what is the best program for CPU stability tests

Stumps

Diamond Member
Jun 18, 2001
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I have just overclocked my A64 3000+ (Venice) skt754 to 2.5ghz @ 1.55v and would like to know what other programs other than 3dmark or PCmark can be used to test the stability of my system.
 

stevty2889

Diamond Member
Dec 13, 2003
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I run memtest+ to check for ram stability and prime95 torture test(small FTT and large FTT for 12 hours each). Also, any games you might play are a good stability test as well.
 

russr

Senior member
Jun 14, 2000
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IMO, running Prime95 torture test (maximum heat dissipation) for 24-48hours is a very good test of CPU stability. If you instead choose the blend torture test (default option), it will test CPU and RAM.
 

furballi

Banned
Apr 6, 2005
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Best method is to find the failure point in Prime95 (all three modes...3 hours each) and Memtest86. Now backoff the CPU core speed by at least 50MHz. I prefer 70 to 100 MHz. Retest.
 

maluckey

Platinum Member
Jan 31, 2003
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Memetest and Prime95 don't stress the AGP or the chipset nearly enough. They are a good start though.

After passing a few stress tests, find a few punishing games and run one of them at max everything.. If that works, run the stress tests while gaming and downloading fast torrents with lot of connections and transferring very large files back and forth between drives in your system.

Works like a charm if you add DivX encoding all the while.
 

BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
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Here's my two-cents worth. It is very important to stress-test your OC settings adequately.

Some people let MEMTEST86 run for 24 hours. The documentation for the program suggests that 3 passes on the default seven tests should catch anything, but I've seen errors pop up on the 5th iteration. I've let my test with the program go for 12 to 25 iterations.

For Prime95, it may be a very good stress test, but you need to run two instances of it simultaneously with a command-line parameter to achieve full 100% loading on a hyperthreaded Intel or dual core system. That's my understanding of it.

S&M -- a Russian stress-test by a fellow named "Serj" -- provides an ability to select the length of the test, whether you wish to test the CPU, the memory, or both, and the degree of loading. For instance, the program gauges "intensive gaming" at an 80% load. You can load up your machine to the limit, of course, and this would certainly find any errors. I usually back it off somewhat, but it is not only more adjustable than using PRIME95, it does a good job of monitoring temperatures and voltages, and it tests "VGA heating" during the CPU and power-supply tests.

I was able to get a more certain diagnosis of my memory problem -- isolating it to the memory module dual-channel kit -- with S&M. So I didn't have to fiddle with removal of modules to see if the errors went away. Of course, if you were interested in replacing one module, you might do that anyway. But this was a dual-channel kit under lifetime warranty.

With version 1.7.6, let the program finish loading and get a fix on your CPU speed. It is possible to generate false errors if you don't wait for it to do that.