Initial startup initiatives?
Initial startup initiatives?
Crysis. JK, you might try running CPU and GPU heavy tests such as Prime95, Furmark, or Unigine Heaven/valley to check for BSODs or odd issues.
I rarely push anything fully stock unless I'm doing overclocking. For that, I rely on monitoring tools and stress test programs. Here are some tips: for monitoring, consider Core Temp, Real Temp, or an open hardware monitor. For stress testing, try Prime95 Aida64 or LinX Furmark. Once you finish those tests, run your game to see if the rig stays stable over time. After a few hours of heavy use, it helps confirm performance consistency. For example, I achieved a 1250mhz core overclock on my GPU and completed about four hours of stress testing, but ran into problems when trying to play a game afterward.
Drivers are the main focus, though stress testing or benchmarking isn't urgent. You can assess it by idle temperatures if the cooler is positioned correctly. For solid software, OCCT is now my preferred CPU stress tool (switched from IBT and Prime95). Kombustor works with GPUs (previously Furmark).
For benchmarks I rely on multiple options: 3Dmark06 and the newest versions, Cinebench, Novabench, ALLBenchmark.
I also run a few smaller tests: XS Bench with RealTemp, Super Pi Mod 1M.
Game performance is still being developed due to age and GFWL shutdowns. I've tried NFS:Shift and BFBC2.