Do I need to stress test if I'm not overclocking?

boagz57

Posts: 61   +1
I have an intel core i7 4770k and I'm not overclocking it at the moment. My idle temps are around 28 degrees Celsius. Is it still necessary to run a program like prime95 and stress test my cpu even though I am not overclocking?
 
It's not necessary, but you can still check the stability of your system, regardless of whether you are over-clocking. I've heard many times, servers are done so to prepare them for future task. Running the test will allow them to potentially catch any issues before they are brought on-line.
 
Although, if something electronic is going to break, it usually happens within the first 30 days anyway. (Whether you purposefully try to break it or not).

Actually, "Spybot SD 16" will peg a single core CPU to 100& usage. Dunno about multi-core processors though. We used to run it to monitor CPU temps.

Some people like to rum "Memtest86" to check to see if their memory has errors or will hold up.
 
I wouldn't bother, the processor's default voltage will be quite high and more than enough to keep stability. If you wanted to lower your temps (load temp is more important than idle) you can try undervolting and then stress testing for stability.
 
I have an intel core i7 4770k and I'm not overclocking it at the moment. My idle temps are around 28 degrees Celsius. Is it still necessary to run a program like prime95 and stress test my cpu even though I am not overclocking?
If you've swapped out a CPU or replaced the CPU+motherboard then stability testing might not be that important. If you've put together a complete new build then I'd suggest that you put the system through its paces just to make sure that everything is working as it should.
There aren't that many full system stability apps. Prime95 or any Linpack based (LinX, IBT) stress test basically only tests the CPU. Memtest will test the RAM, but in a DOS environment where the memory is tested in isolation. Likewise harddrive testing and Furmark based graphics testing tend to test only a particular component.

The best stability test is likely a CPU intensive game. Crysis, Crysis Warhead, Battlefield 3, RTS games (esp. multi-threaded games such as Civilization V) etc. will test every part of the system- CPU and memory subsystem (especially if the game involves a high level of AI and/or physics), GPU, OS drive (draw calls), storage drive -if the game folder is located there, and by extension, cooling and power supply.
 
Lack of stability crashes generally occur at within the first hour of gameplay. If you don't notice anything untoward - freezes, CTD's, stuttering/lagging in frame render (usually more a GPU video memory issue), then you're likely stable.
 
Okay so I played BF3 on ultra settings for about an hour and everything seemed okay. The only thing was at about the 50 min mark I noticed 1 or 2 artifacts pop up (weird multicolored spots) for like a second then went away. I played another 10 minutes with no noticeable problems though. Is this anything that I should be concerned with?
 
Not if it is isolated. If it continues - especially with other games then there are ways of testing video RAM, but the occasional and isolated texture corruption is fairly common in FPS games.
 
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