How I mprime is optimal to use to quickly isolate bad individual memory DIMM, or trigger a motherboard's memory DIMM slot to report errors.
How we use mprime for CPU/Memory burn-in. Instructions are for Linux. For Windows, use Prime95 and use the same instructions as below.
Download mprime
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## Usually wget files into a new directory to keep extracted files in one place, otherwise you will get logs/readme's filling up wherever you're currently in mkdir mprime cd mprime wget http://www.mersenne.org/ftp_root/gimps/p95v303b6.linux64.tar.gz tar -xf p95v303b6.linux64.tar.gz |
Do not use for non-server >40 core/thread single-processor systems. mprime/Prime95 is written in Assembly language, which greatly increases the amount of system resources than most programs; running this might be too extreme for your current system, and you may mistaken the results (i.e. abrupt shutdown) as a hardware issue, whereas it just may be a limitation of your system's ability to control system hardware temperatures.
Using mprime
I only use option 15 16 (Options/Torture Test) since we just need mprime for stress testing. It will max the detected threads across all CPU's, I just hit 'enter' when it asks 'Number of torture test threads to run (x):'.
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## Assuming you're not already in the mprime directory you created if you're doing this all in one go from this article
cd mprime
./mprime
## If this is your first time extracting/using, it will ask if you want to join GIMPS- I usually hit 'n' since this is for troubleshooting only anyways
[root@c103454 mprime]# ./mprime
Main Menu
1. Test/Primenet
2. Test/Worker threads
3. Test/Status
4. Test/Continue
5. Test/Exit
6. Advanced/Test
7. Advanced/Time
8. Advanced/P-1
9. Advanced/ECM
10. Advanced/Manual Communication
11. Advanced/Unreserve Exponent
12. Advanced/Quit Gimps
13. Options/CPU
14. Options/Resource Limits
15. Options/Preferences
16. Options/Torture Test
17. Options/Benchmark
18. Help/About
19. Help/About PrimeNet Server
Your choice:
Number of torture test threads to run (80):
Choose a type of torture test to run.
1 = Smallest FFTs (tests L1/L2 caches, high power/heat/CPU stress).
2 = Small FFTs (tests L1/L2/L3 caches, maximum power/heat/CPU stress).
3 = Large FFTs (stresses memory controller and RAM).
4 = Blend (tests all of the above).
Blend is the default. NOTE: if you fail the blend test but pass the
smaller FFT tests then your problem is likely bad memory or bad memory
controller.
Type of torture test to run (4):
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Usually run test (2) for CPU only, (3) for Memory only, and blend Blend (4) to perform both.
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Your choice: 16 Number of torture test threads to run (80): Choose a type of torture test to run. 1 = Smallest FFTs (tests L1/L2 caches, high power/heat/CPU stress). 2 = Small FFTs (tests L1/L2/L3 caches, maximum power/heat/CPU stress). 3 = Large FFTs (stresses memory controller and RAM). 4 = Blend (tests all of the above). Blend is the default. NOTE: if you fail the blend test but pass the smaller FFT tests then your problem is likely bad memory or bad memory controller. Type of torture test to run (4): Customize settings (N): y Min FFT size (in K) (4): Max FFT size (in K) (8192): Memory to use (in MB, 0 = in-place FFTs) (382415): 360000 Time to run each FFT size (in minutes) (6): Run a weaker torture test (not recommended) (N): Accept the answers above? (Y): |
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The procedures to run the mprime test above will not change much, but the outcomes will. For example, I try not to have any other processes running when using mprime. It was fine before scalable processes where CPU cache sizes were significantly smaller, but any other memory-related processes may kill mprime without any specific reason in the 'results.txt'. An example is trying to run the GPU standalone test in this article GPU Validation Test while trying to run mprime. To test high wattage/TDP, I will run mprime test 2 to max out CPU, and then GPU Validation Test to (almost) max TDP across ALL installed GPU's that are CUDA-capable (i.e. mprime will run two CPU's to 120-140w each, and GPU Validation will run ~250-300W on each GPU). Memory/blend test not ran with GPU Validation since it will cause stability issues with memory.
Other Linux CPU testing options:
https://linuxhint.com/useful_linux_stress_test_benchmark_cpu_perf/