How to stress a CPU test in Linux

Stress testing your CPU is one of the best ways to check your processor’s performance capabilities under heavy load and system temperature when this happens.

When you stress about CPU testing, you can monitor system resources to see how they are behaving with the CPU at peak workload. While the performance will not change compared to what the processor is capable of, the temperature may affect its operation if it is not well equipped.

Stress testing is essential for enthusiasts when building a new systemespecially if you plan to overclock the CPU later.

For example, if your CPU temperature rose too quickly during a stress test. You need a better cooling solution by changing the CPU cooler, using a better airflow cabinet, etc.

Now that you have an idea of ​​the benefits, I’m going to walk you through the following ways to stress about CPU testing in Linux:

• Using GtkStressTesting (gui method)
• Using stress tool and s-tui (CLI method)

Let’s start with the first.

Linux CPU stress test using GUI method 🖥️

If you prefer to use a GUI solution on the terminal, I have the easiest way for you to stress test on your system.

There is a GUI utility GtkStressTesting, Helping you test stress and monitor temperature simultaneously. It provides various presets for system stress testing and provides the ability to choose the number of cores you want to work with during testing.

The GtkStressTesting is available as a Flatpak, so if you haven’t already enabled Flatpak support, go back to Flatpak Setup Guide.

Once Flatpak support is enabled, the GtkStressTesting utility can be installed using the following via Terminal (if not Software Center)

flatpak install flathub com.leinardi.gst

After installation, you can start the GtkStressTesting utility from the system menu.

Here, I recommend you to click on File Read all button and enter sudo password so the utility can fetch all your system information:

From here, you can choose how long you want to stress test your system (you can always stop the process if the temperature gets too high) and choose the maximum number available at Workers: Auto.

I went for 12 centers and 5 minutes of compression testing:

Once done, click the start button and watch for temperatures, if they exceed 90 degrees, stop the pressure test.

My system went to 85 max during the stress test:

Very easy way to stress test the CPU. is not it? 😉

Linux CPU stress test using Terminal

You will need two utilities for stress testing with Terminal: s-tui And pressure.

You can install these tools from the default repositories or using pip. It’s easier with default repositories if you’re ok to use an older version of the tool (a small part).

Here are the commands that will help you install it on popular Linux distributions:

For Ubuntu/Debian base:

sudo apt install s-tui stress 

For Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S s-tui stress

For Fedora/RHEL:

sudo dnf install s-tui stress

If you want to use pip For the latest version, here’s the command:

pip install s-tui --user

Once the installation is done, run the s-tui utility in the terminal:

s-tui

You will meet with:

You can use your mouse or the arrow keys on your keyboard to move through the list, so click Stres options Choose how long you want to stress test the system (in seconds):

Finally, select File Stress option, and the stress test will start for a specified time:

And if the temperature gets out of control, you can click Quit A button to manually stop the stress test. In addition, if you want to store data in .csv Figure, the tool gives you the advantage.

To store data, all you have to do is append a file -c Mark while starting the s-tui utility as shown:

s-tui -c

And if you want to save the file with a name to your liking, you will have to use the extension --csv-file Flag as shown:

s-tui --csv-file <name of file>.csv

For example, here, I named the file Hello.scv:

s-tui --csv-file Hello.scv

You can explore more about the tool in the file GitHub page.

Suggest reading 📖

7 System Monitoring Tools For Linux Best From Above

Senior leadership is good but there are better alternatives. Check out these system monitoring tools that are similar to the top, but better.

Happy regime, happy life 😁

Not every user is aware of the benefits of a stress test. Sometimes it scares them with the thought of their system reaching its limits for no reason.

However, the test will help you quickly assess and monitor the status of your system. things like Abnormal rises in temperature And the CPU’s inability to handle what it is should help you identify hardware problems early on.

Either way, you can refer to our temperature monitoring resource if you wish Keep your CPU monitor under control without performing stress tests.

How to check CPU temperature in Ubuntu Linux

This quick tutorial shows you how to check CPU temperature on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions with the help of a tool called Psensor. Overheating of laptops is a common problem one faces these days. Monitoring hardware temperature may help you diagnose why your laptop is overheating…

You can also check out some of the System monitoring tools or alternatives to htop Linux to monitor your system resources.

💬 What do you think about the Linux CPU stress test? Do you think we should do that? Share your thoughts on this topic in the comments below.