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3DMark now has a stress test tool for overclockers

By Koh Wanzi - on 17 Jun 2016, 8:38pm

3DMark now has a stress test tool for overclockers

The framerate stability score of 87.3 percent means the system hasn't passed the test. (Image Source: Futuremark)

3DMark has it all now. A new update adds stress test features to the Advanced and Professional editions of 3DMark, which means that users now have a dedicated tool with which to test the stability of their systems. On top of that, the software already has an API Overhead feature test that quantifies the performance gains in new APIs like DirectX 12.

Before this, users were still able to loop a certain benchmark indefinitely and have that serve as a makeshift stress test of sorts, but the fact remained that these performance benchmarks were not designed to function in that capacity. Even when set to loop, there were still pauses to load different scenes, which means the system was never under continuous load throughout.

This changes with the new stress tests that have been added. Four tiers of stress tests, based on Fire Strike, Fire Strike Extreme, Fire Strike Ultra, and Sky Diver are available, with each offering different levels of performance to stress the system. The key difference is that each runs in a loop without any pauses to reload the scene.

In 3DMark Advanced, the stress test scene runs 20 times, and there is no way to change the duration. However, the Professional version allows enthusiasts and benchmarkers to set the number of loops anywhere between two and 5,000, so you could really stress your rig for extended periods of time if you wanted.

At the end of the stress test, a framerate stability score will be displayed, which provides a helpful, objective measure of system stability under load. The higher the score, the better, but your system will have failed the test if it is unable to produce at least a score of 97 percent in all of its loops.

The stability score also means that you may be able to more easily identify the problem in the case of instabilities. For instance, you could tweak different parameters – like cooling or various clock speeds – and see if the score improves.  

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