How do I stress test both cores?

This is my first dual core system and I cant figure out how to test both core. Do I run two copies of Prime95, one on each core? and how do I do that? I know how to set afinity to a select core but beyond that

And I do have the drivers and hot fixes installed.

I believe you have to run prime95 from 2 seperate directories, but I use sp2004.

Sp2004 is designed for stressing. Download it, decompress it, copy the directory it decompresses to (and maybe label CPU0 and CPU1 or something). Then open up the exe file in each folder. Make the first one have an affinity to cpu0 and the other one to cpu1. These settings will be saved upon exit.

So now you have 2 prime95 instances specifically designed for stressing both cores. Jsut start both of them up and let them run.

Pi is another good tester, you could run dual Pi 32M or one Prime95 and one Pi test.

Create a short cut to Prime95.exe and name it Prime95-0. Right click on the shortcut and click on properties. In the Target box add -a0 to the command line. It will look something like this: [Drive]:\p95v2414\PRIME95.EXE -a0. Create a second shortcut Prime95-1 and add -a1 to the command line. Open an instance of Prime 95 using the Prime95-0 shortcut. In the Prime95 program menu, click on Advanced, then Affinity. Uncheck "Let program run on any CPU" and in the box "specific CPU to run on" change it to 0, then click OK. Open a second instance of Prime 95 using the Prime95-1 shortcut. In the Prime95 program menu, click on Advanced, then Affinity. Uncheck "Let program run on any CPU" and in the box "specific CPU to run on" change it to 1, then click OK. You may now run the torture test of your choice on each separate core.

I just made 2 directory's

1 prime95 the other prime95 #1

created 2 shortcut's set the affinaty to 1 on one of them and 0 on the other.

Well when I run 2 versions of prime, each set to a different core, the cpu usage only goes to 50% and one core is only showing being used. This does not happen if I run two versions of Super Pi or one version of prime and another of Super Pi. Any ideas?

Are you running the two versions from two different directories?

Two versions as in two different exe's in two different directories called CPU0 and CPU1?

If it helps, it seems if they are both running, one will fail and the other wont.

And I did try what krose said and it didnt help.

try two instances of folding@home, that'll stress both of those cores. you can install a copy in two separate directories, then run each copy in its own directory via two separate command windows, also using the -local switch for both and then give them each different machine ID numbers when it asks to change advanced options.

TheSonOfX51 said:

Two versions as in two different exe's in two different directories called CPU0 and CPU1?

If it helps, it seems if they are both running, one will fail and the other wont.

And I did try what krose said and it didnt help.

Click to expand...

You need two different directories for Prime95 to run properly with two instances. Fire up a copy from each directory, set the affinity to seperate CPUs for each instance and it should work.

You do not need prime in 2 different directories. You just need to launch one with the -a1 switch as krose outlined above. Then set the advanced/afinity to 0 in one and 1 in the other. Then run a custom torture test with 1/4 of your memory in each one. If it dies with an error, your system is not stable. Typically, one core is weaker than the other and will always be the one to die.