Best way to stress test a CPU

[Human_Error()]

Hi, I'm a little new to the CPU overclocking world, and I was wondering what your opinions were on the best way to make sure that an overclock is stable? For example, How long do you stress test prime 95 for etc.

 

Thanks in advance!

[_ASSASSIN_]

Intel Burn Test. You can use Prime95 but I don't really recommend it.

[Bingbing10]

Prime 95 , download that at let it run for a couple of hours , that will do the trick 

[ttam]

Prime95 for older versions. I use Aida64 for 4xxx and 3xxx series and usually let it run for a few hours to be safe. If it's a higher overclock, overnight

[X1XNobleX1X]

Hi, I'm a little new to the CPU overclocking world, and I was wondering what your opinions were on the best way to make sure that an overclock is stable? For example, How long do you stress test prime 95 for etc.

Most people prime 95 for at least 24 hours to make sure an over-clock is stable.

But 12 hours should be enough

Also use Intel burn test, it's a lot better

[Titanicium]

What CPU? Prime95 can damage Haswell so either Aida64 or intel Burn Test for that and the same plus Prime95 for the rest  

[Human_Error()]

What CPU? Prime95 can damage Haswell so either Aida64 or intel Burn Test for that and the same plus Prime95 for the rest  

I have a Intel i7-3820 (LGA 2011)

[d33g33]

Aida64

[Titanicium]

I have a Intel i7-3820 (LGA 2011)

 

Then choose between those 3 Prime95 is probably easiest, but maybe that's just me :unsure:

[deathjester]

On haswell on anything less then dual rad water cooler.

 

Prime 95 blend only and I would only run a round unless you are on water.

 

Aida for long testing and Realbench from Asus.

 

Aida you are aiming for around 75C temps as it runs a little hotter then a normal encode.

 

H 264 on real bench will show you your top real world temps. It is basically handbrake encoding a video.

 

To test cache OC check just cache in Aida. This will find instability MUCH faster then testing everything.

 

To test a memory overclock. Round of prime blend and if it passes mem test over night. If it passes a round of prime you are prob stable. Prime finds memory instability really well.

 

I wouldn't touch Prime non blend or even second round of prime blend without a dual rad water cooler. I wouldn't touch IBT without one either. On Ivy they were too hot. On Haswell they are chip suicide.

 

Testing hours on end is a complete waste of time and I wouldn't bother unless you were on dual rad water. Play some games. If you can encode/pass aida  for awhile you are most likely 100 percent stable. Bf4 is a good test. Game crashes left and right if you aren't stable.

[Human_Error()]

Thanks everyone for the responses! Didn't think so many people would respond so soon   

[TheEpicCanadian]

Thanks everyone for the responses! Didn't think so many people would respond so soon   

The LTT forum is quite good at quick responses.

[Theo]

What CPU? Prime95 can damage Haswell so either Aida64 or intel Burn Test for that and the same plus Prime95 for the rest  

Do me a favor and verify something for me ( ive the same CPU)

Download HWmonitor and CPUz and look at the CPU Vcore reading.

Run Prime95 and Aida 64 and see which one makes the CPU pull more V 

Im pretty sure its going to be Aida pulling more

[deathjester]

Do me a favor and verify something for me ( ive the same CPU)

Download HWmonitor and CPUz and look at the CPU Vcore reading.

Run Prime95 and Aida 64 and see which one makes the CPU pull more V 

Im pretty sure its going to be Aida pulling more

 

Let prime go past a full round. Check HW monitor and look at temps. The first round on blend is about same temps, sometimes slightly lower then Aida. The second round on prime is where the proverbial @#%^ hits the fan even on blend. Seeing that most people test "a few hours" or overnight, prime isn't good anymore for long tests, unless you are on water.

 

I still absolutely love prime blend and will always use it, but I don't bother running it past a round. It's still probably the best program to find memory instability (other then long memtests) and will find system instability VERY fast in one round most of the time. For long tests? It just runs too damn hot. 

 

Aida 64 is a good program, even though it isn't free. It is much better at finding your max cache and finding your lowest VCCIN (lowers temps also) and almost as good as prime blend for long testing, while running a bit cooler. You can have temps display on a Logitech keyboard etc.

 

Now if you are on water? Yeah you don't need Aida (finding max cache is a pain without it). Prime is fine. Prime blend will be and will always be awesome, especially considering its free. 

 

Hell people with dual rad water run intelburntest, but that would throttle an air SLIGHT oc.

 

I think everyone can agree prime is AWESOME. It just runs a little too hot on Haswell past round one. 

[mgsstar]

Intel XTU for at least 12 hours or AIDA64 (cpu,fpu,cache,ram for a couple of hours.

[brob]

In an overclocking paper on the X79 platform, Asus recommends against using Prime95 for stress testing. The opinion was that it did not fully exercise the cpu and tended to ramp temps in an undesirable fashion. The recommendation was to use a product designed for cpu stress testing like Aida64. I see no reason to doubt that the advice is equally valid on other Ivy Bridge and on Haswell platforms.