10 Best Stress Testing Software For QA In 2023

Core Temp is a compact Windows gadget that monitors processor temperature and load, frequency, and VID settings. The tool can provide temperature readings for the individual cores of every processor within a system during stress testing. As your system’s workload changes, Core Temp displays temperature fluctuations in real-time.

Temperature readings are collected directly from a digital thermal sensor located near the hottest part of each processing core in your system. Digital thermal sensors don’t rely on external circuits located on the motherboard to report temperature, resulting in highly accurate readings.

Core Temp supports Intel, AMD, and VIA processors and is also motherboard agnostic. Developers can also leverage plug-ins, like Core Temp MC, which can display the status of a processor directly from the Windows Media Center UI.

Core Temp is free for all users, with apps available for Android and Windows devices to monitor your system on the go.

Stress-ng provides users with more than 200 tests designed to stress core components of a computer and the various operating system kernel interfaces. Among the many stress tests available, test coverage is provided for your system’s CPU cache, file system, and memory. Stress-ng is also written in C, enabling its installation on many operating systems, including Linux, Android, Mac, and Haiku.

Stress-ng is known for its large selection of CPU stress tests with exercises for bit manipulation, floating point, and control flow. Testers can run a set of tests in parallel or sequentially. Stress-ng can also report the temperature of your machine after each test run if your computer supports thermal zones.

Testers can download Stress-ng for free.

GPU-Z is a free tool for Windows computers that displays detailed information about your GPU. A light GPU stress test is also available, enabling users to simulate a slight 3D load on their system. GPU-Z is compatible with Intel, NVIDIA, and AMD graphics cards, including the AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce series.

Users can monitor their GPU’s components in real-time with measurements captured by the software’s many sensors. Among the information provided, users can view their GPU’s temperature, memory clock speed, load, and fan speeds. It also displays CPU temperature, giving you an even better idea of how effective the cooling system is on your machine.

GPU-Z integrates with GPU Tweak, which handles GPU optimization, monitoring, and overclocking of gaming graphics cards from ASUS, ROG, Strix, and TUF.

GPU-Z is free to use.

HeavyLoad is a free stress testing tool developed for PCs. The system is compatible with Windows 8.1 or higher and aims to stress all resources of a PC device. Users can perform stress tests on processors, RAM, hard drives, and graphics cards together or individually. Testers also can install HeavyLoad on a portable external drive to perform stress testing on different devices.

Each of the system’s stress testing methods can be customized to fit your organization’s needs. For example, HeavyLoad offers custom memory allocation when executing RAM stress testing. Users can define how much memory to keep free and how fast it should be allocated. Also, if you have a multi-core processor, you can select how many available cores to use during testing and specify how quickly HeavyLoad should write the test files on your hard drive.

HeavyLoad is free to use.

LoadTracer is a free GUI-based tool for load, stress, and performance testing of web applications. The software was developed in C language, making it a lightweight tool that won’t put an extra burden on your operating system’s performance. Testers can generate thousands of virtual users to execute simulations and follow up with LoadTracer’s analyzer tool to assess their system’s stability and performance.

With LoadTracer’s parameterization functionality, testers can generate different attributes for each virtual user. It makes load tests more realistic since real-world users behave as individuals rather than clones of each other. Duplicating tests across different platforms is also easier. Instead of re-scripting a test for each new environment, testers can simply change one parameter value.

LoadTracer is proxy-based, enabling testers to utilize the tool on any browser.

LoadTracer is free to use.

HWiNFO64 is a comprehensive solution for hardware analysis and monitoring. It allows users to scan PC components and receive in-depth information about the operating system, processor, RAM, and storage. HWiNFO64 supports various operating systems, including DOS, Windows 95, Windows 11, and WinPE.

Real-time monitoring allows users to quickly diagnose and take action on issues, like overheating or system overload, affecting their PC’s performance. HWiNFO64’s monitoring tool covers CPUs, GPUs, mainboards, drives, and peripherals. Users can create customizable reports and alerts for any monitored PC component.

Add-ons are available to expand HWiNFO64’s functionality, including plug-ins for Rainmeter, Samurize, and Elgato Stream Deck.

HWiNFO64’s base-level software is free for all users. HWiNFO64 Pro starts at $25/per user, with licenses available for commercial and non-commercial use.

BlazeMeter is a stress testing tool that offers an intuitive and uncluttered user interface, making it easy for anyone on your team to view the results and test cases for your applications. The tool aims to carry out load testing, and allows you to import existing projects, providing you with accessibility to all your required projects in one place. BlazeMeter works well alongside JMeter and Selenium. BlazeMeter provides you the ability to carry out script recording, and allows you to convert it to jmx so it can be imported into JMeter. The tool also provides you the ability to upload locally created and run tests from JMeter, which allows you to test against large traffic applications. BlazeMeter’s reporting feature allows you to generate your results in a logging or chart format, allowing you to view your results at a higher level, or delve into the particulars should you need to. Aside from JMeter, BlazeMeter provides integrations with platforms such as Bamboo, Jenkins and TeamCity.The cost of BlazeMeter starts at $99/per month for the basic package. The tool also offers a free version.

Apache JMeter is a 100% pure Java application that offers load testing of functional behavior and performance measurement. Testers can simulate different load types on many application, server, and protocol types, including Web, SOAP/REST web services, mail, and FTP. The system also has a comprehensive IDE, enabling quicker test plan recording and debugging.

JMeter offers remote testing for machines that can’t generate enough users to stress a server. This feature allows testers to control multiple remote JMeter engines from a single client machine. Tests can then be replicated on several low-end computers, simulating a large server load.

JMeter supports integrations with Maven, Gradle, and Jenkins. It can also be integrated with Selenium to perform automated testing.

JMeter is free to use.

Locust is a Java based stress testing tool that aims to provide you the ability to carry out load test functional behavior and measure performance. The tool load tests for websites, and calculates how many concurrent users the system can handle. Locust can also run your load tests across multiple machines, allowing full test coverage. Locust is a lightweight, and is easy to set up and implement within your team. The tool allows you to flood your systems with load tests and simulated users, allowing you to fully test the capacity and capability of your system. Locust also allows you to generate reports and graphs of your results, which can be viewed in the effortless user interface. Locust provides integrations with Taurus, Swarm and Zelt. Locust is fully open source and free to use.

PCMark 10 is benchmarking software with tests for everyday tasks performed in the workplace. It includes tests for daily activities, like web browsing and video conferencing. Users can also run more demanding graphics and physics tests focused on GPU and CPU performance. PCMark produces a score after each benchmark run, allowing testers to compare multiple systems.

PC Mark 10 also serves as a benchmarking tool for battery life performance. The platform’s Battery Life Profiles analyze performance across five categories: modern office, applications, video, gaming, and idle. Software teams can use these profiles to better understand each of their PC device’s strengths and best use cases.

PCMark 10 is compatible with Windows 8.1, 10, and 11. It also integrates with Microsoft Office.

Pricing starts at $1,495/year for PCMark 10 Professional Edition.