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Should prime95 really be used?

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Michael Warren

Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2005
Well I can pass Pi32 at 2.95 but I will fail prime95 after about 2 hours. I was wondering if prime95 should really be used since all that I really do on my computer is gaming and I do some editing everyonce in a while. My computer doesnt do much prolonged number crunching so im thinking about removing prime completly and just use a couple of loops of 3dmark and Pi32 for stability. Please state your views on this.
 
I have gone the same route only to find that I would get random errors and sometimes a reboot while gaming extensively. think of it this way... Prime is like having a mechanic go over the car you want to buy to check for future problems instead of your girlfriend looking at it and saying "It's pretty, and it runs.. Let's buy it".
If there is some kind of instability in your system, Prime will probably find it. And if you overlook it, you will probably notice it later on in some manner.

Now don't go flaming " Prime sucks" or "Prime is god" here, this is just a guideline, not a golden rule.
 
Yo got it in one, really. I never used to use Prime, until I just got too annoyed with the 1-2 BSODs, or a lockup when I was playing games.
 
It's just a widely used program to test stability, doesn't mean you can't play games if you fail Prime.

I fail Prime at 2.72ghz, but I leave it on at 2.8ghz 24/7 and games and all my applications run perfectly.

Prime95 is a great program, used for stressing your CPU as well, but it's more of a benchmark type of thing, "I'm prime stable at 2.8ghz" or etc.

In my opinion, as long as your games and daily activities run fine with whatever speed your at, it's all good.
 
I personally believe in a 100% stable system even if it means I have to back off from an overclock I REALLY wanted.
 
It's really a personal preference and determined by what you use the computer for. I don't run my computer at anything that isn't 24 hr prime stable, but that's because I fold 24/7. If it's crunching something for 12 hrs, and prime fails after 2, well you can see the problem. For people who only game and use the internet or whatever, a few hours is more than enough.

Again though, the longer it's prime stable, the less chance you will end up corrupting some random important Windows file down the road.
 
darksparkz said:
It's just a widely used program to test stability, doesn't mean you can't play games if you fail Prime.

I fail Prime at 2.72ghz, but I leave it on at 2.8ghz 24/7 and games and all my applications run perfectly.

Prime95 is a great program, used for stressing your CPU as well, but it's more of a benchmark type of thing, "I'm prime stable at 2.8ghz" or etc.

In my opinion, as long as your games and daily activities run fine with whatever speed your at, it's all good.

In all honesty, I couldnt agree with you more. My pc isnt even prime stable at 2.25GHz.. yet i run 2700mhz for over a week of constant SETI, and daily games, music, movies and occassionally the odd encoding.. prime is but a guideline, and a benchmark in my eyes. "im prime stable @ x, but i can RUN EVERYTHING at x+100mhz" is pretty much the case lol

Careface*
 
IMO prime takes way to long for me (only 1 PC in my house). All i do is loop each 3dmark a few times, run Aquamark 3 twice, and PCmark04. If i can pass those without a hitch i know i am 100% stable. PCmark04 crashes on me before prime will fail.
 
i always run prime to check the stability of my overclocks as mentioned by a few others in this thread its a great way to not have to worry or wonder if your pc will crash or just have problems in general. now ill bench higher than what im prime stable at to try and get the highest numbers but dont run my system for normal use/gaming with unstable overclocks.

people will downplay the importance of prime in what i can only assume is their way of lying to themselves about their overclocks. some people will even fold or run seti on unstable overclocks and to me thats a incredibly rude thing to do as the results you send in for your particular wu could be inaccurate if your pc isnt doing calculations right (which is exactly what prime exposes)

im not trying to bash anyone who runs unstable settings or change the way they do things but i highly doubt anyone of them would purchase a cpu at a rated speed that had a sidenote saying 3 hours prime stable @ this speed/voltage :shrug: been wrong in the past though.

stang8118 said:
IMO prime takes way to long for me (only 1 PC in my house). All i do is loop each 3dmark a few times, run Aquamark 3 twice, and PCmark04. If i can pass those without a hitch i know i am 100% stable. PCmark04 crashes on me before prime will fail.

thats sort of what i do anymore lately ive been just loading an instance of prime95 or running occt then running 01se then a superpi32m run if it can handle all that ill turn prime on when i go to bed (and it usually never fails before i get home from work the next day after passing all that)
 
24-hour Prime stable is very important for me, even if I have to back down from an amazing overclock. Windows corruption or randomly crashing in a game should not disturb my computing.
 
Personally i think 24h prime is a must, because you never know when those problems or crashes will come up and bite ya. While it's not a big deal if you're playing games, i'm a student and if i'm working on a multisim project the last thing i need is a crash.
I personally don't think that the extra 100mhz will show any real performance increase outside of benchmarks. I'd rather have a prime stable machine than something to brag about in a sig.
 
I think that im just going to use Pi32 for and 10 loops of 3dmark to check for stability since I have heard of alot of people failing prime on stock speeds.
 
Xstatic said:
Never heard of anyone failing prime on stock speed.


i have but its very rare. the only times ive heard of this is with winchester core a64s and only some people reported this my winnie had no problems priming @ stock speeds or above (well until the overclock became unstable anyway)

i certainly havent heard of alot of people failing it and if they are they need to start an rma process. if you fail prime it means your cpu isnt stable. some people like to debate about primes effectiveness but they are just looking to say 3+5=10 and its hard to get people onboard with that kind of mindset. no matter how you look at it if you cant pass prime it means your cpu came up with the wrong calculation when it checked its outcome to known correct results sadly some people choose to just say no i dont think ill believe this test because its not telling me what i want to hear but thats not the answer just an excuse.

something to think about is this. i myself dont know of anyone who has run prime95 for 24 hours without an error and couldnt run a benchmark or failed a superpi calculation etc etc etc. i do however know a multitude of people who can pass superpi runs and 3dmarks and game for hours and not crash but will have errors with prime95 this is saying that your stable enough for those apps but not entirely stable when the cpu is really taxed. for some people thats good enough for others its not. i tend to plan for worst case scenarios and dont want to be in the 3rd hour of a quest in a mmo or in a competetive ladder match in css and have the game ctod or possibly act up.
 
I agree with you hawtrawker. I feel its just a way of saying "iI can get these speeds" when in reality they cant. I am still stressing my new system after 6 days and Im only at 2.6. I can reach 2.8 but its not stable. So this would be like me saying hey I can get 2.8 with my cpu when actually its a total lie. I don't like to lie to myself as its only going to hurt later on as you said. IF your not prime stable for 24 hours then your not stable period. Like someone else said, how would you like it if amd or intel started shipping chips that were only partialy stable at the spec speeds for a very short period of time?
 
I dont go for the whole 24 hour prime thing. Who wants to spend 24 hours without their comp? A lot of people dont focus their prime. Yes you need to run 1024k prime for AGES before it will spit up a cpu error on an unstable system but I figure if it passes 8k for overnight its good enough. WoW seems to be the best memory test ive found. Park my butt in Iron Forge at prime time and if there are any memory problems it crashes in minutes usually.
 
Please remember that there are 3 Prime stress tests. I have done 24 hours on small and large FFT's and failed the blend test in minutes. Once you pass all three for 20+ hours you are rock solid. Yes, it takes some time, but so does reinstalling Windows and allof yoour software when your system gets corrupted by instability.
 
rseven said:
Please remember that there are 3 Prime stress tests. I have done 24 hours on small and large FFT's and failed the blend test in minutes. Once you pass all three for 20+ hours you are rock solid. Yes, it takes some time, but so does reinstalling Windows and allof yoour software when your system gets corrupted by instability.

Yes most ppl just use small fft's and maybe large fft's. Most of these people that are against prime dont run the blend. Then again most of those people dont pass the small r large at 24h either and just want others to say that thier system is stable so they can say that have a faster system then they actually have.
 
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Jakalwarrior said:
I dont go for the whole 24 hour prime thing. Who wants to spend 24 hours without their comp?

My computer works just fine when running prime.....I don't know about yours.
 
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