There are many situations when we want to test and know the capabilities of our hardware such as CPU and GPU. One such time is when we buy a new computer and want to see how powerful it is, whether it will be able to handle the new games and graphics editing software. Another possible time when one would want to check their hardware configuration is after cleaning and re-seating the processor heatsink assembly after applying a fresh layer of thermal paste.
In any case, we can use a small tool called 3D.Benchmark.OK to stress test your GPU and see what it can do. This small tool is actually designed for high-end cards (we learned the hard way) and if you run it on your laptop or desktop computers with weaker cards, then you should turn all the options to low level.
In the options for this benchmark, we can choose whether the test is to be run in fullscreen mode or windowed mode for each of which we can choose a screen resolution. We can also choose render mode from low, medium and high. You should pick low render mode if your GPU is not very high end. Similarly, we can choose an antialiasing mode and the screen brightness.
After running the benchmark on your computer for a while, it shows the results which include the FPS rate, the time taken to finish the test, the screen size & resolution, the render mode used along with some other useful information about your PC, GPU and operating system.
Be careful as this benchmark tool can make your CPU work so hard that it can become very hot. A very high GPU temperature can result in system hanging momentarily or graphics problems. On our test system, we actually received a warning message from operating system and the PC was shutdown.
You can download 3D.Benchmark.OK from http://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Freeware/3D.Benchmark.OK.