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With the release today of MemTest86+ V6 I thought it would be good to do a comparison between MemTest86 V10 and MemTest86+ V6.
First some background and history:
First, there are confusingly two different MemTest86 packages, with pretty much the same name
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 and CDs and Floppy disks) is still available and remains GPL open source, for use on old machines. However, from V5 with the the software was released under a proprietary license and brought up to date.
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+ (with a plus) version was discontinued as there was 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.
Pros and Cons
First some background and history:
First, there are confusingly two different MemTest86 packages, with pretty much the same name
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 and CDs and Floppy disks) is still available and remains GPL open source, for use on old machines. However, from V5 with the the software was released under a proprietary license and brought up to date.
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+ (with a plus) version was discontinued as there was 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.
Pros and Cons
| MemTest86 V10 | MemTest86+ V6 |
| Pros + Code signed by Microsoft to work with secure boot. + ECC error reporting + ECC error injection + Row hammer testing + Mouse support + Graphical UI + RAM benchmarking + ARM CPU support + USB keyboard support + Multi-language support + Supports 512 CPU cores (vs 256 in V6 plus) + RAM repair on Windows (exclude bad addresses) + Directly identify bad RAM stick (on some systems) + Can write test report to disk + Command line and config file options + Email & forum technical support + Phone support direct to developer (paid version) + Network support to upload test reports. + Results can be saved to central database for volume manufacturing. |
Pros + Floppy disk support + You can look at the source code + Can work on old machines with old BIOS |
| Cons - Some advanced features are not in free release - Only USB boot officially supported - UEFI BIOS required (machines from the year 2005 onwards) |
Cons - Not code signed. Will fail to boot on most new hardware without BIOS changes - No ECC support for servers & workstations - No Row hammer testing - Some keyboards won't work & no mouse support - English language only - Can't save a test report. You need to photograph the screen - No command line / config file - If an error is found, it is a trial and error process to locate the fault. |