How can I put heavy load on my CPU for a long period of time?

Question

How can I put my CPU under very high pressure for a long period of time? Are there programs for that that I can keep running ?

Answer 1

Several database systems are multicore optimized. You could install something like mysql and setup a basic data set, then run some of the benchmarking tools against it. If tuned correctly, many DB systems are most efficient at high CPU load (because if it was not, you would be wasting resources).

Or, you could just wash a flash video in Safari.

Answer 2

Do the following once for each CPU core in your Mac, open Terminal.app and enter the command:

yes

The yes command will print the letter y to standard output in an infinite loop.

Answer 3

Look at some distributed computing like Boinc. This runs compute intensive programs where tasks are taken and run across many machines thus allowing projects access to free computing power. In your case as the programs take up much compute power they will use the CPU heavily. Boinc runs multiple processes on your computer so will se all cores of your CPU.

Answer 4

At the command line, run this command:

cat < /dev/urandom > /dev/null

(Open up a terminal window and type that into the window.)

This should keep your CPU loaded nicely for as long as you allow the command to run.

Answer 5

Just create a small program that loops infinitely, something like:

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
    int i=0;
    for(;;)
    {
         i++;
         i--;
    }
}