subject: CPU Stress Testing – Stress Testing a CPU [print this page] CPU Stress Testing Stress Testing a CPU CPU Stress Testing Stress Testing a CPU
So you overclocked your CPU and feel happy about it. But the problem is you don't know when your overclocked CPU will become unstable. When you run a CPU at more than its rated speed, chances are there that your system will randomly reboot, throw BSODs, hang etc. So what do you have to do to prevent it? Just make sure it doesn't happen. To do so, there are many stress testing tools available, like OCCT, Prime95, IntelBurnTest etc.
Out of these apps, I prefer OCCT for its versatility. It can be used to check CPU stability, GPU stability and even power supply. Moreover it gives you nice graphs after a test is over so that you can analyze them. So far, I have used it to check for max temperatures and stability of CPU and GPU, ripple on power lines and CPU VCore and CPU and GPU throttling.
So how do you stress test your CPU? Fire up OCCT. Select Linpack. Under Test Type, select Custom. Under Custom Test Duration, enter the desired duration. Entering just 15 minutes is enough if you didn't push your CPU too much, otherwise a thorough stress test is required. Under Test Mode, select Max (90% free mem) and press ON. This will stress your CPU to the max.
Once the test is finished, you will get a few graphs where you can see CPU temperatures, ripple on 3V, 12V and 5V power lines and CPU VCore. OCCT will also report if it detects instability.
Note:
CPU Stress testing can easily be done with OCCT or other stress testing tools. But always make sure that you have a good power supply (PSU) otherwise, the stress made by these CPU stress test programs can harm your PSU. In many instances, using cheap PSUs only resulted in burnt system components.
