Best utilities for stress testing in 2020

Regeneration

Regeneration

Regeneration

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New threads related to unstable overclocks and defective hardware pop up on a regular occasion. It is often asked how to stress test some component. Below you'll find my top picks after weeks of testing - updated for 2020.

GPU
Unigine Heaven
FurMark / MSI Kombuster
*GPUs tend to clock down due to power and thermal limits when running FurMark*
*Lower resolutions put more stress on the VRMs*

Video RAM
Final Fantasy XV Benchmark
*Set to maximum quality and run in a loop*

Memory modules (configuration, timings and overclock)
MemTest64
HCI MemTest (one instance per thread)
*Best run from safe mode without a pagefile*
Linpack Xtreme

Memory modules (physical integrity)
MemTest86

Processor
Linpack Xtreme
Prime95 small FFTs

Integrated Memory Controller
Prime95 custom run of FFTs from 512K to 1024K with 90% of RAM
Linpack Xtreme

Northbridge, bus and PSU
Prime95 custom run of FFTs from 512K to 1024K with 80% of RAM + LuxMark or FurMark running in the background at 720p.
 
After 25yrs of overclocking, I say play games and forget the prime95 why even bother installing anything but games? a smoother system anyways and thats the best stress test.

If i pass 8hrs prime and crash within 5mins of Overwatch? or i hit 90c in prime but 79c in Overwatch it means the games for me work better. I lost count where i ran prime etc said i was 8hr stable and games reboot my system in under an hour.


When it comes to tools and monitoring, Typically i do it once on a new build to find the optimals, Then i format without any tools at all. This keeps the system slimline and gaming optimal.
 
Rofflay said:
After 25yrs of overclocking, I say play games and forget the prime95 why even bother installing anything but games? a smoother system anyways and thats the best stress test.

If i pass 8hrs prime and crash within 5mins of Overwatch? or i hit 90c in prime but 79c in Overwatch it means the games for me work better. I lost count where i ran prime etc said i was 8hr stable and games reboot my system in under an hour.

When it comes to tools and monitoring, Typically i do it once on a new build to find the optimals, Then i format without any tools at all. This keeps the system slimline and gaming optimal.
Click to expand...

Some games are more demanding than others. It's better to spend a day or two to be done with it rather than having a BSOD suprise in the future.

If you pass 8 hours of Prime95 and crash within 5 minutes of Overwatch [due to unstable core] its probably AVX offset, LLC or C-states.
 
I use OCCT (freware / payware) for CPU stability, it's pretty good at finding issues within minutes. For memory testing I use Karhu Ram Test (payware) saves a lot of hassle booting into a PE or running multiple instaces of Memtest and comes reccomended by The Stilt.

I think memory testing is pretty crucial if you're overclocking it and / or changing timings, you don't neccesarily notice a problem until you start noticing data corruption.
 
Weirdest thing. I tried linpack the other day. Obviously the CPU was fine and temps were well within.

however the CPU power consumption was up at 135w where using Aida I get 100w. Pulling a huge amount of current using linpack. Obviously it is nice to see the MOSFET and the H100i (first gen) both performed well under such load. But how on earth can a 2600 (1600AF) rated 85w able to pull so much more power?
 
I use occt
Ended up finding I need to do two separate runs. One run for non avx and another for avx.

also run hwinfo64 in the background and keep an eye on WHEA errors section. Had numerous times where no error has been picked up in OCCT but a WHEA error has been recorded in hwinfo.

i do around 8hrs for each test and if both programs pass without error I’m happy it’s stable.

I don’t bother with AVX2 as it’s just too intense with the heat generated.
 
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