Key Takeaways
- Monitor your PC while stress testing to prevent hardware damage & know when to quit if necessary.
- Download HWMonitor or CoreTemp to check temperatures & CPU-Z/GPU-Z for clock speeds.
- Be cautious when changing power settings on GPU/CPU as it could lead to hardware damage if done incorrectly.
Stress testing your PC can be great fun and can even lead you to want to play with overclocking a bit. Stress testing your PC can push your hardware to the limits, so it is best if you monitor it while doing so. Most PCs have a fail-safe in place, but just in case you reach the brink of disaster, it's good to know when to call it quits.
Before you start to stress test your PC, you will want to download a couple of programs. HWMonitor or CoreTemp will allow you to monitor your voltages and temps. CPU-Z and GPU-Z will let you check your CPU, RAM, and GPU clock speeds and voltages to make sure they are running correctly. You won't need all of them, but at a minimum, I would recommend at least downloading HWMonitor or CoreTemp so you can monitor your PC's temperatures.
Gaming is another great way to stress test your PC and a lot of games these days, like Dirt 5, Metro Exodus, Tomb Raider, and many others, even have built-in benchmarks to make life easier.
Changing any power, voltage, or clock settings on your GPU and CPU could result in damaging your hardware. If you are unsure of what you are doing, DO NOT change any settings.
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8 MSI Afterburner & Kombuster
This is a great pair of programs to get started with. MSI Afterburner is a monitoring program that allows you to also make some tweaks to your GPU settings. It monitors your GPU clock speed, memory, voltage, and temperature. It also allows you to adjust your core voltage, core clock, memory clock, power limit, and fan settings quite easily. The best part about it all is how easy it is to see exactly what is going on. Once you are familiar with it, you can then use MSI Kombuster to stress test and benchmark your PC. Kombuster needs to be installed separately, but once it is, you can launch it right from the MSI Afterburner software.
MSI Afterburner
MSI Afterburner is one of the best overclocking software choices with many extra features to monitor your PC's performance.
7 Unigine Superposition
Superposition is another great GPU stress test and stability benchmark, and it even has support for VR headsets. Superposition has multiple options available, depending on your needs, but does come with a standard free version which I have been using for years now. It runs through a few different scenes during the benchmark, making sure to check all aspects of your GPU. While it is running, you can see the current FPS as well as the minimum, average, and maximum FPS. It tells you what GPU it is using and even includes information about what scene it is on and the total frames generated.
Superposition
The free version of Superposition gets you a basic benchmarking tool that's enough to gauge your GPU's performance and stability. It even includes a free VR benchmark tool, which is great.
6 AIDA64 Extreme
This is one of my favorite programs to use. AIDA64 Extreme offers several useful tools to monitor and stress test your PC. It can give you a full hardware analysis and details on Windows and other software. When it comes to stress testing and benchmarking, it offers a system stability test, diagnostics, and multiple CPU and RAM benchmarks. There are so many features to AIDA64 that it is one of those programs you really need to check out if you are interested in stress testing and benchmarking. Best of all, it does come with a free 30-day trial, so there's no need to spend any money upfront.
AIDA64
AIDA64 is a system monitoring and benchmarking tool that offers detailed information, diagnostics, and stress tests to measure the performance of your computer.
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5 CrystalDiskMark
This is another classic. CrystalDiskMark doesn't stress test your PC as such, but it will benchmark your storage drives. This is useful for making sure that your NVMe SSD is hitting those insanely fast speeds as advertised. It has an easy-to-understand interface and is equally simple to use. Once it is installed, open it up, and you can select the drive you want to benchmark. Then, all you have to do is hit the 'All' button, and it will run all the benchmarks on your drive. You can also select to just run a single test if you just want to quickly test your standard read and write speeds. CrystalDiskMark is also a free-to-use program.
CrystalDiskMark
CrystalDiskMark is one of the most popular storage benchmarking tools. This open-source program tests the speed and efficiency of your HDD or SSD by writing data in sequential and random tests.
4 3DMark
3DMark offers a few different benchmarks based on your needs, and you can easily benchmark and stress test your PC using these. On the benchmark side of things, there are loads of different options depending on the type of PC you have. You can choose from benchmarks designed to run on lower-end PCs, high-end gaming PCs, 4K gaming on DirectX 11, DirectX 12 benchmarks, and many more. There is a demo version, but if you want to unlock everything, you will need to pay for 3DMark itself. You may have to buy a couple of the DLC packs for it, but it is well worth it if you are into this. They are updating it with new benchmarks all the time.
3DMark
3DMark is a popular benchmarking utility that includes a collection of benchmarks to test your GPU's performance with various settings. The free version of the program is enough to run some basic tests, while the paid version unlocks additional tests to collect more information.
3 Prime95
This is a program that many overclockers and reviewers use to test their CPUs and CPU coolers. I have been using Prime95 to do CPU cooler reviews for longer than I can remember, and it has never let me down. It can also test your RAM and memory control, but it will heat your CPU quite quickly when running the Small FFTs stress test. As mentioned, this is a great way to see just how well your CPU cooler is working and will also let you know the maximum temperature your CPU will reach when maxed out. If you can pass Prime95 without hitting your CPU max temperature before it thermal throttles, you should be able to run almost any task you need without having to worry about your CPU overheating. As we have seen with some of the other programs listed, Prime95 is also free-to-use.
Prime95
Prime95 is a stress-testing tool that puts a tremendous load on the CPU to test its performance and stability. You can download and use it for free, but remember that it's recommended for beginners.
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2 FURMARK
The original stress test that could obliterate almost any GPU back in the day. FURMARK is designed to be an extremely intensive GPU stress test. It will measure your GPU temperature, hotspot, VRAM, and usage while showing what looks like a fairly simple image on the screen. The longer it runs, the hotter your GPU will get. I have seen many GPUs simply stop working and start showing artifacts when using FURMARK. If you want an extra layer of insight, try running it alongside Prime95 or IntelBurnTest for a full-out CPU and GPU stress test. Just be wary, if you do this, your system will get pushed to its limits and hit temperatures that are not recommended to let your components run at. You may even damage your GPU. And again, this is another free program.
FurMark
FurMark is also a popular benchmarking program, although it's more popular among enthusiasts who often push their GPUs to their absolute limits and know what they are doing.
1 IntelBurnTest
IntelBurnTest may be a bit older, but it is still one of the most widely used CPU stress testing programs to this day. Also, don't let the name fool you: it is more than capable of stress testing your AMD CPUs as well. IntelBurnTest is a cut-down version designed to simplify the use of Intel Linpack. The main advantage it offers is that it is more accurate than Prime95 and needs a lot less time to make sure your CPU is stable. Generally, around 10 minutes in IntelBurnTest is more than enough, whereas Prime95 could take 24 hours or more to get results that are as thorough. It also uses the same stress testing engine that Intel uses on its products before they are sold. You can use IntelBurnTest for free, so there is no reason not to give it a try.
IntelBurnTest
IntelBurnTest is a program designed to offer the maximum stress test to your CPU. It is also designed to simplify the usage of Intel Linpack and make it easier and more practical.
Why you should stress test and benchmark your PC
The main reason for doing this activity is because it allows you to check the stability of your PC. It is best to do this in a focused way and use software designed to do such. The last thing you would want is to load up a game or get halfway through a long CAD render and find out that your PC just shuts off because things weren't working as they should. Even if you aren't doing very intensive tasks on your PC, it is best to make sure it is stable so you don't run into any issues. Taking 30 minutes to an hour now to stress test your PC could save you hours of lost work down the road. This is extremely important, especially if you are using one of Intel's 14th Gen Processors that has had some power and stability issues.
Stress testing your PC can also be entertaining, so make sure to give it a try!
