Discussion Prime95 PSA

[SeaPancake3]

So, i've been overclocking my 4770k recently, and was using prime95 to stress. After some recent research i've read that its a "power virus" and can push hardware too hard. After switching to Aida64 to stress i've gone from 4.2ghz at 1.29v to 4.5ghz aat 1.31v using an h220x cooler. So to those of you still using prime95, i'd suggest shying away from it.

 

[Monopolyman]

After some recent research i've read that its a "power virus" and can push hardware too hard.

That is literally the point of Prime95. It's designed to bring up the thermal output of the CPU. It is a pretty good test for worst case scenarios and the performance of your cooler. Aida64 doesn't produce the same thermal output, but many argue it's just as good, if not better, for testing the stability of an OC.

Also, it's not likely for a CPU to get damaged during a prime95 test (assuming you are properly OCing). Most of the time the worst thing that can happen is your processor hitting TJMax. When this happens, the processor will downlclock and attempt to cool itself before shutting down.

 

[SeaPancake3]

There's something with the instructions of Haswell in particular (not including Devil's Canyon) that pulls way too much wattage when using AVX instructions. This is particularly dangerous on a CPU that has already been overvolted to be overclocked. This has been a part of p95's stress test since version 27.9

 

[Prefix_NA]

P95 is perfectly safe but Furmark for GPU is not recommended (especially if your on Nvidia Fermi series).