Evironment Testing in CPU Reviews

Dave Baumann

Dave Baumann

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http://www.beyond3d.com/reviews/bfg/6600gtoc/index.php?p=5

Those of you familiar with the review may have noticed the environment (Heat, noise , power) tests we do for 3D reviews. I'm contemplating bining this across to the CPU reviews as well, but just wondering what app you think should be used to test the "high load" case. My initial though was Folding, seeing as that is likely to grab 100% CPU utilisation. Any better suggestions?
 
I know a lot of overclockers/undervolters use Prime95 to test the stability of their systems. It has a 'torture test' capability.

Don't have a link for it myself, but I expect you should be able to find out more using (insert your favourite search engine here). :)
 
Yep, Prime95 seems a popular choice, but you can compare it to a folding client in case the latter is easier to use. Doesn't get much easier than P95's torture test, though.
 
I wonder tho, just because something grabs 100% of the CPU doesn't mean it actually USES 100% of the CPU. Turn off ACPI for example and the idle thread will grab 100% CPU by spinning in a busy-loop. It will use 100% CPU cycles, but still relatively little of the CPU's actual execution resources...

Someone should research which program actually gives the highest core temperature readings on all platforms to be tested - and it might well be different programs for the various processors too.
 
I suggest the utilities from the cpuburn http://pages.sbcglobal.net/redelm/ package. Those consistently cause higher cpu temperatures than folding clients, prime95 or other such apps. the only disadvante I see is that people might argue it's not a "real" app. Unfortunately the newest versions still are for P6 cores and K7 - supposedly special versions for P4 and K8 chips would do better, but as long as it causes more load than prime95...
 
Mmmmmm...

OK, another suggestion would be to loop through the CPU tests in 3DMark - this would fit in with the rest of the site. Thoughts?
 
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