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What is the real value of Linpack or IBT and apps like that over P95?

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EarthDog

Gulper Nozzle Co-Owner
Joined
Dec 15, 2008
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I have a couple of questions and a strong opinion on this myself so here goes:

I see the value in Linpack/Linx/IBT for cutting the time down to find instability. However thats it. Period. To me, and correct me if I am wrong here, but those applications are just overkill. The temps in P95 Small FFT (Large for i7) you will NEVER see in normal computing which includes internet, gaming, encoding, ripping, rendering, etc. So aside from saving time to find instability, why would anyone run those programs on thier chips? What more, exactly, are those programs doing to get the chips cooking compared to P95? To me running those programs is like testing out your car past its redline when you will NEVER get there in 99.9999999999% of curcumstances. I mean, of course it would error out sooner when running 110% right? I just dont get it as nobody runs their chips that hard b/c they absolutely cannot achieve it with current applications.

Can someone enlighten me where my knowledge is incomplete? Can someone play devils advocate on the other side of this issue?
 
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I like linx and occt because they cut down the time to find instability. And it helped me find good 24/7 usage settings. If linx hits 80c, which I wouldn't want to run at 24/7, then I know everything else will stay around 60c-70c, which I like for 24/7. There are programs that will push your system that hard, but not many. Folding on multiple vm's does momentarily bump me to 73c-75c occasionally. And if I tried to max out my HT threads and real threads it would be equivalent to running linx.

I don't think there is any harm in running your system at 100% unless you are over volted or your temps are too high. Chips are made to run full bore, cars are not.
 
Thank you for your input!

P95 already runs your system at 100%. Folding on all 4 cores in SMP doesnt get me close to P95 small FFT temps either. Never tried a VM though, good info there. Is this common any other VM folders?

But if P95 is 100% what are the other programs doing specifically to make it run 5-10C warmer (which is why I am saying 110%)? If one cant reach P95 temps in normal activities, why bother running it harder aside from the aformentioned shorten the time to check for stability?
 
If you watch really closely P95 doesn't use 100% it bounces around 98%-99%, while I wouldn't think that would change the temps so much it does.

Lots of windows folders are running linux vm's because linux smp gets WUs with better points. And you can run 2 vm's with 2 cores each. Check out the guides/stickies in the folding forum.

30mins of linx or 1hr of OCCT is way better than 12hours of prime in my book :). And if your system is stable / doesn't over heat at "110%" than you don't have to worry about anything at less than 100%.

Why prime for days on end when you could be folding :).

Just my 2c.
 
It gives you an extra level of cushion when running 24/7, but you have a good point.

No need to run Linx overnight, though. 3-5 passes to get in the ball-park, and then maybe 10 to seal the deal.

I still run P95-small-fft overnight b/c IMO they stress different parts of the chip, and passing one stress test doesn't guarantee you'll pass the other. I feel better when I cover all the bases as best I can.
 
linpack= major heat, full load, all ram being used, cpu, nb, stix pinned to the limit. punishing, abuse :)

p95= cool running, old faithful, slow, yet accurate.
 
Do you guys ever use OCCT? Seemed kinda all around for testing. One time I was linx 10 passes and prime 4 hours stable but OCCT crashed me in 20mins.
 
linpack= major heat, full load, all ram being used, cpu, nb, stix pinned to the limit. punishing, abuse :)
Custom on P95 can accomplish that.

Thank you again all for the input, it has been mostly enlightening, however my questions still are not answered.

1. What SPECIFICALLY are those apps doing to make it run harder (as in temps) then P95? Note when I run custom and load everything up in P95 my temps dont go up but another 1-2C maybe. Those other apps are 5-10C above P95.
2. Aside from the time to see if your o/c is stable, what is the point in those applications? Again, P95 is 100% use. The other apps show me the same % used for the record. Its just hard for me to grasp, aside from time, that these programs are helpful when they stress it soo much harder than P95 when users dont even come close to the abuse P95 puts on a machine.

P95 stable for 24 hours was enough for me to fold months straight with no errors on my end. I just dont get it and so far, no points mentioned were convincing. I can only go back to that analogy if P95 is 100%, and it is, those other programs are doing more somehow and that doesnt seem to be useful unless you want to save time to find instability.
 
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1. What SPECIFICALLY are those apps doing to make it run harder (as in temps) then P95? Note when I run custom and load everything up in P95 my temps dont go up but another 1-2C maybe. Those other apps are 5-10C above P95.
I could write a program that took 100% of the CPU and kept almost stable temps. Why? Just because the CPU is in use doesn't mean it is actually doing something. Basically, linpack is better because it does more/different calculations that push more of the transistors harder.


2. Aside from the time to see if your o/c is stable, what is the point in those applications? Again, P95 is 100% use. The other apps show me the same % used for the record. Its just hard for me to grasp, aside from time, that these programs are helpful when they stress it soo much harder than P95 when users dont even come close to the abuse P95 puts on a machine.
See above, 100% of CPU usage is not the same as 100% transisitor usage. Another reason to use this is to see how much of a heatload the processor puts out in a worst case scenario.

So as much as you want to believe that P95 is better or as good as linpack, it isn't.
 
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Thank you for the explanation! Thats a bit of what I am looking for. :)

I never thought its better, I didnt even post that. Im saying, IMHO, anything over P95 is OVERKILL aside from time b/c you cant even catch P95 temps doing anything (including folding) in my experience.
 
Thank you for the explanation! Thats a bit of what I am looking for. :)
No problem.

I never thought its better, I didnt even post that. Im saying, IMHO, anything over P95 is OVERKILL aside from time b/c you cant even catch P95 temps doing anything (including folding) in my experience.
I mis-read your post then, sorry. Basically Prime95 is inefficient compared to linpack.
 
linpack= major heat, full load, all ram being used, cpu, nb, stix pinned to the limit. punishing, abuse :)

p95= cool running, old faithful, slow, yet accurate.

The current Prime95 version= Seems to be both hot running and accurate.

Linpack= I dunno, Linpack seems to raise the temp-lower the temp-raise the temp-lower the temp and seemed to run it cool, the last time I checked. Also, I heard that Linpack isn't a good RAM test.

Prime95 looks more balanced than the others. Especially when I ran 64-bit Prime95 on Windows 7 beta 64-bit in January.
 
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Hehe... I love all this Folding talk in the Intel section. :D

Good thread EarthDog... I learned something. :) Basically that I need to look into OCCT again and Linpack.

I've used OCCT in the past... I heard, "run it for an hour, mine fails in 20mins after passing Prime"... so I've played around with it. Anytime a machine is Prime Blend stable, the machine has also passed a 1 hour OCCT as well. So I stopped running it as I didn't see the value... but that's just my experience with it.

...and I've just never used Linpack. I've just been on a Fold-A-Thon for the last few years and been out of the OC'ing loop. :whistles innocently: :rolleyes: Prime Blend has just served me well, so I've stuck with it... but it may be time to rehash the stress testing regiment. :)
 
I personally believe you need both plus more.

Ive passed LINX testing on my current system only to fail P95 10 minutes in, and vice versa depending upon my settings.

Ive also passed both and been able to fold 24/7 only to have games crash, and had to bump the voltage a notch.
 
I think that as few told, using 2-3 test is the best way to be sure its stable.

You can use OCCT(1hr) or IBT(10pass) for fast stability test and still run a 8hrs blend to "seal the deal". Thats what im doing and i never had any stability problem.

THX alot for this thread, ive learned few things in it :D
 
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