Maintaining system stability is essential for productivity, and it becomes even more critical when dealing with overclocked or undervolted systems. In such cases, it is crucial to know whether the system is stable or not. For over two decades, Prime95 has been the go-to benchmark tool for determining system stability.
Prime95 is available for download on mirzan.org, and it has become the gold standard for answering the question, “Is your system stable?” After downloading and unzipping the file, you can launch the application. You will see an option to join the Gi Mps program that looks for insanely large prime numbers or use the program for stress testing.
When using the program for stress testing, select the option that says “Just stress testing.” You can also reach this dialog by selecting options and then selecting the torture test. A dialog titled “Run a torture test” will appear, and the number of torture test threads to run will be the maximum number of threads you have at your disposal. Typically, it is twice the number of cores you have.
If you are unsure about the number of threads, you can check it using CPU-Z hardware info, HW monitor, or other system monitoring tools. While running Prime95, it is essential to keep an eye on your temperatures, especially your CPU temperature. If it gets too hot and results in thermal throttling, it could be an indicator of non-efficient CPU or case cooling.
Prime95 has a variety of different tests, with every test stressing the CPU more or less. There are small, medium, and large FFT tests, as well as blend. For stability testing, blend is the most recommended option. You can also choose custom and adjust the torture settings yourself. The memory usage in torture test settings speaks for itself, and a good amount of RAM is used by Prime95.
It is recommended to run Prime95 for 8 to 12 hours for prime stable and 24 hours or more for rock stable. During this time, no errors or warnings should be shown. Please note that although large FFT stresses the RAM, you should not rely on an error-free test for RAM testing. We recommend MemTest for RAM testing.
While running Prime95, you should leave your system alone. Of course, you can monitor it, especially the temperatures using hardware info or HW monitor. The CPU might be severely under stress and show very high temperatures. It really depends on the room temperature, the overall cooling of the case and CPU, and the part of the test Prime95 is running.
Finally, please do not rely on everyday tasks to say whether your system is stable or not. Only those very intense stress tests or even so-called torture tests from Prime95 will give you a decent estimation of system stability.
In conclusion, Prime95 is an excellent tool for determining system stability. By following the above guidelines, you can determine whether your system is stable or not. With Prime95, you can check the stability of your overclocked or undervolted systems.