FIRESTARTER Alternatives

FIRESTARTER reviews and mentions

• What are your temps like? idle/gaming/p95
  1 project | /r/NR200 | 19 Jan 2023

  Load: 68.0C (running FIRESTARTER)

• Grafikkarte warm laufen lassen?
  2 projects | /r/de_EDV | 10 Oct 2022
• A Little Story About the `Yes` Unix Command
  6 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 21 Jul 2022

  Convenient for low level testing, but if you want maximum thermal generation there is no substitute for FIRESTARTER:

  https://github.com/tud-zih-energy/FIRESTARTER

  With my system hooked up to a watts up (but including the monitor and a couple of other things) yes > /dev/null on each core gets a bit above 42w, openssl speed on each core occasionally gets above 45w and running FIRESTARTER for a bit gets above 57w (on an i5-6260U (NUC) with hyperthreading disabled, 15W TDP with some attempted power restraint in the BIOS, firefox on decent websites like HN tent to use about 31w and I think that is something like 10-15w measuring the computer only).

  FIRESTARTER has some evolutionary algorithms as well, but at least on my CPU after hours they were still doing much worse than the default. I was wondering why there wasn't much discussion of BIOS power settings that I could find and after some testing found out that they are not effective at restraining max power use (I forget if they had any effect on typical power use either but I don't think it was much if they did). Also, the integrated GPU can use more power than the CPU and can't be limited. For that GpuTest is handy (but not open source):

  https://www.geeks3d.com/gputest/

  For me on the internal GPU, Pixmark Piano and Furmark use the most power, either can get 60-61w and adding FIRESTARTER in the background only adds another w or two.

  Similarly, checking temps with turbostat (PkgTmp), 2x yes seems to max out about 70, testing one of the higher power openssl tests on each core reaches 75, FIRESTARTER alone quickly reaches 80 and slowly ramps up to 90, and adding gputest got up to 96. Interstingly, the max temperature is reached when the CPU dethrottles too quickly after the gputest is done. It takes a few gputests alone in a row to get into the 80s (I got bored after 2x each alternating Furmark and Piano that hit 83). Similarly, looking at power useage with turbostat the max PkgWatt with yes is 8.26, with openssl speed ecdsa 9.88, with FIRSTARTER alone 17.62, + gputest 19.97 (or gputest alone, seems unreliable).

  Anyway, this is a long diversion to say that even fancy yes or openssl speed tests are not that great as CPU stress tests :).

• The Basic Box: $950 "budget" build
  1 project | /r/NR200 | 11 Dec 2021

  Temperatures: 28.5°C idle / 73.1°C running Firestarter 1hr, fans on "Standard" cooling curve.

• How do you stress test your Linux machine?
  5 projects | /r/linux_gaming | 15 Sep 2021

  I've found Firestarter (https://github.com/tud-zih-energy/FIRESTARTER) is able to generate the highest CPU temperatures compared to other utilities. It's absolutely not comparable to real-world loads, but if can't make your PC crash, then your overclock is probably stable.

• Einfach reden - Offenes Forum am Wochenende | Komisches Wetter Spezialausgabe
  1 project | /r/de | 5 Feb 2021

  Am Ende habe ich mich für das be quiet Dark Base 900 als Ersatz entschieden, weil man dort für einen recht moderaten Preis vielleicht das letzte Gehäuse bekommt was ich je kaufen werde. Und der erste Eindruck ist durchgehend positiv: Das Gehäuse hat fast barokke Opulenz: Absolut riesig, ziemlich schwer, aber was vorallem wichtig ist: gut gekühlt und gut gedämmt. firestarter auszuführen bringt das Ding gerade in den Bereich von "offensichtlich hörbar". (Achja und ein neues, modulares, Netzteil gab es dann auch weil Kabelmanagment = geil)

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