stress-ng is a free tool for exercising computer hardware and operating system interfaces under load. The project lists more than 390 stress tests, including tests for CPU, virtual memory, filesystems, and memory or CPU caches. CPU tests cover floating-point, integer, bit-manipulation and control-flow operations, and listed architecture coverage includes ARM, x86-64, RISC-V, MIPS, Power, SPARC and s390x. The project originally aimed to expose hardware problems such as overheating under load and operating system bugs. stress-ng can report test throughput to help observe changes across operating system releases or hardware types, but it is not intended as a precise benchmark suite. Use requires care: some tests can heat poorly designed hardware or cause system thrashing that is difficult to stop. On Linux, running as root changes out-of-memory settings so stressors may become unkillable when memory is low; the project advises judicious use. The tool is licensed under GPL-2.0. The project documents running a recent snapshot in Docker and installing recent Ubuntu versions through its PPA.
Who it is for
stress-ng suits users who need to exercise hardware or kernel interfaces under load, or investigate hardware and operating system issues. Its throughput measurements may help observe changes across system releases or hardware types, but it is not a precise benchmark suite.
What is good
- Lists more than 390 stress tests.
- Covers CPU, virtual memory, filesystems and caches.
- Lists support for ARM, x86-64, RISC-V and other architectures.
- Free to use under GPL-2.0.
What to know first
- Some tests can overheat poorly designed hardware.
- Heavy tests may cause difficult-to-stop system thrashing.
- Root use on Linux can make stressors unkillable under low memory.
- Not intended as a precise benchmark suite.
Verdict
stress-ng offers extensive ways to load-test computer subsystems and operating system interfaces across many architectures. Its own cautions matter: some tests can strain hardware, and root use on Linux can make stressors difficult to stop when memory is low.
stress-ng plans and pricing
All plansCompared on hardware diagnostic software
- Free plan
- Yes
- Platform support
- multi-platform
- Stress testing
- Yes
- Memory testing
- Yes
- Disk health checks
- Yes
- Diagnostic reports
- Yes
