Prime95 vs Real Life stability?

L

lt_wentoncha

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 20, 2005
Messages
285
Howdy all,

Ok, well, with my overclock I'm able to get Prime to run stable for about 30 mins before it BSODs. However, the last two days of gaming I have had 0 problems (though on BF3 it seems to C2D after a bit when I'm flying but not BSOD).

It seems stable to me...but long term, is there something I should be concerned about? Thanks.
 
30 minutes under prime95 is not very long at all. I mean, you are probably alright if you can do what you want without crashing, but most of us would be very uncomfortable. Most games aren't going to take you to 100% cpu usage, so you generally won't BSOD while gaming, but it will probably happen at some point. Additionally, if you ever use a program that does maximize your cpu usage you will be risking a bsod while working.

Basically, I don't recommend that you stop there. Most people would suggest that you go for 24/7 p95 stability. Download intel burn test and give that a shot, though I suspect that if you can only get 30 minutes under prime95 you will probably only get a few minutes under IBT, which is not so good.

Additionally, you should investigate further just because it might not be a problem with your settings. You might have a bad stick of memory or some other issue.

You might also what to share your OC settings and the temperatures you are seeing under stress tests so that we can give some feedback.

To sum it up, you will probably be just fine in real life because most applications aren't going to stress your system as much as an actual stress test, but you will have to live with the knowledge that at any time you could blue screen.
 
I've never been able to get Prime 95 to run longer than 30 minutes without failing either. At least one or 2 threads fail. That said, I've had my desktop at this overclocked speed for almost 2 years now. The only time I ever had BSOD was SSD harddrive related. And it was maybe once or twice. I game constantly, rip movies, encode .264 and never had a problem. I even had Passware running for 2 days straight without any problems. I think Prime 95 is just a point of reference, for you to use to get a "feel" or the upper limits. Daily usage, I doubt you'll come across a similarly cpu-intensive scenario.
 
Well Prime95 is going to push your rig a lot harder than a game will so it shouldnt come as a surprise that you can run a game for a couple days but Prime95 brings it to its knees.

I personally think that stability is relative. If the hardest thing you do is game and your overclock can handle gaming 24/7 for a week straight, then Id consider it stable. Now if youre doing folding where youre working your computer pretty hard and round the clock, then it might need to be a little more stable than if just used for gaming.

I ran my OC for 6 hours on Prime95 "small" and it stayed running so I call that stable cause I mainly game on this thing and Ill never push it as hard as 8 hours of Prime so I figure Im good. And several months later, Ive yet to have a crash.
 
I run prime95 + furmark at the same time for 1 hour for my stability test. Cant stress your system much more than that.
 
KarsusTG said:
If you cant run Prime95 for a few days non stop, your system is not stable.
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Nope. Gotta be able to run Prime95 continuously, 24/7/365 for the life of the chip or it isn't stable. In fact, you shouldn't be doing anything but running Prime95 on your system. That's the only way to be sure.

Seriously though, stability is what you make of it. If it can run Prime95 for 30 minutes, and pass a couple of passes of IBT, and game without crashing, then it is stable enough. You aren't controlling the moon landings over there.
 
Running too much prime kills your Mobo(NB specifically) is what I was told since its honestly one of the only things that actually really stresses that.

Honestly I think these tests are complete crap now. My system was rock solid stable with IBT for 2 hours(yes everything max settings or w/e you needed was correct) and it would always crash randomly in games or even on the desktop.
 
Forceman said:
Nope. Gotta be able to run Prime95 continuously, 24/7/365 for the life of the chip or it isn't stable. In fact, you shouldn't be doing anything but running Prime95 on your system. That's the only way to be sure.
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Made my night.
 
I agree, running it for insane periods is way overkill. Folders would be the only ones I see as having a need for a 24 hour torture test as they run their rigs at a pretty high pace for days on end.

Everybody else, 4-6 hours of Prime will push your rig far further than you ever will with normal use so while it might not be "stable" for the purists, its plenty stable for real world use. Like I said, stability is relative.
 
I think Intel Burn Test is generally considered a much quicker way to determine stability these days. It can potentially save a lot of time vs. prime95 when determining a stable overclock.
 
Well I do Fold, so my opinion is is pushed more towards stability. In all seriousness though, how can you consider your system stable if it would blue screen on you trying to even complete your thermal cycling? If you cant run for even 48 hours, how can you even remotely call it "stable"?
 
^^^^ lol i just snapped this screenshot this is WAY MORE THAN ENOUGH TIME TO CONSIDER IT STABLE IMO! not wating another 6 hours gonna try higher oc fyi it would crash on me with bios set to 1.29 after around an hour at 1.295 stable 6 hours + and i stopped it lol..

345d3mf.jpg
 
Forceman said:
Nope. Gotta be able to run Prime95 continuously, 24/7/365 for the life of the chip or it isn't stable. In fact, you shouldn't be doing anything but running Prime95 on your system. That's the only way to be sure.
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LOL

I used to do the 12/24 hour stress testing... then I realized that I spend more time stress testing than actually using it. :eek:
 
Personally I have found if I am stable running Prime95 for 6 hours its going to be stable for 24. Thats enough for me. However I have had it start throwing errors after an hour or two of testing. I believe that if places on your mobo, cpu or ram are going to heat up enough to cause some stability issues, it would normally happen within 6 hours.
 
If your computer crashes in Prime95, then your rig is NOT stable, it shouldnt do that and 30 minutes is REALLY short time. Your computers behaviour may not be erratic in general use, but there will be times when your game crashes and you cant be sure if its your rig or game bug that caused it. Mass Effect 1 for example is really unstable on badly overclocked rig, it causes one particular error screen now and then.

10-12 hours of Prime95 Blend is pretty much minimum but also enough, during that time it has gone through all of its different tests atleast once. If it hasnt crashed in any of them, then its quite unlikely it will crash if stressed more. It should be rock solid for general use. Although it CAN still be unstable, this has happened before (rig crashing after 24 hour testing) and some insist on stressing several days but then we are going into OCD territory, it no longer makes any sense.
 
Most unstable parts or poorly overclocked rigs will fail within 1/2 hour of using Prime95. If you can run Prime95 overnight with no overclock (6-8 hours with stock speeds, voltages) your parts are OK & your overclock is in question. If you're not overclocking & you fail Prime you usually have defective parts. (or very poor cooling so run Real Temp while you Prime to check your temperatures) Prime is just a test to tell if you might have problems with your pc later on.
 
I've been Prime stable for 12 hours and crashed within seconds of launching a game or a web browser. It's all relative. It's just a tool that doesn't say as much as people think it does.
 
Genny said:
I've been Prime stable for 12 hours and crashed within seconds of launching a game or a web browser. It's all relative. It's just a tool that doesn't say as much as people think it does.
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Don't confuse hardware stability with hardware and software problems.
 
S-Works said:
LOL

I used to do the 12/24 hour stress testing... then I realized that I spend more time stress testing than actually using it. :eek:
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Im with you on that!


At work, I will test machines with prime for long, but that just because I start it then go on to others tasks, and it the next day when I get back to it.

I don't like running it on laptops for long, especially when the cooling units are aged. 14" laptops with nvidia NVS chips notoriously die from heat.
 
Genny said:
I don't believe I am. I typically attribute it to vdroop and loading and unloading of the processor resulting in a BSOD.
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If your assumptions are right, rock on brother.
 
lt_wentoncha said:
Howdy all,

Ok, well, with my overclock I'm able to get Prime to run stable for about 30 mins before it BSODs. However, the last two days of gaming I have had 0 problems (though on BF3 it seems to C2D after a bit when I'm flying but not BSOD).

It seems stable to me...but long term, is there something I should be concerned about? Thanks.
Click to expand...

If it runs 100% stable in everything you do, it's stable enough for your use. You aren't doing any mission critical numerical crunching so errors that do not cause a noticeable problem are no big deal for your use. I know exactly what you mean. If you never play Prime95, then don't sweat running it "stable". Don't spend time and money trying to make YOUR computer to SOMEONE ELSES standard of "stable". It doen't matter what anyone elses definition of stable is. If it works for you rock out.
 
Genny said:
I don't believe I am. I typically attribute it to vdroop and loading and unloading of the processor resulting in a BSOD.
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You should try to turn off load line calibration. IIRC, there's an article in AnandTech talk about this (system was stable under Prime95, but crashed under light load)
 
Yeah, I just found out the hard way this weekend about SB + Prime95 vs IBT. I had everything Prime95 4-hour-stable blah blah blah, and IBT took the system down in about 10 seconds.

Load Line is a tricky feature, and Vdroop is misunderstood -- there's a reason Vdroop is specified from the CPU manufs.
 
here is what I will say on stress tests.

When I first got this board, and my first ddr3 ram I had troubloe getting it stable. BSOD galore.

I remember been happy when it ran prime95, IBT etc for dozens of hours. Then 2 mins into a video I got a BSOD, what did I learn? maxing out cpu for a period of time doesnt garuantee anything. Nothing at all can emulate real life usage, I think the closest thing that comes to it is using that windows memtest app whilst using the pc at the same time. All that prime95 and the like will help with is testing if temps/psu are ok. Now my system is stable, I havent had some weird random unexplained BSOD for a while now, and that particular issue was fixed by having to bump up my IMC voltage to make my system stable at stock speeds (not impressed by having to do that). What I never tried is if my new ram is stable at stock IMC, since I dont find BSOD fun I didnt bother trying either. So my IMC is still bumped.
 
Forceman said:
Nope. Gotta be able to run Prime95 continuously, 24/7/365 for the life of the chip or it isn't stable. In fact, you shouldn't be doing anything but running Prime95 on your system. That's the only way to be sure.

Seriously though, stability is what you make of it. If it can run Prime95 for 30 minutes, and pass a couple of passes of IBT, and game without crashing, then it is stable enough. You aren't controlling the moon landings over there.
Click to expand...

So true. I have been running Prime95 on my Socket 754 non stop for 6 years, and if I can make it till 2012, I will call it stable :D

I have had systems that will pass 20 IBT passes, but fail OCCT in less than ten minutes. Or pass OCCT or Prime95, but fail a gaming test. I don't bother stress testing anymore. I check around the forums and see what the average clocks people are running and at what voltages, then set it to that. So far I have been good with three systems this way with no issues. I say too each his own.
 
I use Intel Burn test. Much faster at telling you you've gone too far.

I had what I thought was 100% stability on my PC with IBT but Folding crashed it after 8 or 9 hours. With that length of time before a crash, I went in and upped the Voltage to 1.57(!) from 1.53 and now it can fold for days on end.

Really old setup here, Pentium EE 3.4 @ 4.3.
 
You can have prime stable for 24/7/365 and fail IBT or LinX in seconds. So what exactly is stable?
 
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