• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

The most CPU and GPU intensive games For testing PC?

Joined
Oct 29, 2017
Messages
105 (0.04/day)
So i am building a new system and i would like to see how its temperatures are and i hate to use benchmarking tools cause they are unrealistic and wont account to how i use my computer.

Generally what i am looking for are some games that are MOST GPU intensive and MOST CPU intensive.

Couple of games on my mind
  • Planetside2 - This game is pretty heavy on the CPU so i think it will work fine to test the CPU temperatures under heavy load.
  • Crysis 3 - This game is pretty GPU intensive and will work fine to test the GPU temperatures under heavy load
I heard Ashes of Singularity Is pretty good game to testing out things and it looks like fun game too.

Any other games that can help me test my system? I am out of loop regarding games as i have been working my ass off since 2012 and only now did i finally have some time to play some games.

Generally what i am looking for is games that can stress my system so i can check how the temperatures are in the system CPU, GPU and general ambient temperature inside the case. PS it'll help if the games are good/fun to play so i just dont end up buying stuff that i'll never use.

My system specs -
  • i7 8700(non K)
  • GTX 1080 Ti
  • 2x16G Ram
  • 1440p 144hz G-Sync IPS monitor.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Apr 19, 2012
Messages
12,062 (2.54/day)
Location
Gypsyland, UK
System Name HP Omen 17
Processor i7 7700HQ
Memory 16GB 2400Mhz DDR4
Video Card(s) GTX 1060
Storage Samsung SM961 256GB + HGST 1TB
Display(s) 1080p IPS G-SYNC 75Hz
Audio Device(s) Bang & Olufsen
Power Supply 230W
Mouse Roccat Kone XTD+
Software Win 10 Pro
Total War games are a fairly efficient way of rinsing your CPU. No game will ever come close to using P95 on the CPU though - they're entirely different workloads. A 100% workload in P95 and a 100% workload in Planetside 2 are completely different. This is why we actively discourage synthetic benchmarks to dictate real-use capability.
For GPU, just go and turn on UberSampling or OGSSAA in The Witcher or something. You can force it through drivers.
 
Joined
Jan 8, 2017
Messages
9,800 (3.24/day)
System Name Good enough
Processor AMD Ryzen R9 7900 - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora Edge
Motherboard ASRock B650 Pro RS
Cooling 2x 360mm NexXxoS ST30 X-Flow, 1x 360mm NexXxoS ST30, 1x 240mm NexXxoS ST30
Memory 32GB - FURY Beast RGB 5600 Mhz
Video Card(s) Sapphire RX 7900 XT - Alphacool Eisblock Aurora
Storage 1x Kingston KC3000 1TB 1x Kingston A2000 1TB, 1x Samsung 850 EVO 250GB , 1x Samsung 860 EVO 500GB
Display(s) LG UltraGear 32GN650-B + 4K Samsung TV
Case Phanteks NV7
Power Supply GPS-750C
Crysis 3 is a good workout even for the CPU , as a matter of fact it's one the few games that scale well even beyond 8 threads.
 
Joined
Oct 29, 2017
Messages
105 (0.04/day)
Total War games are a fairly efficient way of rinsing your CPU. No game will ever come close to using P95 on the CPU though - they're entirely different workloads. A 100% workload in P95 and a 100% workload in Planetside 2 are completely different. This is why we actively discourage synthetic benchmarks to dictate real-use capability.
For GPU, just go and turn on UberSampling or OGSSAA in The Witcher or something. You can force it through drivers.

I looked through and there seems to be a lot of games with that name... Any particular title ? And yes that is the reason why i dont like using Benchmarking tools the use case scenario is totally unnatural and completely different.


Crysis 3 is a good workout even for the CPU , as a matter of fact it's one the few games that scale well even beyond 8 threads.


Oh good to know that. Thnx for the info
 
Joined
Oct 2, 2004
Messages
13,846 (1.84/day)
System Name Dark Monolith
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
Motherboard ASUS Strix X570-E
Cooling Arctic Cooling Freezer II 240mm + 2x SilentWings 3 120mm
Memory 64 GB G.Skill Ripjaws V Black
Video Card(s) XFX Radeon RX 9070 XT Mercury OC Magnetic Air
Storage Seagate Firecuda 530 4 TB SSD + Samsung 850 Pro 2 TB SSD + Seagate Barracuda 8 TB HDD
Display(s) ASUS ROG Swift PG27AQDM 240Hz OLED
Case Silverstone Kublai KL-07
Audio Device(s) Sound Blaster AE-9 MUSES Edition + Altec Lansing MX5021 2.1 Nichicon Gold
Power Supply BeQuiet DarkPower 11 Pro 750W
Mouse Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum
Keyboard UVI Pride MechaOptical
Software Windows 11 Pro
Killing Floor 2 with Gore set to INSANE level using my Killing Floor 2 Tweaker. The amount of shading and polygons will make pretty much any graphic card sweat like a pig on a grill and the amount of corpses and gibs interacting with the world and each other will make CPU sweat just the same. I don't think there is any other game in existence that can push hardware to such insane levels of utilization.

It also looks absolutely insane when you see hundreds of monster corpses stacked on top of each other and when you fire a rocket or throw grenade there, everything flies in all directions and bounces around. It's crazy :D I might add one extra level of absurd gore to really test the graphic cards and processors to their absolute limits. :D
 
Joined
Jun 29, 2009
Messages
2,012 (0.35/day)
Location
Heart of Eutopia!
System Name ibuytheusedstuff
Processor 5960x
Motherboard x99 sabertooth
Cooling old socket775 cooler
Memory 32 Viper
Video Card(s) 1080ti on morpheus 1
Storage raptors+ssd
Display(s) acer 120hz
Case open bench
Audio Device(s) onb
Power Supply antec 1200 moar power
Mouse mx 518
Keyboard roccat arvo
Joined
Oct 29, 2017
Messages
105 (0.04/day)
Killing Floor 2 with Gore set to INSANE level using my Killing Floor 2 Tweaker. The amount of shading and polygons will make pretty much any graphic card sweat like a pig on a grill and the amount of corpses and gibs interacting with the world and each other will make CPU sweat just the same. I don't think there is any other game in existence that can push hardware to such insane levels of utilization.

It also looks absolutely insane when you see hundreds of monster corpses stacked on top of each other and when you fire a rocket or throw grenade there, everything flies in all directions and bounces around. It's crazy :D I might add one extra level of absurd gore to really test the graphic cards and processors to their absolute limits. :D


Wow really ? cool i wanted to get that game. Its on my list :)



Am not really into assassin creed games, i never understand the plot and they do not interest me, the only Assassins creed game i am buying is Black Flag. :)
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2005
Messages
7,111 (1.00/day)
Location
USA
System Name Computer of Theseus
Processor Intel i9-12900KS: 50x Pcore multi @ 1.18Vcore (target 1.275V -100mv offset)
Motherboard EVGA Z690 Classified
Cooling Noctua NH-D15S, 2xSF MegaCool SF-PF14, 4xNoctua NF-A12x25, 3xNF-A12x15, AquaComputer Splitty9Active
Memory G-Skill Trident Z5 (32GB) DDR5-6000 C36 F5-6000J3636F16GX2-TZ5RK
Video Card(s) ASUS PROART RTX 4070 Ti-Super OC 16GB, 2670MHz, 0.93V
Storage 1x Samsung 990 Pro 1TB NVMe (OS), 2x Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2TB (data), ASUS BW-16D1HT (BluRay)
Display(s) Dell S3220DGF 32" 2560x1440 165Hz Primary, Dell P2017H 19.5" 1600x900 Secondary, Ergotron LX arms.
Case Lian Li O11 Air Mini
Audio Device(s) Audiotechnica ATR2100X-USB, El Gato Wave XLR Mic Preamp, ATH M50X Headphones, Behringer 302USB Mixer
Power Supply Super Flower Leadex Platinum SE 1000W 80+ Platinum White, MODDIY 12VHPWR Cable
Mouse Zowie EC3-C
Keyboard Vortex Multix 87 Winter TKL (Gateron G Pro Yellow)
Software Win 10 LTSC 21H2
I have found Escape from Tarkov loaded up my video and cpu quite a bit.
 

qubit

Overclocked quantum bit
Joined
Dec 6, 2007
Messages
17,865 (2.81/day)
Location
Quantum Well UK
System Name Quantumville™
Processor Intel Core i7-2700K @ 4GHz
Motherboard Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3
Cooling Noctua NH-D14
Memory 16GB (2 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance Black DDR3 PC3-12800 C9 1600MHz)
Video Card(s) MSI RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming X Trio
Storage Samsung 850 Pro 256GB | WD Black 4TB | WD Blue 6TB
Display(s) ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQR (4K, 144Hz, G-SYNC compatible) | Asus MG28UQ (4K, 60Hz, FreeSync compatible)
Case Cooler Master HAF 922
Audio Device(s) Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty PCIe
Power Supply Corsair AX1600i
Mouse Microsoft Intellimouse Pro - Black Shadow
Keyboard Yes
Software Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
So i am building a new system and i would like to see how its temperatures are and i hate to use benchmarking tools cause they are unrealistic and wont account to how i use my computer.

Generally what i am looking for are some games that are MOST GPU intensive and MOST CPU intensive.
You've contradicted yourself right there. To max out your CPU and GPU a synthetic test is exactly what you need, since that's exactly what it's designed to do, a game isn't. All the game is interested in is giving the best possible gaming experience (if it's a decent one, lol) and that doesn't usually require the same levels of stress and not sustained, either. The synthetic tests will show up any weakness in your system such as cooling, PSU etc so be prepared for it to fail. If it passes these, then it will be able to handle anything you throw at it.

Once it's passed these tests, then feel free to test it with the games that you like to play for a feel of what an average scenario is like with it.
 

qubit

Overclocked quantum bit
Joined
Dec 6, 2007
Messages
17,865 (2.81/day)
Location
Quantum Well UK
System Name Quantumville™
Processor Intel Core i7-2700K @ 4GHz
Motherboard Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3
Cooling Noctua NH-D14
Memory 16GB (2 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance Black DDR3 PC3-12800 C9 1600MHz)
Video Card(s) MSI RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming X Trio
Storage Samsung 850 Pro 256GB | WD Black 4TB | WD Blue 6TB
Display(s) ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQR (4K, 144Hz, G-SYNC compatible) | Asus MG28UQ (4K, 60Hz, FreeSync compatible)
Case Cooler Master HAF 922
Audio Device(s) Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty PCIe
Power Supply Corsair AX1600i
Mouse Microsoft Intellimouse Pro - Black Shadow
Keyboard Yes
Software Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
In fact, it's best to run these tests on any new PC you build to ensure it's working properly.

I see you've ignored my advice anyway. Whatever. :rolleyes:
 
Joined
Oct 29, 2017
Messages
105 (0.04/day)
You've contradicted yourself right there. To max out your CPU and GPU a synthetic test is exactly what you need, since that's exactly what it's designed to do, a game isn't. All the game is interested in is giving the best possible gaming experience (if it's a decent one, lol) and that doesn't usually require the same levels of stress and not sustained, either. The synthetic tests will show up any weakness in your system such as cooling, PSU etc so be prepared for it to fail. If it passes these, then it will be able to handle anything you throw at it.

Once it's passed these tests, then feel free to test it with the games that you like to play for a feel of what an average scenario is like with it.


Umm no sir i have not contradicted myself :), maybe i have failed to explain that i just want to see the max temps that i can realistically get while doing everyday tasks, synthetic benchmarks are unrealistic and i dont want to know what's the absolute max temps i can get, i just wanted to know what temps i can get when i play stressful games and doing daily tasks. Thank you for understanding :)
 

rtwjunkie

PC Gaming Enthusiast
Supporter
Joined
Jul 25, 2008
Messages
14,034 (2.29/day)
Location
Louisiana
Processor Core i9-9900k
Motherboard ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 6
Cooling All air: 2x140mm Fractal exhaust; 3x 140mm Cougar Intake; Enermax ETS-T50 Black CPU cooler
Memory 32GB (2x16) Mushkin Redline DDR-4 3200
Video Card(s) ASUS RTX 4070 Ti Super OC 16GB
Storage 1x 1TB MX500 (OS); 2x 6TB WD Black; 1x 2TB MX500; 1x 1TB BX500 SSD; 1x 6TB WD Blue storage (eSATA)
Display(s) Infievo 27" 165Hz @ 2560 x 1440
Case Fractal Design Define R4 Black -windowed
Audio Device(s) Soundblaster Z
Power Supply Seasonic Focus GX-1000 Gold
Mouse Coolermaster Sentinel III (large palm grip!)
Keyboard Logitech G610 Orion mechanical (Cherry Brown switches)
Software Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (Start10 & Fences 3.0 installed)
Wow really ? cool i wanted to get that game. Its on my list :)




Am not really into assassin creed games, i never understand the plot and they do not interest me, the only Assassins creed game i am buying is Black Flag. :)
Then Origins might indeed interest you. Same kind of gameplay as Black Flag, big open world, and you need to know nothing of the mythos, since it is the prequel, set in Ptolemaic Egypt under Ptolemy the Boy King and Cleopatra.

Aside from that, it is the biggest CPU workout I have found so far in-game. The GPU workout is also constant and strong as well.
 

qubit

Overclocked quantum bit
Joined
Dec 6, 2007
Messages
17,865 (2.81/day)
Location
Quantum Well UK
System Name Quantumville™
Processor Intel Core i7-2700K @ 4GHz
Motherboard Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3
Cooling Noctua NH-D14
Memory 16GB (2 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance Black DDR3 PC3-12800 C9 1600MHz)
Video Card(s) MSI RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming X Trio
Storage Samsung 850 Pro 256GB | WD Black 4TB | WD Blue 6TB
Display(s) ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQR (4K, 144Hz, G-SYNC compatible) | Asus MG28UQ (4K, 60Hz, FreeSync compatible)
Case Cooler Master HAF 922
Audio Device(s) Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty PCIe
Power Supply Corsair AX1600i
Mouse Microsoft Intellimouse Pro - Black Shadow
Keyboard Yes
Software Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Umm no sir i have not contradicted myself :), maybe i have failed to explain that i just want to see the max temps that i can realistically get while doing everyday tasks, synthetic benchmarks are unrealistic and i dont want to know what's the absolute max temps i can get, i just wanted to know what temps i can get when i play stressful games and doing daily tasks. Thank you for understanding :)
Yeah, you can do that, but it's good practice to be sure that the PC will take the most stress you can throw at it. I ran synthetics on my main rig in my profile specs when I first built it, for this very reason.
 
Joined
Feb 18, 2009
Messages
388 (0.07/day)
Processor i7 8700K
Motherboard MSI Z370 Gaming Plus
Cooling Noctua NH-D15S + NF-A12x25 PWM + 4xNF-A14 PWM
Memory 16 GB Adata XPG Dazzle DDR4 3000 MHz CL16
Video Card(s) Gigabyte GTX 1070 Ti Gaming 8G
Storage Samsung 970 EVO Plus, Samsung 850 Evo
Display(s) Samsung C24FG73 144Hz 1080p
Case Fractal Design Meshify C
Audio Device(s) Steelseries Arctis 3
Power Supply Superflower Leadex II Gold 650W
Mouse Steelseries Rival 600
Keyboard Steelseries Apex 7
Software Windows 11 Pro
Assassin's Creed: Origins. I ditched the series after the first 2 games, but this one is actually good. The game will stress your PC alright. While my CPU usually stays in the 50-60% range, in cities and some areas it will jump to 80-100% easily. Uncap the framerate and my GPU will also be loaded even at 1080p, and your 1080Ti will be also hovering around 99% at 1440p.
I honestly didn't play a game that's so demanding. I mean, seeing maxed GPU numbers is not uncommon at all, but having a 12 thread CPU going 100% is. It might be the DRM, it might not, what matters for you is that it's stressful for your components.
Oh and the game looks great and it is quite fun. It also had crashes listed for weeks as Known Issues, so there's your ticket to see if you can reach 100% stability despite of devs being unable to code and patch properly :)
Hint: it crashes on my PC too, sometimes could take a day or two of stability, and then it will crash 3 times in an hour. If you want a game to drive you mad cause you don't know if it's the game or your hardware, this is your choice heh.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Mar 18, 2015
Messages
2,970 (0.80/day)
Location
Long Island
Testing w/ Synthetics is a double edged sword. Yes it's true that nothing with put as extreme a load on your CPU so if your OC is stable under say P95, then it should be stable with anything else you throw at it. On the other hand ...

a) Most gamers test with older versions of P95 as the newer ones can result in damage to the CPU if not monitored carefuly (when modern instruction sets are present). So if that's what you are doing, what have you accomplished ... only that the OC is stable when no modern instruction sets are used. And when they are ?

b) I have had 24 hour stable OCs w/ P95, fail in 45 minutes under multitasking benchmark RoG Real Bench

c) Your CPU will never, ever see a load like P95 again as no program or game will apply that kind of loading ... so what's the point. because oif this loading you may say "Well Im stopping here because Im seeing core temps right at the temp limit I am comfy with". But again , your CPU will never see anything near hat temp again as it will never see that load again.... likely 5C or more lower. So why limit yourOC to say 4.x Ghz cause its hitting 85C w/ P95, when with RB, you will likely be able to stay under 80C w/ a higher OC ?

d) I have not found or heard of any combination of real world applications that can stress a CPU with a load greater than what RB does.

I still like to load up P95 26.6 to do short cycle runs getting temps up to mid 80s for short periods and then letting everything cold down just to get a decent cure / setting on the TIM. Then I'll switch to the RoG Real Bench and set up my OCs using that.

I take a bit different approach with GPUs since , as long as you avoid reference cards and higher tier AMD cards, temps will never be an issue assuming of course you have proper case ventilation. I haven't had to limit a GFC Card OC due to temps since before 5xx series. So in this case, I tend to stary with Furmark, to see just how high i can go OC wise without throttling. Since 5xx series, I have always seen stability issues start to occur before temps became a concern. Usually I wind up with the profiles in MSI Afterburner:

a) Furmark Stable
b) Slightly slower for games that get cranky....(i.e Metro 2033 played fine w/ the above but at same 2 or 3 spots in game it would crash)
c) A bit lower yet for those games that always seem to be problematic... I call this the "Battlefield Setting"

The final testing is done with games the user is playing as these will be of the highest immediate importance.

a) games like Crysis 3 and Witcher 3 for GPU
b) Strategy / Sim games for CPU
c) F1 for memory
c) Console ports to be avoided
 

Kursah

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 15, 2006
Messages
14,763 (2.18/day)
Location
Missoula, MT, USA
System Name Kursah's Gaming Rig 2018 (2022 Upgrade) - Ryzen+ Edition | Gaming Laptop (Lenovo Legion 5i Pro 2022)
Processor R7 5800X @ Stock | i7 12700H @ Stock
Motherboard Asus ROG Strix X370-F Gaming BIOS 6203| Legion 5i Pro NM-E231
Cooling Noctua NH-U14S Push-Pull + NT-H1 | Stock Cooling
Memory TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 32GB (2x16) DDR4 4000 @ 3600 18-20-20-42 1.35v | 32GB DDR5 4800 (2x16)
Video Card(s) Palit GeForce RTX 4070 JetStream 12GB | CPU-based Intel Iris XE + RTX 3070 8GB 150W
Storage 4TB SP UD90 NVME, 960GB SATA SSD, 2TB HDD | 1TB Samsung OEM NVME SSD + 4TB Crucial P3 Plus NVME SSD
Display(s) Acer 28" 4K VG280K x2 | 16" 2560x1600 built-in
Case Corsair 600C - Stock Fans on Low | Stock Metal/Plastic
Audio Device(s) Aune T1 mk1 > AKG K553 Pro + JVC HA-RX 700 (Equalizer APO + PeaceUI) | Bluetooth Earbuds (BX29)
Power Supply EVGA 750G2 Modular + APC Back-UPS Pro 1500 | 300W OEM (heavy use) or Lenovo Legion C135W GAN (light)
Mouse Logitech G502 | Logitech M330
Keyboard HyperX Alloy Core RGB | Built in Keyboard (Lenovo laptop KB FTW)
Software Windows 11 Pro x64 | Windows 11 Home x64
Ashes of the Singularity can put a heavy load on GPU (heaviest out of all my games) and if you add a handful of AI in a skirmish a good CPU load as well. Also includes built in benchmark as well but I rarely use it. The actual game is a good enough stress test and is quite fun. :)
 

qubit

Overclocked quantum bit
Joined
Dec 6, 2007
Messages
17,865 (2.81/day)
Location
Quantum Well UK
System Name Quantumville™
Processor Intel Core i7-2700K @ 4GHz
Motherboard Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3
Cooling Noctua NH-D14
Memory 16GB (2 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance Black DDR3 PC3-12800 C9 1600MHz)
Video Card(s) MSI RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming X Trio
Storage Samsung 850 Pro 256GB | WD Black 4TB | WD Blue 6TB
Display(s) ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQR (4K, 144Hz, G-SYNC compatible) | Asus MG28UQ (4K, 60Hz, FreeSync compatible)
Case Cooler Master HAF 922
Audio Device(s) Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty PCIe
Power Supply Corsair AX1600i
Mouse Microsoft Intellimouse Pro - Black Shadow
Keyboard Yes
Software Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
@John Naylor I see that you're a hardcore overclocker. The Qubit approvez. :cool:

Re your point b, it sounds like RoG Real Bench is an even more severe stress test than P95. My 2700K-based PC (see specs) is 6 years old (PSU is over 8 years old) and I need it to last, so I wouldn't be so keen to stress it out like that now.

Sometimes it's difficult to justify overclocking purity, ie 100% stable with the most extreme testing, since that can significantly lower a max overclock and hence performance. I'm thinking of the sort of scenario where you might get 5GHz out of a CPU with any normal load you throw at it, eg a stressful game that tends to render at lowish framerates without the overclock and reap the performance rewards, whereas achieve only 4GHz with the synthetic stress test.

I think this is a grey area that depends on things like what the overclocker wants out of their rig, how capable that rig is regardless of overclock and how much money they have to throw at it if something gets damaged and needs replacement.
 
Joined
Oct 29, 2017
Messages
105 (0.04/day)
Thnx for all the help guys :). You guys have suggested some really great games .. Now am excited to play them.. That little gamer in me seems to be back. :)
 
Top