# Stress Testing You Raspberry Pi (for Cooling and Overclocking) **URL:** \ **Category:** Guides\ **Created:** [6 January 2017 00:56 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663 "2017-01-06T00:56:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sam](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/forum.core-electronics.com.au/sam/32/99_2.png) [@Sam](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Sam)\ **Post date:** [6 January 2017 00:56 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663/1 "2017-01-06T00:56:35Z")
Sam just shared a new tutorial: [**"Stress Testing You Raspberry Pi (for Cooling and Overclocking)"**](http://core-electronics.com.au/tutorials/stress-testing-your-raspberry-pi.html) ![](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/uploads/core_electronics/original/1X/6be9ec7e66d26c2148672094b2bed83bede8aa32.png) Part of the joy that is Raspberry Pi is getting stuck into it at a slightly lower level and finding out exactly what you can do with it if you take a look under the hood. One of the most popular experiments to do with your Raspberry Pi is o… [**Read more**](http://core-electronics.com.au/tutorials/stress-testing-your-raspberry-pi.html) ---
**Author:** ![Peter63122](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/90ced4/32.png) [@Peter63122](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Peter63122)\ **Post date:** [15 May 2018 21:41 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663/2 "2018-05-15T21:41:01Z")
Sam, This is perfect for what I’m looking for, I want to check the temperature of the main chip with and without a heatsink under stress, which programme do you suggest for best results? Thanks Peter ---
**Author:** ![Graham](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/forum.core-electronics.com.au/graham/32/54_2.png) [@Graham](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Graham)\ **Post date:** [16 May 2018 23:09 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663/3 "2018-05-16T23:09:42Z")
Hi Peter, @Josh recently did a great comparison between the old/new Pi 3. Take a look at what software he used: > **[Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ Performance vs Raspberry Pi 3 Model B - Tutorial](https://core-electronics.com.au/tutorials/raspberry-pi-3-model-b-plus-performance-vs-3-model-b.html)** > > The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ (I’ll be calling it the Pi 3+ for short) is an update to the existing Raspberry Pi 3 Model B and was released on Wednesday 14th March 2018. It has some very interesting changes: > The Broadcom BCM2837 has been clocked to 1.4... ---
**Author:** ![Peter63122](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/90ced4/32.png) [@Peter63122](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Peter63122)\ **Post date:** [23 May 2018 07:27 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663/4 "2018-05-23T07:27:27Z")
Thanks Graham, I stress tested th B+ with the programme from this video - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6okZKRwnTQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6okZKRwnTQ) I ran the test six times to get a comparison of different heat sinks - it now doesn’t work - do you think I may have over-stressed it, I thought it was throttled around the 80c mark? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Graham](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/forum.core-electronics.com.au/graham/32/54_2.png) [@Graham](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Graham)\ **Post date:** [24 May 2018 03:48 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663/5 "2018-05-24T03:48:46Z")
Hi Peter, The short answer is “I don’t know”. Perhaps explore using a new uSD card (as they can sometimes stop working). Normally though, the CPU will be throttled to accommodate a rise in temperature. This isn’t a full-safety, there are some scenarios where CPU temp could continue to rise, but it’s really rare. ---
**Author:** ![Garryck49026](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/forum.core-electronics.com.au/garryck49026/32/2845_2.png) [@Garryck49026](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Garryck49026)\ **Post date:** [10 July 2019 04:20 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663/6 "2019-07-10T04:20:48Z")
At the bottom of the article, the link to the next article in the series (Overclocking Your Raspberry Pi) is missing. I had to use the ‘overclocking’ tag to get to it. ---
**Author:** ![Stuart343](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@Stuart343](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Stuart343)\ **Post date:** [13 November 2019 08:41 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663/7 "2019-11-13T08:41:00Z")
I’m using the ice tower cooler. I cant get 3b+ to 60 degrees using the instructions in this article. Very happy. ---
**Author:** ![Snugger105158](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Snugger105158](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Snugger105158)\ **Post date:** [6 December 2019 13:24 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663/8 "2019-12-06T13:24:57Z")
How to stop this script? Because it is endless… ---
**Author:** ![richard105670](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@richard105670](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/richard105670)\ **Post date:** [11 December 2019 08:03 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663/9 "2019-12-11T08:03:03Z")
to stop stress: ctrl + c in terminal ---
**Author:** ![Snugger105158](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Snugger105158](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Snugger105158)\ **Post date:** [11 December 2019 08:26 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663/10 "2019-12-11T08:26:12Z")
No, after stopping it starts again automatically. Just test it… ---
**Author:** ![richard105670](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@richard105670](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/richard105670)\ **Post date:** [11 December 2019 11:54 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663/11 "2019-12-11T11:54:56Z")
only temp reports, but i closed terminal and opened up again, no more reporting. and cpu usage 0% temps go down after ctrl+c. idk. ---
**Author:** ![Jim154014](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/258eb7/32.png) [@Jim154014](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Jim154014)\ **Post date:** [9 February 2021 15:41 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663/12 "2021-02-09T15:41:31Z")
type ‘fg’, press enter, then ctrl-c to stop the temp and frequency updates ---
**Author:** ![Bryce](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/forum.core-electronics.com.au/bryce/32/3631_2.png) [@Bryce](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Bryce)\ **Post date:** [10 February 2021 05:03 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663/13 "2021-02-10T05:03:30Z")
Ah yes, a keyboard interrupt should do the trick! The other option is to find the ID of the running script by entering `ps -A` and then simply `kill ` from there you should be able to stop the running process and if it starts up again afterward then we’ll need to identify which process or daemon is causing that. ---
**Author:** ![brian86770](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@brian86770](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/brian86770)\ **Post date:** [10 February 2021 05:42 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663/14 "2021-02-10T05:42:21Z")
hmm you could have top running in a prompt and read it id that way as well but i like your thinking just for the old timers i posted this… ---
**Author:** ![gogle179795](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@gogle179795](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/gogle179795)\ **Post date:** [3 October 2021 20:33 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663/15 "2021-10-03T20:33:53Z")
Ran the test with heatsink & decent fan about an inch away from the CPU, averaged 115F/44C before test, spiked to above 150F/60C (For comparison, 150F/60C starts hurting after several seconds of being touched.) ---
**Author:** ![gogle179795](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@gogle179795](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/gogle179795)\ **Post date:** [4 October 2021 01:48 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663/16 "2021-10-04T01:48:57Z")
Tested for several minutes with _2 fans_, and a temperature of 150 - 155 was averaged, which slowly went up over time, eventually reaching 157 before going down to about 156 again. CPU usage was at over 90% most of the time, the lowest it got to was 82%. _To those worried about me destroying/damaging it, my program had an auto-shutoff temperature of 164F to prevent any damage from occuring and any unusual operation would lead to an immediate shutdown_ ---
**Author:** ![James](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/forum.core-electronics.com.au/james/32/4400_2.png) [@James](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/James)\ **Post date:** [5 October 2021 23:23 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663/17 "2021-10-05T23:23:44Z")
Hey Gogle, Thanks for throwing your results up! 60 degrees is definitely ok, the Pi will throttle itself once it gets to 80, with anything less than that running at full speed! Let us know what you end up using all that performance for! -James ---
**Author:** ![Oisin191797](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@Oisin191797](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Oisin191797)\ **Post date:** [1 February 2022 23:34 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663/18 "2022-02-01T23:34:18Z")
I tried _while true; do vcgencmd measure\_clock arm; vcgencmd measure\_temp; sleep 10; done& stress -c 4 -t 900s_ after setting arm\_freq=1600 but it reads 600MGz when it should read 1600MGz. Can anyone tell me what is going on? I have a RPi 3B+ with Raspbian installed. ---
**Author:** ![Trent5487676](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/forum.core-electronics.com.au/trent5487676/32/4583_2.png) [@Trent5487676](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Trent5487676)\ **Post date:** [2 February 2022 00:22 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663/19 "2022-02-02T00:22:23Z")
Hi Oision, I’m not sure why your clock speeds are reading low. Which version of Raspberry Pi OS were you using, thenew Bullseye or Buster? We might be able to do some testing here with a Pi 3B+ to try and replicate your issues. We do have a newer Stressberry guide on the site which is a bit easier to run and gives you a nice graph at the end of it. You can find it here: > **[How to Stress Test Temperature on Raspberry Pi (Stressberry) - Tutorial](https://core-electronics.com.au/tutorials/how-to-stress-test-temperature-on-raspberry-pi.html)** > > First of all, why subject your Raspberry Pi to this level of stress? In the case of Raspberry Pi 4, the A72 CPU is so powerful that it can overheat if it doesn't have enough cooling. This results with the CPU being governed (slowed down) to... Maybe give our new guide a shot and see if your issue is repeated with that and please post the output of your tests so we can have a look. ---
**Author:** ![Oisin191797](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@Oisin191797](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Oisin191797)\ **Post date:** [2 February 2022 00:29 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663/20 "2022-02-02T00:29:17Z")
ok. I’m a bit busy right now but I’ll check that out, post the output, and find out what version OS I’m using in a little while. Thanks. [Next page](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/stress-testing-you-raspberry-pi-for-cooling-and-overclocking/663.md?page=2)