3d/gaming style stress testing? Good (free) software?

Soldato
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Hopefully this is in the right section.

I'm looking for advice and recommendations of good methods of stress testing a gaming style PC system, namely something software wise I could run which really pushes the video card and thus PSU to ensure stability is good.

Do you guys have any recommended free programs which I could use which loop/can be left for hours but are intensive enough to show faults if present such as PSU problems (i.e. heavy enough to cause a poor PSU to turn off if it can't provide enough juice to a video card for example).

I've been using 3dmark 2011 but obviously this has to be re-ran every 10 mins once it's finished, furmark, and one called unigine.

Are these not heavy enough? Really I want something which simulates a kid playing games all night long really :)

Any help/recommendations would be great, thanks guys!
 

C64

C64

Soldato
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Bear in mind heaven and furmark can be up to 15c higher than normal gaming temps just as IBT can be for cpu's so I wouldn't run them if you are hitting 80c gaming loads make sure you are monitoring temps and running fan 100%.
 
Soldato
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I will avoid that if it's pretty true it can pop stuff.

I've tried Unigine Heaven DX11 test if thats the same as in post 2? Is this more intensive than 3dmark2011 for example?

It seems that a couple of machines with biggish video cards and reasonable PSU's are just killing PSU's over time so ideally it seems to be gaming related, possibly heat related, which is killing them.

Hence after something which is a decent enough clone of sitting there gaming for hours without me having to do so, as I am not a gamer myself :)
 
Associate
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A fixed load stress test proves nothing more than your PC can run at maximum load. This simply needs sufficient voltage/cooling/PSU power.

To test for stability you need to use a varied load. Actually playing a modern game will do this best. It's why most people with "prime95 stable" machines end up increasing voltage when they find games start to crash.
 
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A fixed load stress test proves nothing more than your PC can run at maximum load. This simply needs sufficient voltage/cooling/PSU power.

To test for stability you need to use a varied load. Actually playing a modern game will do this best. It's why most people with "prime95 stable" machines end up increasing voltage when they find games start to crash.

+1

Civ 5 actually runs hotter on my PC than Prime95 LOL.
 

C64

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Soldato
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Who uses prime these days ? I use intel burn test it's faster and i have yet to hear of an IBT stable fail prime or crash in games
 
Soldato
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Thanks for all the feedback guys I'll take it away to mess about with :)

Would for example running heaven unigine ramped up somewhat and a burn in test like the intel one running in the background be a bad idea or pretty "safe"? :D
 

C64

C64

Soldato
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Thanks for all the feedback guys I'll take it away to mess about with :)

Would for example running heaven unigine ramped up somewhat and a burn in test like the intel one running in the background be a bad idea or pretty "safe"? :D

No one at a time
 
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I would certainly not reccomend running two progs like furmark and prime 95 simultaneously. On my previous i7 920 @4ghz with sli'd overclocked gtx 470's, i ran furmark extreme burn and p95 simultaneously, power draw was at 860w and climbing before i stopped both. Psu was a corsair HX850.
 
Associate
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Which is why it's a good idea. Absolute worst case scenario.

I'd recommend prime 95 and heaven. Only need to run it for a minute or two.

I'd never recommend running furmark
 

C64

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Soldato
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If he wants to test his psu. Then you want to have everything maxed. CPU and gpu.

Hence both at once.

I was more talking about running IBT and heaven at the same time I suppose you could run prime though but IBT is much more stressful than prime cant say I have ever needed to run them both at the same time or felt the need to

I would just stick to using intel burn test and heaven separately especially if you are looking to go afk whilst it tests, for temps I'd use coretemp for cpu and gpu-z for graphics card

which cooler have you got on cpu and which cpu and same for graphics card ?

heaven can be anywhere from 5-15c more than gaming temps and IBT can be 10-30c more than gaming loads depending on cooler etc but running heaven and IBT for a long time at the same time isn't something i'd be happy about going afk from as both will produce a lot of heat in turn causing even higher temps than individually.I do find it fine to use the pc for web browsing etc with prime running in the background though.

useful apps

coretemp
Realtemp
gpu-z
hw monitor
Cpu-z
msi afterburner
Intel burn test
Prime 95

Personally furmark has never broken anything of mine I think it breaks stuff when people run it on cards that have those shoddy leaf blower reference coolers stuck on auto fan and furmark makes the card hit solder melt point temps, i'd always say run the fan on 100% and monitor temps closely goes without saying for furmark
 
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