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Stress testing a computer is an important troubleshooting step that can help users determine if newly upgraded parts are working properly, or identify system stability issues. While stress testing is most common in the PC overclocking world, Mac owners can also use stress testing for a number of reasons, including identifying overheating issues, testing battery capacity under load, determining CPU throttling limits, or simply to see how loud a Mac’s fan can get at full speed.
There are a variety of utilities available that offer stress testing capabilities — examples include Geekbench, CPUTest, and NovaBench — but if you just want to test your CPU, you can do so directly from Terminal without any third party software.
To stress test a Mac’s CPU, we can use the “yes” command, a Unix command that, without modification, will simply output an affirmative response (‘y’) over and over again until it is terminated. To stress test a Mac with the “yes” command, open Terminal, type the following, and press Return to execute:
After a moment, you’ll see the number 1 in brackets appear next to a (likely) 3- or 4-digit number. This indicates that the “yes” command is maxing out one thread of your Mac CPU (the [1]), with the designated Process ID (the 3- or 4-digit number). You can verify this and see the CPU activity via the Activity Monitor application (located in Applications > Utilities).
The problem, however, is that unless your Mac is more than 10 years old, it almost certainly has a CPU with multiple cores and threads, and running the command above only tests one of those threads. To truly stress test a Mac, you’ll need to max out all threads of your CPU, which you can do by repeating the command above.
For example, we have a 2013 6-core Mac Pro in our office here at TekRevue. That 6-core processor — a Xeon E5-1650 v2, if you’re interested — is also hyper-threaded, meaning that we have a total of 12 CPU threads at our disposal. To test all 12 logical cores, we would replicate the “yes” command listed above 12 times. You can do this by opening a new Terminal window for each command, or by combining them into a single command like this:
Video Memory Stress Test. As the name suggests, this software is meant for running a detailed stress test on your PC’s GPU to get a report on how it is actually performing. Video Memory Stress Test is a small application tool which is free for home use only and it is a paid service for commercial purposes. “CPU Stress Test Online” or simply “CPU Load Test” is a free processor performance test allowing you to check online your processor at heavy load. Unlike the “CPU Benchmark Online”, here you can manually set the required load, as well as stop or resume testing at any time.
To modify this command for your own Mac, simply adjust the number of times that yes > /dev/null & repeats based on your Mac’s total CPU threads. For example, the new 12-inch Retina MacBook has a dual-core hyper-threaded CPU, meaning that you would use only 4 instances of the “yes” command. If you’re unsure about your Mac’s CPU configuration, a great place to check is EveryMac, a database that contains the details — you guessed it — for every Mac, including the number of processors and cores.
While properly functioning Macs should have no trouble with a stress test, it’s important to note that if your Mac has a hardware or cooling issue a CPU stress test can crash the system. Therefore, make sure you save any important documents and close your applications before running the test to ensure that you won’t lose any data if your Mac unexpectedly shuts down or crashes.
Once you’ve let the test run for a few hours (or overnight if you really want to push your Mac to the limit), you can end the test by closing the Terminal window(s) containing the “yes” command. You can then verify in Activity Monitor that your Mac CPU is no longer maxed out.
A final note: stress testing a Mac’s CPU will increase the heat generated by a significant amount. Before stress testing, make sure your Mac is in a relatively cool and well ventilated area, and that the Mac’s fan or airflow ports are unobstructed. While Intel CPUs will automatically throttle or shut down if temperatures get too high, there is still a chance that you can permanently damage your Mac if you max out the processor without proper ventilation or heat dissipation.
Updated: June 13, 2021 Home » Freeware and Software Reviews
Check My Mac Speed
Is your graphics card memory free of errors? If you overclock them and it overheats, chances are, the RAM memory might be damaged. Unlike other components in your desktop, if a memory fails be it RAM or GPU’s Memory errors, your system will automatically reboot itself, sometimes it will display the Blue Screen of Death.
😭 😍 😂 4 Free Tools To Test RAM Memory For Windows, Linux and Mac
The only way to know if your GPU’s memory is faulty is to perform a stress test on the GPU memory quickly and thoroughly! Below are 5 very useful tools to stress test your GPU.
↓ 01 – Video Memory stress Test | 40 Test | Free
Video Memory Stress Test is a small application that is free for home use (but paid for commercial use) and is designed to test the RAM on your video card. Similar to Memtest86+, it will read and write data to each part of the video card’s RAM and log any errors found. This test allow you to completely test your video RAM (accessible to DirectX). The best way to check stability after overclocking ;)
↓ 02 – OCCT | Free | Pro
OCCT is a stability checking tool, free for personal use. It comes with 4 built-in tests aimed at testing CPUs, GPUs and Power supplies. OCCT also monitors temperatures, voltages and fan speed, as well as system constants such as CPU Usage, Memory Usage and FPS (if testing in 3d).
↓ 03 – GpuMemTest | nVidia Only
Best Gpu Stress Tests
GpuMemTest is suitable for anyone who wants to verify that their hardware is not faulty. GpuMemTest is suitable for overclockers (only on nVidia GPUs!) who want to quickly determine the highest stable memory frequency.
We recommend setting the memory frequency to be no higher than 90% of the highest stable frequency. Please do not use GpuMemTest for overclocking on AMD GPUs, as it might fail to detect errors. GpuMemTest is suitable for CUDA and OpenCL programmers, because having confidence in hardware is necessary for serious application development.
↓ 04 – FurMark | OpenGL
FurMark is a very intensive OpenGL benchmark that uses fur rendering algorithms to measure the performance of the graphics card. Fur rendering is especially adapted to overheat the GPU and that’s why FurMark is also a perfect stability and stress test tool (also called GPU burner) for the graphics card.
↓ 05 – GpuTest | Linux | Windows | macOS
GpuTest is a cross-platform (Windows, Linux and maxOS) GPU stress test and OpenGL benchmark. GpuTest comes with several GPU tests including some popular ones from Windows World (FurMark or TessMark). The number of GPU tests grows with the new versions of the tool. The following tests are available in the latest version:
- FurMark based stress test (OpenGL 2.1 or 3.2).
- TessMark based tessellation test (OpenGL 4.0).
- GiMark: geometry instancing test (OpenGL 3.3).
- PixMark Piano pixel shader test (OpenGL 2.1 or 3.2).
- PixMark Volplosion pixel shader test (OpenGL 2.1 or 3.2).
- Plot3D vertex shader test (OpenGL 2.1 or 3.2).
- Triangle one of the most simple 3D scenes ever made… (OpenGL 2.1 or 3.2).
Gpu Stress Test Software
↓ 06 – EVGA OC Scanner X | Free For EVGA Cards
Introducing EVGA OC Scanner X, the essential utility for any EVGA GeForce card. This application allows you to take your card to the limit with exclusive built-in artifact scanning, benchmarking tools, GPU vitals information, CPU burn in utility and built-in log functionality. When combined with EVGA Precision X, your GeForce overclocking experience is complete!
Mac Stress Test Software Free
↓ 07 – FurMark ROG Edition | Free For Asus Cards
FurMark ROG Edition is a heavily revamped version for ASUS of the popular FurMark tool. FurMark ROG Edition comes with modern stress-tests and artifact scanner based on OpenGL and Vulkan. Thanks to FurMark ROG Edition, you can push your graphics card to the limits to test stability and thermal performance.
↓ 08 – MSI Kombustor | Free For MSI Cards
MSI Kombustor is MSI’s exclusive burn-in benchmarking tool based on the well-known FurMark software. This program is specifically designed to push your graphics card to the limits to test stability and thermal performance. Kombustor supports cutting edge 3D APIs such as OpenGL or Vulkan.