StrangerGuy
Diamond Member
Not Prime stable = Not fully stable
/thread.
/thread.
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Do I need Prime95 Stability?
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robertk2012
Platinum Member
Well if I jump off a 20 story building in some cases I might die but not in all. Does that make it a good idea to do it? I seen a case where a guys parachute failed to open and he crashed into the ground only to get up brush himself off and walk away. Again care to try that?
I dont know about most people but I need my data for more than months or maybe thats just MY opinion.
A good overclock is a stable overclock...PERIOD. If you dont believe data corruption can occur from an unstable overclock then your defiantely DO NOT need to be giving advice on overclocking.
bunnyfubbles
Lifer
I'd rather not go through a 15 hour encoding session only to find out its horribly messed up at some point in the process, but otherwise looks fine. If my 165 could do 3GHz unstable (but usable) then MAYBE I'd consider using it for somethings over my stable 2.6, but choosing between unstable @ 2.7 and stable @ 2.6 with reasonable volts (and thus temps) is a no brainer for me. Besides, I'd rather not kill my $300 CPU or lose any other hardware or software for that matter.
Correct, and being stable does NOT mean you have to be Prime stable. Is is highly doubtlful you will ever stress your CPU as Prime does, VERY VERY doubtful. Prime is fine if you worry about sh!t. Games and apps let me know I am stable. 🙂
Hey, did you hear about the guy that was going to jump off a 20 story building and....:rolls;
Edit (well, why there is an edit)
This thread is getting very lame. If you want to use it, do...If you dont, dont. But please, dont let people filll your head with crap that is not true. Example: You must be abel to have 100% CPU usage for hours to be stable...yeah, like that is ever going to happen to the average user....
Avalon
Diamond Member
The only problem with dropping by 2mhz to get stability is that one day it could be a degree or two warmer in your case, which can be the difference between that 2mhz drop being stable or no longer stable.
Myself, I don't prefer 12-24 hours of prime like many do. 6 is more than enough for me. If at some point I ever notice any instability with my applications, I back down a bit. Attaining stability for me is like a work in progress, and hasnt run me into any unstability troubles yet.
Myself, I don't prefer 12-24 hours of prime like many do. 6 is more than enough for me. If at some point I ever notice any instability with my applications, I back down a bit. Attaining stability for me is like a work in progress, and hasnt run me into any unstability troubles yet.
StrangerGuy
Diamond Member
Uh...games and apps doesn't have error-checking mechanisms as robust as Prime95. So, they may appear to run fine even if the CPU made some small calculation errors, but these errors can very well corrupt your data.
I use Prime for 12 hours for testing overclocks (I use a few math computation programs a lot in which I can't really have any errors), but I can see why it isn't that important to everyone. It will give you some extra peace of mind to go through several hours of Prime, but if the computer does everything you want it to without crashing or acting abnormal, it doesn't make any difference if Prime is unstable. In any case, passing Prime doesn't alone verify stability anyway (maybe if you could leave it running forever 😛). My last processor could do 12 hours of small FFTs with no problem but was consistently crashing in an old DOS game until I backed down slightly.
stevty2889
Diamond Member
I run dual prime for at least 12 hours, if it's not stable, I either tweak the settings or back off the overclock. If it doesn't last 20 minutes, it's likely gonna crash on you at the worst possible times.
robertk2012
Platinum Member
Well if your not using the cpu at 100% then why do you need the overclock? My computer runs at 100% quite often. I bet many people out there do alot of encoding or play games.
PLEASE TELL ME WHAT I HAVE SAID THAT ISNT TRUE?
sieistganzfett
Senior member
lmao. a lot of you people are just too much. i just had to read everything to see what happens at the end. lopri, thank you for writing all of that, cause i agree with you entirely. i am actually running prime95 for 3 months now on my a64 s939 3200, but im not overclocking this pc since im hoping i find a prime number and i have another a64 to beat the crap out of with overclocking.. as the prime95 help file says on this matter a lot of those in this topic still argue on,
--------------------------------------------------
Can I Ignore the Problem?
Ignoring the problem is a matter of personal preference. There are two schools of thought on this subject.
Most programs you run will not stress your computer enough to cause a wrong result or system crash. If you ignore the problem, then video games may stress your machine resulting in a system crash. Also, stay away from distributed computing projects where an incorrect calculation might cause you to return wrong results. Bad data will not help these projects! In conclusion, if you are comfortable with a small risk of an occasional system crash then feel free to live a little dangerously! Keep in mind that the faster prime95 finds a hardware error the more likely it is that other programs will experience problems.
The second school of thought is, "Why run a stress test if you are going to ignore the results?" These people want a guaranteed 100% rock solid machine. Passing these stability tests gives them the ability to run CPU intensive programs with confidence.
.....
Q) A forum member said "Don't bother with prime95, it always pukes on me, and my system is stable!. What do you make of that?" or "We had a server at work that ran for 2 MONTHS straight, without a reboot I installed Prime95 on it and ran it - a couple minutes later I get an error. You are going to tell me that the server wasn't stable?"
A) These users obviously do not subscribe to the 100% rock solid school of thought. THEIR MACHINES DO HAVE HARDWARE PROBLEMS. But since they are not presently running any programs that reveal the hardware problem, the machines are quite stable. As long as these machines never run a program that uncovers the hardware problem, then the machines will continue to be stable.
---------------------------------------------------
and firewolfsm, when i overclocked my a64 2800 s754 to 2.6 and so it failed prime 95 a lot quickly, it kept failing until i brought it down to around 2.55GHz so ya, the pc is running at the higher speed, but it sucks when the computer crashes randomly without any idea why. kinda interesting 2mhz can the diff between minutes and hours, but i like to let a pc run for 24hrs with prime95, superpi, and the latest 3dmark i can run on the pc or rthdribl instead of 3dmark just to be sure everything will be fine, burn ins are just for confidence, the more you throw at it the more confident you can be your oc will always be as stable as a stock speed, if someone doesnt want it, thats their choice, but if the computer does crash they have to realize oc could be why. since you have been working on getting it to be stable in prime95, i think your pc wil be fine, to make sure you can run more burn ins all at once like play a game while prime95 runs.. enjoy your oc.
--------------------------------------------------
Can I Ignore the Problem?
Ignoring the problem is a matter of personal preference. There are two schools of thought on this subject.
Most programs you run will not stress your computer enough to cause a wrong result or system crash. If you ignore the problem, then video games may stress your machine resulting in a system crash. Also, stay away from distributed computing projects where an incorrect calculation might cause you to return wrong results. Bad data will not help these projects! In conclusion, if you are comfortable with a small risk of an occasional system crash then feel free to live a little dangerously! Keep in mind that the faster prime95 finds a hardware error the more likely it is that other programs will experience problems.
The second school of thought is, "Why run a stress test if you are going to ignore the results?" These people want a guaranteed 100% rock solid machine. Passing these stability tests gives them the ability to run CPU intensive programs with confidence.
.....
Q) A forum member said "Don't bother with prime95, it always pukes on me, and my system is stable!. What do you make of that?" or "We had a server at work that ran for 2 MONTHS straight, without a reboot I installed Prime95 on it and ran it - a couple minutes later I get an error. You are going to tell me that the server wasn't stable?"
A) These users obviously do not subscribe to the 100% rock solid school of thought. THEIR MACHINES DO HAVE HARDWARE PROBLEMS. But since they are not presently running any programs that reveal the hardware problem, the machines are quite stable. As long as these machines never run a program that uncovers the hardware problem, then the machines will continue to be stable.
---------------------------------------------------
and firewolfsm, when i overclocked my a64 2800 s754 to 2.6 and so it failed prime 95 a lot quickly, it kept failing until i brought it down to around 2.55GHz so ya, the pc is running at the higher speed, but it sucks when the computer crashes randomly without any idea why. kinda interesting 2mhz can the diff between minutes and hours, but i like to let a pc run for 24hrs with prime95, superpi, and the latest 3dmark i can run on the pc or rthdribl instead of 3dmark just to be sure everything will be fine, burn ins are just for confidence, the more you throw at it the more confident you can be your oc will always be as stable as a stock speed, if someone doesnt want it, thats their choice, but if the computer does crash they have to realize oc could be why. since you have been working on getting it to be stable in prime95, i think your pc wil be fine, to make sure you can run more burn ins all at once like play a game while prime95 runs.. enjoy your oc.
Assimilator1
Elite Member
Lopri
Good idea about needing a sticky.
Most office systems are probably idling 80% of the time and the other 20% of the time the CPU utilization is probably 5~10%. For them, Prime95 is meaningless
More to the point those are not overclocked rigs so they don't need testing ,cpu load is irrelevant.
In the end, everything is subjective so if someone doesn't think Prime95 is important and s/he has no problem with daily use of the system, that is "stable".
Maybe but it would take months to be sure of that ,when they could just run P95 & be sure of its stabilty in a day.Additionally what about when new programs are installed?
s/he has no problem with his machine even though the machine doesn't pass Prime95 for 10 mins, then it's probably fine by her/him.
And there's the problem , 'probably' ,but if there is a crash is it software or hardware? ,no way to be sure.
Oh btw if it couldn't pass in 10 mins I can almost gaurentee you it wouldn't be stable 😉
And we shouldn't judge(?) her/his machine
As long as they don't claim their rig is definatly stable 😛
Also, while you're Priming your system, someone comes in from outside and turn your house heat up to 85F, and your system which was doinng Prime for 24 hours fails, then is that machine not stable?
Correct.
And yes P95 doesn't test 3D stabilty ,I think that's well known.
Agreed on the rest 😉
firewolfsm
4hrs isn't enough ,12hrs min ,preferabely 24hrs.
Btw my 2nd rig failed after 3hrs59 mins the other day 😉
StrangerGuy
lol ,yep 😉
WA261
Games and apps let me know I am stable.
Not nessacarily ,your missing the point.
If you were to have a crash ,would it be because of the inevitable occasional(?) software crash or a slightly over the edge o/c? you'd have no way of knowing without some form of stabilty test program ,like P95 or SP2004.
True games don't hold the CPU under continuous full load like P95 does (but they will certainly hit full load often) ,but if you encode or run any of dozens of distributed computing programs (which are becoming more popular all the time😉) they do (Dimes excluded).
But that isn't the point ,whether you run at full load or not P95 tests your CPU to see if its stable.
Also it might be the next new program/game you install that could have problems if your system was borderline ,you just never know.
No one is forcing you or anyone else to use P95 ,but please don't claim your system is fully stable when you simple don't know!😛
And its not crap to say that if it can't pass P95 it isn't stable you muppet :roll:
Whether your system is at full load all the time or not is irrelevant ,the test shows that the CPU etc is stable (if it passes of course).
If it fails P95 it is not stable - period.
CP5670
My last processor could do 12 hours of small FFTs with no problem but was consistently crashing in an old DOS game until I backed down slightly.
The author of the program recommends a 24hr test ,maybe that is an instance showing that point?
but if the computer does everything you want it to without crashing or acting abnormal, it doesn't make any difference if Prime is unstable
What about the next new program? or the one after that? ,that's where that theory comes unstuck.
If it fails prime it will cause problems at some point.
If someone just simpley doesn't run it then they may or may not have future problems.
Good idea about needing a sticky.
Most office systems are probably idling 80% of the time and the other 20% of the time the CPU utilization is probably 5~10%. For them, Prime95 is meaningless
More to the point those are not overclocked rigs so they don't need testing ,cpu load is irrelevant.
In the end, everything is subjective so if someone doesn't think Prime95 is important and s/he has no problem with daily use of the system, that is "stable".
Maybe but it would take months to be sure of that ,when they could just run P95 & be sure of its stabilty in a day.Additionally what about when new programs are installed?
s/he has no problem with his machine even though the machine doesn't pass Prime95 for 10 mins, then it's probably fine by her/him.
And there's the problem , 'probably' ,but if there is a crash is it software or hardware? ,no way to be sure.
Oh btw if it couldn't pass in 10 mins I can almost gaurentee you it wouldn't be stable 😉
And we shouldn't judge(?) her/his machine
As long as they don't claim their rig is definatly stable 😛
Also, while you're Priming your system, someone comes in from outside and turn your house heat up to 85F, and your system which was doinng Prime for 24 hours fails, then is that machine not stable?
Correct.
And yes P95 doesn't test 3D stabilty ,I think that's well known.
Agreed on the rest 😉
firewolfsm
4hrs isn't enough ,12hrs min ,preferabely 24hrs.
Btw my 2nd rig failed after 3hrs59 mins the other day 😉
StrangerGuy
lol ,yep 😉
WA261
Games and apps let me know I am stable.
Not nessacarily ,your missing the point.
If you were to have a crash ,would it be because of the inevitable occasional(?) software crash or a slightly over the edge o/c? you'd have no way of knowing without some form of stabilty test program ,like P95 or SP2004.
True games don't hold the CPU under continuous full load like P95 does (but they will certainly hit full load often) ,but if you encode or run any of dozens of distributed computing programs (which are becoming more popular all the time😉) they do (Dimes excluded).
But that isn't the point ,whether you run at full load or not P95 tests your CPU to see if its stable.
Also it might be the next new program/game you install that could have problems if your system was borderline ,you just never know.
No one is forcing you or anyone else to use P95 ,but please don't claim your system is fully stable when you simple don't know!😛
And its not crap to say that if it can't pass P95 it isn't stable you muppet :roll:
Whether your system is at full load all the time or not is irrelevant ,the test shows that the CPU etc is stable (if it passes of course).
If it fails P95 it is not stable - period.
CP5670
My last processor could do 12 hours of small FFTs with no problem but was consistently crashing in an old DOS game until I backed down slightly.
The author of the program recommends a 24hr test ,maybe that is an instance showing that point?
but if the computer does everything you want it to without crashing or acting abnormal, it doesn't make any difference if Prime is unstable
What about the next new program? or the one after that? ,that's where that theory comes unstuck.
If it fails prime it will cause problems at some point.
If someone just simpley doesn't run it then they may or may not have future problems.
robertk2012
Platinum Member
Glad to see the last two posters have a little comon sense.
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