CPU torture testing question

[RiftRunner]

Now , I am very new to all of this, and not sure on a few things, Like torture testing your cpu using something like PRIME95. I can understand and see some reasons for benchmark testing like furmark and pcmark, but there are no games out there that i know of, or anything i would do that will even come close to maxing my cpu like PRIME95. So my question is Why do it ?

[cery25]

Now , I am very new to all of this, and not sure on a few things, Like torture testing your cpu using something like PRIME95. I can understand and see some reasons for benchmark testing like furmark and pcmark, but there are no games out there that i know of, or anything i would do that will even come close to maxing my cpu like PRIME95. So my question is Why do it ?

 

To be sure that you overclock is stable and your cpu temps are safe

when you play a game you are not playng 5-10 min , you can play a game for hours and that's when crashes apears.

[RiftRunner]

To be sure that you overclock is stable and your cpu temps are safe

when you play a game you are not playng 5-10 min , you can play a game for hours and that's when crashes apears.

 

i have never had any problems playing RIFT for 12 hrs straight , or my cpu temp getting over 48c

[Tjj226_Angel]

Now , I am very new to all of this, and not sure on a few things, Like torture testing your cpu using something like PRIME95. I can understand and see some reasons for benchmark testing like furmark and pcmark, but there are no games out there that i know of, or anything i would do that will even come close to maxing my cpu like PRIME95. So my question is Why do it ?

 

It is a way to test ALL the bugs of an overclock. While games may test 70 percent of your cpu, it doesn't account for spikes in the load or anything like that. YOu basically want to push it to 100% so that you can know that there won't be any crashes of your CPU. Don't worry about stressing your CPU either. If you couldn't run a processor on 100% for weeks on end then there wouldn't be a reason to buy it.

 

In short, prime 95 tests all possibilities of your overclock to guarantee there are no glitches.

[RiftRunner]

It is a way to test ALL the bugs of an overclock. While games may test 70 percent of your cpu, it doesn't account for spikes in the load or anything like that. YOu basically want to push it to 100% so that you can know that there won't be any crashes of your CPU. Don't worry about stressing your CPU either. If you couldn't run a processor on 100% for weeks on end then there wouldn't be a reason to buy it.

 

In short, prime 95 tests all possibilities of your overclock to guarantee there are no glitches.

 

What temps do you have to worry about your cpu getting to running a program like Prime95 ?, and is there any risk of it frying your cpu ?

[Black64]

To be sure that you overclock is stable and your cpu temps are safe

 

+1

[Speedway]

What temps do you have to worry about your cpu getting to running a program like Prime95 ?, and is there any risk of it frying your cpu ?

 

Completely dependant on the CPU. If we are talking AMD PII staying under 60C is smart, 1st gen i7's under 80C and 2nd gen i7's low 70's max on a program like Prime95. When it comes to testing CPU OC stability, everyone has their own way, some like to run hours of Prime95, others don't. Personally, If I can run a 20K problem size on LinX for 20 passes, then I'm pretty confident in my OC

 

There is always a risk to your CPU when OCing, but that is why you keep a CLOSE eye on temps

[Waco]

i have never had any problems playing RIFT for 12 hrs straight

When your OS "mysteriously" corrupts itself to the point that it won't boot and your files are all bit-rotted to hell...you'll see why testing stability is important.

[cery25]

When your OS "mysteriously" corrupts itself to the point that it won't boot and your files are all bit-rotted to hell...you'll see why testing stability is important.

 

+1

[wevsspot]

Rift - if you're not overclocking you don't likely need to "torture" test your cpu. But any time you push hardware to the limits and/or beyond design specifications, whether it's a racing engine or a computer processor, you need to know about the reliability and stability of that part. Under the worst conditions. The knowledgeable folks in posts above already mentioned some of the bad things that can happen if your processor isn't running stable, so I won't rehash those.

[RiftRunner]

Ok, i guess i am an idiot because i am still not fully understanding the need for something like prime95. I have been running my cpu at 3.52 ghz since i first got it, i have never seen any oc issues with anything i have ever done. I KNOW that I am new to overclocking and totaly ignorent to the majority of the aspects involed. My original overclock was using the ez-overclock switch located on my motherboard, I have newly discover the proper way of overclocking using my bios settings, and not quite sure i even have that right. SO I decided to run prime95 as suggested, but within minutes of running i watched my temps hit what i concider to be to high ( 60c ) for my amd phenom II x4 955be, so i shut it down and set my whole pc to default settings and tried again, it took a little longer but still the same result. SO the way i am seeing this, with prime95 overheating my cpu at default settings my pc is junk and cant be trusted even at stock. Doesnt make since to me. Something in the back of my brain tells me that Prime95 ( wich i believe was origanly designed to run on super computers ), was discovered by someone with a monster build to show off what his computer could do, and so the competition began, and now has become adopted as a testing tool for overclocking, resulting in the booming sales of cooling hardware. There has to be a more reliable and less Intensive testing software out there. Can someone properly school me on this ?

[Waco]

There has to be a more reliable and less Intensive testing software out there. Can someone properly school me on this ?

Prime95 was developed to find prime numbers. It just happens to be a pretty damn good test of stability and cooling capability. IntelBurnTest is similar - it does intensive math that creates more heat and more load than you're ever likely to see. Because of this, it's a great tool to make sure that no matter what you do on your computer, you'll be stable and within thermal limits. That's the whole point of stability testing. Why overclock if all you're going to do is generate the wrong answer for something? Why overclock if you're going to corrupt your OS, crash in games, etc?

 

If you can't run Prime95 or IntelBurnTest indefinitely without running into heat issues then you've got something wrong with your computer. Post up your machine specs and some pictures so we can start troubleshooting - you really shouldn't be hitting anything close to 60 C with the stock cooler at stock settings unless you're got extremely high ambient temperatures or something is wrong. There's no conspiracy to sell cooling hardware.

Edited November 4, 2011 by Waco