Memtest86+ Is Back! New Version Released After 9 Years

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The ancient memory application has been re-written from scratch to support modern computer hardware.

Memtest86+ Version 6.0.0
(Image credit: memtest.org)

That's right, that old memory testing program you remember from the 2000s is finally back. Memtest86+ just got its first update after 9 years. The program has reportedly been rewritten from scratch and is back in active development. The new version, 6.0, features a plethora of updates to bring the application into the modern era, and adds support for the latest system hardware from Intel and AMD.

For the uninitiated, MemTest86 was originally created back in the mid 1990s, and was one of the earliest DDR memory testing applications for personal computers. But development stopped in 2013 once Memtest86 was split into Memtest86 and Memtest86", with the former being bought by PassMark. Officially, we don't know why development stopped. But compared to the now modern Memtest86, Memtest86+ is the open-source variant.

Needless to say, version 6.00 features a lot of updates, which were required to bring it up to modern standards compared to the 2013 version. The new version includes completely rewritten code for UEFI-based motherboards, the modern version of a BIOS, for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the application.

Furthermore, the application features added support for x64 long mode paging, support for up to 256 cores, added detection for DDR4 and DDR5 memory -- since DDR3 was the latest memory standard in 2013 -- and adds support for XMP version 3.0.

CPU support has been significantly enhanced, addingdetection for all pre-Zen and AMD Zen-based processors ranging from the Ryzen 1000 series to 7000 series, and any older parts that were made after 2013. Intel support has also been added for chips up to 13th gen Raptor Lake.

Finally, the last patch notes indicate version 6.0 adds support for older Nvidia and AMD chipsets - probably pre-2010 since it mentions Nvidia nForce chipsets, along with numerous bug fixes, optimizations and enhancements.

You can download version 6.0 right now from the website, in both Linux and Windows USB installer flavors. Unlike traditional stress testers, Memtest86+ needs to be booted up on a USB flash drive, to isolate itself from the system's primary operating system. This allows the application to use as many system resources as possible during testing, and prevents corruption from testing to occur on your main OS.

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Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

22 Comments Comment from the forums
  • tennis2
    What's better now then? The free version of Memtest86 v10 or Memtest86+ v6?

    Or are they both worthless.
    Reply
  • setx
    Commercial Memtest86 is definitely worthless. But how this new Memtest86+ compares to TestMem5 is actually interesting.
    Reply
  • josmat
    Just tried downloading this new Memtest86+. First downloaded the Windows USB Installer. On VirusTotal 7 antivirus flagged the file as malicious. Then I downloaded the ISO file, and Windows Defender detected a Trojan:Script/Wacatac.B!ml.

    I know it's a very low level tool that could trigger false positives. But it's suspicious anyway. I'll wait for further community approval.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    setx said:
    Commercial Memtest86 is definitely worthless.
    Why do you say that?
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    MemTest86+ 5.31 was released in 2020 and I'm almost certain there were some point-releases between that and 2013, though most of memtest86's history appears to have been scrubbed from the site or is tucked away somewhere I couldn't easily locate it.
    Reply
  • jkhoward
    MemTest86 algorithm is almost certainly being used by PassMark in their memory benchmarks in some capacity.
    Reply
  • PassMark
    Some background.

    MemTest86 (without the plus) was originally developed by Chris Brady (BradyTech Inc) with a first release in 1994. However, some of the testing algorithms used have been under development since 1981 and were previously implemented on Dec PDP-11, VAX-11/780 and Cray XMP (an old super computer) architectures. Since then, there have been more than a dozen new versions released. Between 1994 and 2002, support for 64bit was added (but only via PAE paging), new CPU types, symmetrical multiprocessors and many other features have been added during this period. MemTest86 was released as free open source (GPL) software during this period.

    Between 2002 – 2004 (during the time period of the MemTest86 V3.0 release and there wasn't much activity from Chris) the code was 'forked' by Samuel Demeulemeester (formally part of the French CanardPC publishing group in France) into another version of the software called MemTest86+. The naming was unfortunate as it now leads to total confusion between users. Nevertheless, both Memtest86s subsequently continued to be developed. The original MemTest86 was continued to be developed across 2004 to 2013, with multiple updates made - most notably the stable Version 4.0 release. MemTest86 (the original) and the plus version exchanged a bunch of source code in this period.

    In Feb 2013, after another long period of not much development, PassMark Software took over the maintenance of the original MemTest86 project from Chris. This was around the time that a lot of technological changes were occurring. The 64bit era was here, DDR4 was coming, UEFI had already arrived and Microsoft's Secure boot technology threatened to prevent MemTest86 from booting on future PC hardware.

    Starting from MemTest86 v5, the code was re-written to support self-booting from the newer UEFI platform. The core software still remains free to use without restrictions. The MemTest86 v4 project (for traditional BIOS) is still maintained and remains GPL open source, for use on old machines. However, from V5 with the the software is being released under a proprietary license.

    PassMark did five major releases between 2013 and today. PassMark added ECC support, Secure boot support (with Microsoft code signing it), Mouse support, a graphical UI, logging of test reports to the disk, Native 64bit, Some 128bit testing, support for a heap of new CPUs, DDR5 support, row hammer testing, command line boot configuration, PXE network booting, multi-language support, inventory checking, ECC injection, debug logging, performance improvements, ARM CPU support, memory address decoding (to tell you exactly which memory stick and chip on the stick is bad) and a bunch of other stuff.

    Development on the MemTest86+ version was discontinued as there have been minimal updates since 2013 (until today that is, with this new V6 release). So the plus version was around 9 years behind. This release today brings it forward a few years. So for example, it now has DDR5 support, but is still missing a lot of important stuff like ECC support, Secure boot support, row hammer testing and the ability to log a test report to disk. The lack of secure boot being especially problematic for novice users as Win11 requires secure boot to be on, but Memtest86+ requires it to be off. So it won't work on most machines without a deep dive into the BIOS settings.

    Nonetheless the core test algorithms in both versions were common for a long while and can be traced back 40 years. They are diverging slightly now but once you get either version running they should both provide a solid RAM test.
    Reply
  • alceryes
    setx said:
    Commercial Memtest86 is definitely worthless. But how this new Memtest86+ compares to TestMem5 is actually interesting.
    Why is it worthless? Doesn't the free version (of the commercial Memtest86) still allow the full test suite up to 4 passes?
    You really only need 1 pass for 99.9% stability. The last couple tests in the suite are more brutal on the RAM than just about anything else you can throw at it.

    Edit - It's the USB creator part of the Windows version that several AV softwares don't like. Could be a false positive. The Linux ISO version scans clean so people can just use that and create the bootable USB using Rufus. The free version of Memtest86 (Passmark's version) is still completely adequate to determine memory stability/fault.
    Reply
  • boe rhae
    PassMark said:
    Some background.

    MemTest86 (without the plus) was originally developed by Chris Brady (BradyTech Inc) with a first release in 1994. However, some of the testing algorithms used have been under development since 1981 and were previously implemented on Dec PDP-11, VAX-11/780 and Cray XMP (an old super computer) architectures. Since then, there have been more than a dozen new versions released. Between 1994 and 2002, support for 64bit was added (but only via PAE paging), new CPU types, symmetrical multiprocessors and many other features have been added during this period. MemTest86 was released as free open source (GPL) software during this period.

    Between 2002 – 2004 (during the time period of the MemTest86 V3.0 release and there wasn't much activity from Chris) the code was 'forked' by Samuel Demeulemeester (formally part of the French CanardPC publishing group in France) into another version of the software called MemTest86+. The naming was unfortunate as it now leads to total confusion between users. Nevertheless, both Memtest86s subsequently continued to be developed. The original MemTest86 was continued to be developed across 2004 to 2013, with multiple updates made - most notably the stable Version 4.0 release. MemTest86 (the original) and the plus version exchanged a bunch of source code in this period.

    In Feb 2013, after another long period of not much development, PassMark Software took over the maintenance of the original MemTest86 project from Chris. This was around the time that a lot of technological changes were occurring. The 64bit era was here, DDR4 was coming, UEFI had already arrived and Microsoft's Secure boot technology threatened to prevent MemTest86 from booting on future PC hardware.

    Starting from MemTest86 v5, the code was re-written to support self-booting from the newer UEFI platform. The core software still remains free to use without restrictions. The MemTest86 v4 project (for traditional BIOS) is still maintained and remains GPL open source, for use on old machines. However, from V5 with the the software is being released under a proprietary license.

    PassMark did five major releases between 2013 and today. PassMark added ECC support, Secure boot support (with Microsoft code signing it), Mouse support, a graphical UI, logging of test reports to the disk, Native 64bit, Some 128bit testing, support for a heap of new CPUs, DDR5 support, row hammer testing, command line boot configuration, PXE network booting, multi-language support, inventory checking, ECC injection, debug logging, performance improvements, ARM CPU support, memory address decoding (to tell you exactly which memory stick and chip on the stick is bad) and a bunch of other stuff.

    Development on the MemTest86+ version was discontinued as there have been minimal updates since 2013 (until today that is, with this new V6 release). So the plus version was around 9 years behind. This release today brings it forward a few years. So for example, it now has DDR5 support, but is still missing a lot of important stuff like ECC support, Secure boot support, row hammer testing and the ability to log a test report to disk. The lack of secure boot being especially problematic for novice users as Win11 requires secure boot to be on, but Memtest86+ requires it to be off. So it won't work on most machines without a deep dive into the BIOS settings.

    Nonetheless the core test algorithms in both versions were common for a long while and can be traced back 40 years. They are diverging slightly now but once you get either version running they should both provide a solid RAM test.

    Fantastic explanation, thank you
    Reply
  • setx
    bit_user said:
    Why do you say that?
    alceryes said:
    Why is it worthless? Doesn't the free version (of the commercial Memtest86) still allow the full test suite up to 4 passes?
    I feel that overclocking community completely moved from Memtest86 to TestMem5 nowadays. I haven't done much testing, but for several tries TestMem5 found errors much faster so I didn't bother to wait would Memtest86 find the same errors in the end or not.
    Reply