The video card helps the central processor to display the image on the monitor. It has its own high-speed RAM and a GPU specially designed to create 3D images very quickly.
It is necessary
Computer with video card, ATITool program
Instructions
Step 1
When checking the performance of a video card, you need to pay attention to the correct operation of the graphics processor, cooling system and the absence of errors in the video memory.
Step 2
You can check the operation of the graphics processor of a video card using a special utility for testing it - ATITool. The principle of this utility is quite simple. It generates a small hairy cube in a special window. Rendering such a cube is a difficult task for the GPU of a video card and creates a high load on it. With such a load, problems with cooling, failures in the graphics chip, poor contacts of the graphics processor or other elements of the video card with the board are revealed. This method is the easiest to identify internal video card malfunctions and assess its performance.
Step 3
To check the performance of the video card, run the ATITool test by clicking the Show 3D view button. A rotating cube will appear on the screen.
Step 4
In this test, it is very important to monitor the temperature of the video card in order to prevent overheating. Therefore, immediately after starting the test, pay attention to the increase in the temperature of the GPU. It should be in the range of 60-75 degrees and not exceed 85 degrees throughout the test. If the temperature reaches this mark, then the graphics chip has poor contact with the cooling heatsink. Stop the test immediately to avoid damaging the video card and update the thermal paste between the chip and the heatsink.
Step 5
During the test, try to find yellow dots on the generated cube. They appear when the graphics card fails to generate the image. If more than 3 yellow dots did not appear during the entire test, then the video card is working fine. If up to 10 yellow dots appear, then most likely the video card has some kind of power supply problem. Check if the power supply has enough capacity. If more than 10 yellow dots appear, the video card has serious internal problems that will lead to the appearance of artifacts in the image.
Step 6
You can check the operation of the video memory using the Video Memory stress Test program. The program checks the memory of the video card bit by bit, which detects problems in it for sure, and also allows, if necessary, to check the operability of the memory of the video card in the background without changing the image on the monitor screen. Video Memory stress Test uses DirectX access to video memory. This method allows you to check not only video cards with their own video memory, but also to evaluate the stability of the memory of integrated video cards that use the computer's RAM for operation.
Step 7
The program is easy to use and does not require installation. To test the performance of the video card memory, simply run the Video Memory stress Test and press the "Start" button. The program will check the video memory with tests in full mode. During the test, two horizontal progress bars are displayed, the upper one displays how complete the current test is, the lower one shows how complete the entire test is. There is an error counter under the progress bars. If the video card is fully functional, then no errors should occur during the entire time of checking. The entries in the "Log" field located under the error counter are informational only and are not errors.
