Prime95

[MaidenBoots]

What is it?

I see it as a CPU test a lot but what is its purpose and what does it do? I know this is a stupid question but I truly do not know.

 

[Ijack]

It's a program that searches for Mersenne primes. Not of much interest to most people, you might think. But its use is that it works the CPU at 100% so is used to stress test the CPU (testing that it works properly under maximum load) and also to indicate how good the cooling system is. Run it for an hour or so and look at the maximum temperature that the CPU reaches and you can see if the cooling system is doing its job. (Or the computer might shut down before the hour is up, indicating that it can't handle that steady load.)

 

[MaidenBoots]

Best answer selected by MaidenBoots.