best stress test tools?

[aameghoo]

ok so I currently have my Phenom II x4 955 BE OCed at 3.8Ghz ( I cant seem to get any higher stable, any help or pointers would be appreciated) and everything seemed stable as I've run prime for over 4 hours and encountered no crashing or errors but after playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 for a little under 20 mins my computer crashes so I was wondering what other good stress testing are out there so I can better ensure everything is stable

[sack_patrol]

ok so I currently have my Phenom II x4 955 BE OCed at 3.8Ghz ( I cant seem to get any higher stable, any help or pointers would be appreciated) and everything seemed stable as I've run prime for over 4 hours and encountered no crashing or errors but after playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 for a little under 20 mins my computer crashes so I was wondering what other good stress testing are out there so I can better ensure everything is stable

I'd like to know what you're hole set up is first of all, make sure you mention the cooler too.

 

Assuming that it's air cooled, I'd say that 3.8Ghz is a good speed for that CPU if you can get it stable.

 

First of all, you should probably know that Black Edition CPUs are generally overclocked using the Multiplier and not the FSB. With the fsb you'll overclock a bunch of other stuff too which you don't necessarily want right now. Sorry if this is old news to you. Not sure how advanced you are in overclocking. If you have any specific questions regarding the overclock, ask away.

 

For the testing, for a final overclock you'll want to run prime95 for about 12 hours straight. That way you'll know if it's stable or not. If it crashes before at least 12 hours, then it's no good. Obviously you'll need to test with games and other stuff that you actually use.

 

As for your current problem, I will suggest that you increase the voltage a bit more and try the game again. Incrase the DRAM voltage as well, but only by 1 value. Along with that you might have to overclock the NB-freq as well since that will give you stability in the higher overclockings as the one you have. Up to, I'd say 3.6Ghz you only need the multiplier and voltage of the CPU, after that you'll need to up the NB-freq multiplier (as I mentioned) and it's voltage too. All of those things should give you a stable system.

 

Some other good stability testing programs are OCCT, LinX, Intel Burn Test. Don't forget Memtest which is good for testing overclocked ram. It's better to have the DOS version but I don't remember how I made mine into a bootable CD n stuff. The OS version should do fine too except that you won't be able to test the whole memory since some of it will be unavailable since it's running the PC.

 

Ask any questions you might have, I feel a little lazy with the replies today so my explications might not be very clear. xD

[El_Capitan]

sorry, double post...

[El_Capitan]

I hold a different method of testing, doesn't take very long. I basically use Prime95, but run Blend tests. If it passes for 1 round (it takes 15 minutes), I call it good. If it fails before Test 4, it's a CPU error. If it fails after that, it's usually a memory error.

 

I also fold after stress testing. I'm doing something productive while stressing my CPU/GPU's.

 

What you're experiencing with your crashes in game could be a number of things, but if your CPU's good, start thinking your graphics card or drivers, especially sound drivers. I'd also test other games. If it's only crashing for a single game, it's because of the game settings, your drivers related to the game, etc.

 

I can usually figure out a stable overclock in 15 minutes with testing, but then I run my normal everyday tasks, and if nothing bad happens, that means it's stable. If people want to run Prime95 for 24 hours, that's fine, but stability is in the eye of the beholder.

[sack_patrol]

If people want to run Prime95 for 24 hours, that's fine, but stability is in the eye of the beholder.

this

[El_Capitan]

 

I just realized. You're using a 850W PSU for two flashed HD 6950's (to HD 6970's) and an overclocked CPU. That's probably why you're crashing (especially if you've overclocked those flashed HD 6950's).

 

Run Prime95 Blend Tests while running FurMark, and I'll bet you'll end up crashing. I looked at reviews for power consumption, and the HD 6970's are close in power consumption to the GTX 460 1GB's.

[GabrielT]

 

I just realized. You're using a 850W PSU for two flashed HD 6950's (to HD 6970's) and an overclocked CPU. That's probably why you're crashing (especially if you've overclocked those flashed HD 6950's).

 

Run Prime95 Blend Tests while running FurMark, and I'll bet you'll end up crashing. I looked at reviews for power consumption, and the HD 6970's are close in power consumption to the GTX 460 1GB's.

 

I don't think so, even with OC'd 6970's I don't think that system would top 650watts total with that CPU.

[El_Capitan]

I don't think so, even with OC'd 6970's I don't think that system would top 650watts total with that CPU.

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/3741/amd_radeon_hd_6970_2gb_video_card_in_crossfire/index16.html

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1488/18/

 

I've measured my stock GTX 460 1GB's in SLI, and the difference at idle to load was 334W on a similar rated PSU, and when overclocked, the difference was 546W.

 

Those reviews show higher power consumption than my GTX 460 1GB's in SLI.

 

Also, overclocked Phenom II x4 955 BE Power Consumption:

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/pii955/13.html

 

If he's drawing 400W (total) with just a CPU overclock at load, and he's drawing anywhere close to 500W's from the flashed HD 6950's, that's 900W's right there.

[Speedway]

Capi, I ran this Tri-Fired 6970's 3dMark 11 run with my 900w Tagan. Granted, so far the highest OC on my CPU that I have gotten stable with a 25K problem size 20 pass LinX run (takes about an hour) was 4.5GHz. But, I am positive that I could run the 15min Prime95 Blend and Furmark with that same setup w/o having any PSU issues. Now I can say that I felt like my PSU was holding my 6970 clocks back on that 3dMark run, since I could get all 4 of the 6970's over 1GHz core in xFire, but 950MHz was the highest I could go when running Tri-Fire! My i7 @ 4.5GHz is pulling more power than his AMD is, and I was running a 3rd 6970. So I would think that his 850W Corsair should be able to handle his AMD and xFired flashed 6950's!

[El_Capitan]

Capi, I ran this Tri-Fired 6970's 3dMark 11 run with my 900w Tagan. Granted, so far the highest OC on my CPU that I have gotten stable with a 25K problem size 20 pass LinX run (takes about an hour) was 4.5GHz. But, I am positive that I could run the 15min Prime95 Blend and Furmark with that same setup w/o having any PSU issues. Now I can say that I felt like my PSU was holding my 6970 clocks back on that 3dMark run, since I could get all 4 of the 6970's over 1GHz core in xFire, but 950MHz was the highest I could go when running Tri-Fire! My i7 @ 4.5GHz is pulling more power than his AMD is, and I was running a 3rd 6970. So I would think that his 850W Corsair should be able to handle his AMD and xFired flashed 6950's!

I stand corrected.

[aameghoo]

ok so i ran prime for 14+ hours and got no errors or crashing with my 3.8GHz OC, I also ran prime and furmark together for 5+ hours and there were no errors or crashing as well, I did increase the voltage on my DRAM to the highest recommended of 1.75 and I also switched the 6950s back to their normal bios and then OCed them to 840/1325 with 20% power control, everything runs great during stress tests but despite this i'm still experiencing crashing after ~25min of playing BFBC2, the game use to run fine before, the only factors that have changed is that I now have a second 6950 in CF, I have a bit higher OC of 3.8GHz (I'd like to note that I still experience crashing even if I roll back the OC) and I'm also running Afterburner along with the OSD server for system info during games. System specs are in my sig if you were wondering, also I would love to do folding as a stress test as I use to do it on my ps3 but it seems as if the 6000 series cards arent supported yet

 

Also here's a picture of my bios settings, any help would be appreciated in getting a higher OC, I cant seem to make it over 3.8GHz stable

[MercuryDoun]

ITs not your CPU thats causing your crash IMO. Its your video card/s

 

Either a bad OC on the cards. OR possibly a bad flash.