriously 8 hours of furmark? Isnt that bad for the card due to the way it loads it?

Some games stress out cards pretty badly similar to Furmark. One being Planetside 2.

[T.Vengeance]

Seriously 8 hours of furmark? Isnt that bad for the card due to the way it loads it?

Yeah I tried furmark before, but quickly realized how hot it made my graphics card. So i settled with Heaven Benchmark and just set it to max settings. Anyways, I have a 660ti so max settings would still be a good stress test.

[Nexus]

technically its only going to get as stressed as it would in a game, the difference is not many people game for 8 straight hours so while its no more "damaging" or "stressful" you are putting the card under abnormal conditions so if something "might" be on the edge it'll probably be pushed over.

jurys out on this 1, that said if you can burn 200Watts of electric for 8 hours you probably dont care about the price of a graphics card.

I've never thought about it in terms of power consumption before. Now that I think about it it would cost a fortune.

I thought that fur mark was considered dangerous just because it runs the GPU at a constant 100% load which is unrealistic compared to any game. This means temps are way higher which causes damage.

[kaneandtaker]

how long does it take to run those benchmarks? and unless im mistaken heaven fully loads the gpu? if you can pass 2 hours of that id say your wasting good gaming time with the others, 2 hours of heaven then get gaming  :D

 

I thought so too, until when I passed 2 hours of Heaven benchmark but crashed in Metro Last Light after 20 mins...

[T.Vengeance]

that said if you can burn 200Watts of electric for 8 hours you probably dont care about the price of a graphics card.

Au contraire, at 7.8 cents per kWh, its not that much :P

http://www.torontohydro.com/sites/electricsystem/residential/yourbilloverview/Pages/ElectricityRates.aspx

[D3MON]

I've never thought about it in terms of power consumption before. Now that I think about it it would cost a fortune.

I thought that fur mark was considered dangerous just because it runs the GPU at a constant 100% load which is unrealistic compared to any game. This means temps are way higher which causes damage.

im currently paying 15.7 pence/KW/hour

at a total system draw of 400w thats about 6p per hour, but for 8 hours thats 50p (figure a dollar) IF you only run it once, overclocks fail and if it fails after an hour you have to go back and do it all again which adds up, if it doesnt do it after an hour/2 hours id say it was fine...

also if your a pc gamer you might try different cards over the course of a year...for a long time.......multiple times... in multiple benchmarks.

plus thats time your monitor is probably on and the ret of your system and you're probably not doing anything else now are you...

and a gpu and a cpu can only do so much work, giving it more to do doesnt make it work harder, if its maxed out its maxed out....

most games would/should max out a graphics card and therefore reach the same temps and probably the same type of demands (except maybe games like last light that could be buggy?).

if your gpu isnt maxed out but you're cpu is you're cpu bottlenecked and need to overclock or upgrade.

if your cpu and gpu isnt maxed out its either a weak flash style game (learn to fly) or the drivers arnt working properly.

[James_AJ]

I actually used to play 30+ tabs of YouTube 4K videos on multiple browsers before I saw any videos (linus's video) about stress testing..

 

stupid, yes, but it kinda works (but it kinda doesn't)

[James_AJ]

And also, I know YT doesn't play 4K videos yet, but.. well, flash IS inefficient and it really pushes my computer

[mgsstar]

I use Prime95 for at least 12 hours and few passes of Memtest to test my memory. Heaven benchmark and gaming to test my graphics card.

[MzCatieB]

:D i make mine run a render on blender doing Cycles at 100 passes over 250 frames... it puts either the CPU or the GPU under 100% strain through the entire process and if i feel i need more, i put it up to 1000 passes which takes anything up to 20mins a frame so.... yh.

 

if any1 wants to try this i could upload it for download, and do some documentations on setup, blender is free and i consider it to be a real use software

[deafboy]

IBT for quick checks

Prime when I believe it to be reasonably stable, run for 36 hours

When I believe it to be stable, fold 24/7 to check for full stability.

[ofr057]

I find freezing keys in a block of ice or loosing internet connection usally a good way at testing my stress.

 

I dont run over clocks since it gets too hot here over summer to reliably trust it.

so i dont stress test it