How can I run Prime95 without slowing down my computer

[alan19]

I stumbled upon this program while testing the overclock on my computer and thought it would be cool to spend some spare cycles testing prime numbers. My computer generally runs 24/7 but I need to use is a lot during the day for work.

The instructions say that the default options should only use "leftover idle processor cycles" but it makes my computer very sluggish any time it is running. Is there some setting I can use to enable Prime95 to take fewer resources that will prevent it from slowing down normal computer operation?

I'm using mostly (maybe all?) default settings:
Windows 10 64-bit
1 worker window
priority 1
Type of work to get: "Whatever makes the most sense"
CPU cores 6 (i7-8086K)
Use hyperthreading for trial factoring (Yes)
Hours per day 24
Daytime P-1/ECM stage 2 memory 8MB
Nighttime 8MB

Thanks in advance for any help/advice!

[retina]

Originally Posted by alan19

I stumbled upon this program while testing the overclock on my computer and thought it would be cool to spend some spare cycles testing prime numbers. My computer generally runs 24/7 but I need to use is a lot during the day for work.

The instructions say that the default options should only use "leftover idle processor cycles" but it makes my computer very sluggish any time it is running. Is there some setting I can use to enable Prime95 to take fewer resources that will prevent it from slowing down normal computer operation?

I'm using mostly (maybe all?) default settings:
Windows 10 64-bit
1 worker window
priority 1
Type of work to get: "Whatever makes the most sense"
CPU cores 6 (i7-8086K)
Use hyperthreading for trial factoring (Yes)
Hours per day 24
Daytime P-1/ECM stage 2 memory 8MB
Nighttime 8MB

Thanks in advance for any help/advice!

While P95 does use idle cycles, that only applies to the CPU cycles. So other stuff like caches will be overridden while P95 is active. That is why you can see some sluggish behaviour.

There is really only one sure way to solve the sluggishness. And that is to pause P95. You can pause it manually through the menus, or you can pause it automatically during predefined periods, or you can set it to pause while another process is running. I would tell you all the settings, but right now I don't have docs available. Perhaps someone can guide you a bit further and post the settings details.

Other ways that might work for you is to reduce the number of threads running and leave cores available/idle for other tasks to use.

[alan19]

Thanks for your reply retina yeah I was hoping to keep running this 24/7 but looks like pause may be my best option.

[petrw1]

Originally Posted by alan19

Thanks for your reply retina yeah I was hoping to keep running this 24/7 but looks like pause may be my best option.

I always run prime95 24 hours a day without noticeable sluggishness.
Mind you I dont do other intense work.
Read about PauseWhileRunning
Dont allocate more than about 70% of your RAM TO Prime95..

[VBCurtis]

I allocate fewer cores to P95; P95 isn't very much slower with 3 cores instead of 4, but the sluggishness that happens on some machines usually disappears.

[alan19]

I reduced 6 cores to 4 and it's a lot better thank you very much!

[nordi]

You can add a line like this to your "prime.txt" configuration file:


PauseWhileRunning=firefox[2],chrome[1]


That will automatically pause 2 workers when Firefox is running, 1 if chrome is running (or 3 if both are running). That allows you to free up resources depending on how resource hungry the application that you are running is without the need to manually pause/unpause.



If you have only one worker configured, it will pause as soon as any of the mentioned programs runs.