Top tools for stress testing Ryzen processors
Top tools for stress testing Ryzen processors
It's been a long time since I did a stress test on a cpu, but I got a Ryzen 3700x with stock cooler on and want to see what will my gains be with my old Noctua NH-D14 (had to wait for the mounting adapter to come). I tried running Prime95 small ffts, but HWInfo only showed a max temp of 70C with the stock cooler. Last time I did something like this the temps on my 4790K went up to 85C in a second. So, are those values ok? Is Ryzen really cooler? What temps should I expect? What's the best software to use for testing? Thanks
It offers a variety of options but I prefer OCCT. It allows selecting AVX 1 or 2, or disabling it. Memory and CPU usage are adjustable by the user. It includes LinPack for memory testing and additional tools like temperature monitoring. Yes, Ryzen performs quite well compared to Intel counterparts with fewer cores and threads.
Zen 2 cores tend to get quite warm. Thermal density plays a role here. Games that heavily tax your CPU will clearly show a big contrast between D14 and the standard setup. On my 3600, I reach about 77°C at its peak during the AIO run, but only after the whole chip is under strain for a few hours.
I run cinebench r20 for quick checks and intelburntest for extended evaluations on my Ryzen 3900X at normal speed. Temperatures can rise up to 85°C on a dark rock pro 3 while keeping 4GHz with an undervolted setting of 1.1V (previously 0.95V until an update made 1.1V the baseline). Currently, some cores hit 3.9 while others reach 4.0 around 70-75°C.
for rendering stability you can use blender, while for gaming load testing r20 is just a bit above the maximum temps. Running Far Cry 5 benchmark spam works well for this purpose. With a stock cooler, PBO with a negative offset of -0.05v or -0.1v is recommended instead of a fixed voltage setting. On my system, I typically run between 90-95°C during r20 spam, and the highest temperature recorded in games is around 85°C. Zen's cooler performs better under certain clocks, but at 4.1-4.2°C it runs efficiently compared to Intel chips.