Linx is a utility used to test system stability. In essence, it is a graphical shell for the Linkpack test, capable of pushing the processor to the limit. Linx is usually used to test CPU overclocking; if the test is successful and the temperature remains within normal limits, overclocking can be left.

Linx main window

Program features:

How to Use Linx to Test Overclock Stability

• We launch the program, in the settings we set the required number of threads and 32\64 bit mode. We check that the checkbox is checked - stop if there is an error.
• Optionally, connect Everest (now Aida64) or Speedfan, set the maximum temperature.
• In the main program window, select all available RAM
• We launch 1 test run, based on the time it took, and set the number of repetitions so that the test lasts at least an hour.
• We run the test with repetitions, monitor the temperature and wait.
• If the test fails, we check the maximum temperature, voltage and other parameters, select more suitable ones and repeat the testing.

Performance virtual machines is very important for us, since now no one can be surprised by the words “Cloud computing”, because they are coming closer and closer to us. There are already a huge number of providers who offer their virtual servers, for our needs. With such a huge selection to choose from, it's tempting to test each one for performance to make the right choice.

There is a special test package for Linux, with which you can test each virtual machine for performance and analyze the results subsequently.

Phoronix Test Suite- an opensource platform that includes a set of special tests for virtual machines running Linux.

Installing Phoronix Test Suite on Linux

At the time of writing, latest version Phoronix Test Suite is 4.8.2. To check more current versions, look at the Phoronix ftp storage. Also on the Phoronix Test Suite website in the Download section you can download executable file, if you don't have Ubuntu or Debian :)

If you have an Ubuntu or Debian distribution and you have already downloaded the Phoronix Test Suite deb file from the link above, then install it like this:

sudo apt-get install php5-cli curl php5-gd

sudo dpkg -i phoronix-test-suite_4.8.2_all.deb

I note that the version of Phoronix Suite Test may differ; at the time of writing, the latest version was 4.8.2.

For CentOS users/ RHEL and Fedora do not have an rpm file on the site, but they can download tar.gz and install the test with the commands:

sudo yum install php-cli php-gd curl

sudo tar xvfvz phoronix-test-suite-4.8.2.tar.gz

cd phoronix-test-suite

sudo ./install-sh

Well, if you work with openSUSE, then first we need to connect the special Benchmark repository, where our test from Phoronix is ​​located:

openSUSE Factory:

zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/benchmark/openSUSE_Factory/benchmark.repo

zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/benchmark/openSUSE_12.3/benchmark.repo

zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/benchmark/openSUSE_12.2/benchmark.repo

zipper in phoronix-test-suite

Working with Phoronix Test Suite

Phoronix Test Suite automatically downloads the test profiles and packages you choose and can also upload test results to openbenchmarking.org if you choose. To run the test for the first time, you will need the Internet, as I said earlier, to download test profiles and packages

If the virtual machine you are going to test is behind a proxy, then first you will need to configure the proxy server using the command. To do this, run in the terminal:

phoronix-test-suite network-setup

Now you can start testing...

View total quantity available tests in Phoronix Test Suite, you can use the command:

phoronix-test-suite list-tests

Here is the list of tests:

• pts/aio-stress- AIO-Stress, Disk;
• pts/apache- Apache Benchmark, System;
• pts/apitrace- APITrace, Graphics;
• pts/battery-power-usage- Battery Power Usage, System;
• pts/blake2- BLAKE2, Processor;
• pts/blogbench- BlogBench, Disk;
• pts/bork- Bork File Encrypter, Processor;
• pts/botan- Botan, Processor.

If you want to see the list of available test packages, then enter the command:

phoronix-test-suite list-suites

• pts/audio-encoding- Audio Encoding, System;
• pts/chess- Chess Test Suite, Processor;
• pts/compilation- Timed Code Compilation, Processor;
• pts/compiler- Compiler, Processor;
• pts/compression- Timed File Compression, Processor;
• pts/computational- Computational Test Suite, System;

For example, you want to test Apache (first list), then run the test with the command:

phoronix-test-suites run apache

If you run a particular test for the first time, Phoronix Test Suite can warn you about installing missing packages, everything will happen in automatic mode.

At the end of the test, the result will be saved to your computer and optionally sent to openbenchmarking.org so that other users can compare with their results.

If you want to view all the results saved on your computer, enter the command:

phoronix-test-suite list-results

Monitoring is carried out using a set of programs lm-sensors.

aptitude install lm-sensors

You can take sensor readings with the command:

sensors

Real-time temperature monitoring is carried out with the following command:

watch sensors

The command output contains information about voltage, fan speed, processor temperature (each core separately), and hard drive temperature. An important indicator is the maximum recorded temperature value (field high in core temperature readings). You can monitor only the processor temperature with the command:

while (true) do date; sensors | grepCore; echo "======"; sleep 1s; done

There are also various graphical utilities for displaying readings lm-sensors. For GNOME convenient to use applet GNOME Sensors Applet.

CPU stress testing

Plastic bag cpuburn

Checking the functionality of video card drivers

Let's check for 3D acceleration:

glxinfo | grep OpenGL

The output should be like this:

OpenGL vendor string: Tungsten Graphics, Inc OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) G33 GEM 20100330 DEVELOPMENT OpenGL version string: 1.4 Mesa 7.10-devel OpenGL extensions:

Let's check the support for 3D acceleration using the video card:

glxinfo | grep direct

If 3D support is implemented, the output will be like this:

direct rendering: Yes

Let's check the 3D speed:

glxgears

A window will appear with a simple 3D animation. In this case, information about the rendering speed will be displayed in the console every 5 seconds. Normal FPS values ​​for a configured driver should be on average above 1000 (if enabled vertical sync, then the FPS value will be limited by the sync frequency).

Another OpenGL test:

/usr/lib/xscreensaver/glblur -fps

A screensaver window will appear showing the FPS value.

In case of any problems, you can reinstall the video driver (for integrated Intel video cards you need to reinstall the package xserver-xorg-video-intel). Driver settings are carried out by the program driconf. You can also install the package to control the operation of an Intel video card intel-gpu-tools(the package includes the intel_gpu_top utility, which allows you to monitor the video processor load in real time).

System Performance Testing

Package phoronix-test-suite

Performance testing is carried out by the program phoronix-test-suite. She represents shell software, which allows you to automatically download and run various programs testing, collect and store data on test results.

Let's install the program:

aptitude install phoronix-test-suite

View a list of all available tests with their brief description you can use the following command:

phoronix-test-suite list-tests

Tests are launched with the command:

phoronix-test-suite benchmark TEST_NAME

• CPU:
  
  
  • c-ray- multi-threaded math test. High CPU load. Result on C2D 2.0: 387.55 seconds.
  
  
  • build-linux-kernel- building the Linux kernel. Long test. Evenly loads the processor and memory (uses gcc).
  
  
  • scimark2- powerful single-threaded test (intensive scientific computing). Shows the performance of a single core in gigaflops.
  
  
  • ffmpeg- video encoding (test files take 130MB). On C2D 2.0: 25.99 seconds.
  
  


• Memory:
  
  
  • ramspeed- memory test. Average CPU load. Results DDR2-800 2Gb (copy,int): 2280.10 MB/s.
  
  
  • stream- Shows memory speed in various operations.
  
  


• HDD:
  
  
  • iozone- hard drive test. Shows read and write speed for blocks of different lengths. Result WD 80Gb (W,4K,512M): 52.42 MB/s.
  
  


• Graphic arts:
  
  
  • gtkperf- testing various elements GNOME GUI.
  
  
  • unigine-tropics- beautiful 3D benchmark, requires configured drivers with support for 3D acceleration.
  
  

For long-term, varied testing, it is recommended build-linux-kernel. For short stress testing c-ray(along with the program

This material is intended to orient readers to today's variety of software for tuning, assessing the performance and overclocking of system components, as well as tracking monitoring data. This article is based on useful links to download relevant applications.

Drivers: platform

Correct selection of drivers for various system components, in particular elements motherboard and GPU of the video card, is extremely important for the stable operation of the PC. Where special “creativity” is not required is when installing the drivers that come with motherboard. However, you can always find and install the latest versions of drivers for the chipset, audio controller and Wi-Fi card (if you have one).

Benchmarking

There are a great many methods for assessing the performance of system nodes, and each experienced enthusiast has their own. Listed below are the most simple ways, and you can conduct in-depth testing using a set of applications from those mentioned in reviews of processors, video cards, memory modules and other components on our website - website.

It is a rendering of a 3D scene and is quite popular. It's free, delivers consistent results, and can handle up to 256 CPU threads (256 cores) AMD Bulldozer or 128 cores Intel Core with Hyper-Threading). More or less relevant, especially in the context of competitive benchmarking, previous version of this application -

Auxiliary utilities RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) and Fraps will help you measure the frame rate in games that do not have a built-in benchmark. With their help, you can record game videos. Fraps' interface is simpler, but updates to this utility have not been released for almost two years.

So, above we looked at the most useful and popular programs among enthusiasts for configuring, monitoring, overclocking and testing PC nodes. Today, the choice of utilities for these purposes is huge, and most likely, not all of the applications that you personally use are mentioned in the article. Write about your own preferences in the comments to this material.

A benchmark test or series of tests that determine how well a specific piece of computer hardware performs is usually called benchmarking or a "Linux stress test." After performing performance testing, you can compare your Hardware with others or compare two systems with each other.

Most tests are designed to create a load on the computer, so we can check how the system will behave under severe overloads and if the results are bad, perhaps this is a signal that you need to upgrade your hardware.

In this article, we'll look at benchmarking programs for Linux that will help you accurately determine the performance of your Linux computer. First, let's look at Linux performance testing software suites.

1. Phoronix Test Suite

Phoronix Test Suite is one of the most famous programs for comprehensive Linux performance testing. Many people think that this program has a lot of problems and we will not say that it is ideal for all cases, but it is more than enough for basic tests. In addition, there are not many worthy alternatives.

Phoronix gives you access to over 100 different test suites, test groups, and over 450 different test profiles. You can install only those that you need, for example, tests for CPU or HDD, then you can install only Processor Tests or HDD Tests. System logs are also supported.

The biggest plus is that Phoronix Test Suite is an open source product. source code. The program also comes as a LiveCD, which allows you to run Linux tests from a CD. You can check any clean, newly installed operating system if it's necessary.

2. Stress-ng

As the name suggests, stress-ng is a tool for stress testing Linux. It will help you test your system to its limits. But for the same reason, it is not recommended to use it very often. Some components such as the processor and hard disks will wear out a lot.

Installing the linux stress-ng testing program on Ubuntu and Debian is done with the command:

sudo apt-get install stress-ng

On Fedora, Red Hat and CentOS the command looks a little different:

sudo yum install stress-ng

Once the installation is complete, you can check everything you need, including CPU, RAM, I/O speed, network, virtual memory and more. The program also has many settings. You can set various parameters, such as how many tests to run simultaneously, how many CPU cores to use, how long to test, and so on.

3. PassMark BurnInTest

PassMark BurnInTest supports all types of Linux computer testing, as well as software monitoring. It even supports the functionality of the famous Memtest86 and PerformanceTest, which only work on Windows.

You can check all the main subsystems of your computer at the same time. But rather than testing the performance itself, more emphasis is placed on reliability and stability. It is better to use this program in combination with others.

CPU Performance Testing

Comparing two specific processors can be accurate. Remember the times when the Pentium III was clearly better than the Pentium II? Also, a quad-core processor is better than a dual-core processor.

Because of this, testing processors is very useful and you can personally determine which is better. If you need just such testing tools, then here they are.

1. Geekbench

Geekbench is one of the best programs for testing CPU on Linux. It includes 10 load tests when working with integers and eight tests when working with floating-point numbers.

Windows and MacOS version comes with graphical interface, but the Linux version only has a console interface. Test results are uploaded to the Internet, which allows you to compare your results with the results of other users.

2. HARDiNFO

HARDiNFO can be installed in most Linux distributions, using a standard package manager. To install on Ubuntu run:

sudo apt-get install hardinfo

And in Fedora, Red Hat and CentOS:

sudo yum install hardinfo

Hardinfo's main purpose is to show information about your hardware, but it also contains six different tests you can run to compare your hardware to other systems. Tests include integer and floating point calculations.

Video card testing

Best way to check graphic capabilities your system is to play graphics-intensive games. But to get better information, you can use one of the utilities below.

1. Unigine

Unigine supports two tests, the Valley test and the Heaven test. Each one shows different scenes. The first is a forested valley, and the second is several floating islands with bridges. Both of them will make your GPU work at its best. These tests are more than enough to obtain basic information about the performance of a Linux video card.

2. GFXBench

GFXBench was formerly known as GLBenchmarc and is one of the best graphics benchmarks for Linux. There are two sets of tests - high-level tests (overall performance) and low-level tests.

Hard drive testing

Speed ​​isn't always the most important thing when it comes to... hard drives. For example, when a disk is used for storage backup copies, its reliability and durability are very important. Linux performance test is also very important.

1.Hdparm

Hdparm is a utility command line, which is already installed on most Linux distributions and is surprisingly easy to use. With it you can not only test the speed hard drive, but also configure its operation parameters, for example, enable or disable DMA. To test you need to know the disk device file. To test the performance of buffered output use:

sudo hdparm -t /dev/sda2

And to test cached read performance, run:

sudo hdparm -T /dev/sda2

To get accurate results, run the command several times and then select the average value.

2. Bonnie++

Bonnie++ is simple free utility to test the file system and performance of the entire hard drive. It can be very easily installed from the official repositories in any distribution. To install on Ubuntu run:

sudo apt-get install bonnie++

Or in Fedora, Red Hat, CentOS:

sudo yum install bonnie++

After installation, you can run Linux performance testing:

bonnie++ -d /tmp -r 2048

Here the -d option specifies in which directory to test file system, and -r limits consumption random access memory 2048 MB.

conclusions

That was all best programs testing for Linux. Do your tests look good enough, if the system is running slow, take a look at the article speeding up Ubuntu boot or speeding up Linux, maybe they can make the system run faster. Before buying new equipment, you need to try all available methods.