How to Benchmark Your Graphics Card
If you are not aware of the capability of your graphics card, then a good key will be to benchmark it. Benchmarking the graphics card is a great way to easily and quickly see how well your GPU can cope with a variety of graphical effects and demands. Its works by putting your GPU through its paces and results will paint a decent picture of what your graphics card can or can’t do well.
By this you free yourself from doubt when a brand new game comes out with startling graphics and you will be sure that you rig is going to run it well. With these results you can also consider tweaking the game settings so that you might trade-off some graphical bells and whistles, but in return you will get a smooth, playable frame rate.
Along with the confidence relating to the capability of your graphics card, the benchmarking of your graphics card that is a beast can give you bragging rights over your friends, which will also be nice.
Here your mind might be occupied with the questions involving why benchmark, how to benchmark, what would be the results and what you can do to improve your graphics card. If I am not wrong and you are actually thinking about these, then don’t worry, we are here to literally provide you all the answers.
Why Benchmark:
Coming to the first expected query, let’s discuss why you should carry out benchmarking. GPU benchmark throws a number of intensive graphical tests at your GPU which is a great way to find out how your graphics card performs under load. If you have overclocked your graphics card to squeeze out more performance or you have built your own rig, then running a benchmark for a few hours can grant you confidence that your GPU is stable.
Nobody wants the smooth, fun filled period of gaming to get failed, so running benchmarks can catch any problem early on. If benchmarking runs for hours on end without getting any problem then you are good to go. If however there are artifacts, crashes or other graphical glitches, then you should begin working out what the problem is.
Of the most likely reasons, one will be a GPU getting too hot. If your graphics card fails to run a benchmark, it might be important to find out if it is getting plenty of cool air.
How to benchmark:
Taking a step forward, if you are satisfied with the idea of benchmarking your graphics card, next step would be the method. Similar to the shopping centers where you get stuck with many choices, you are also spoiled for choice when choosing software to benchmark your graphics card. There are a great number of popular benchmarking suites available by which you can out your graphics card through thorough tests.
Not all the software are free, such as popular 3DMArk benchmark. There is a free version but you get limited options. Heaven Benchmark is a free version which comes with enough settings to test out your graphics card properly.
Once installed, run the program. You will see a window asking you to select various options such as the resolution and the texture quality you want the benchmark to run at. When it comes to resolution, it is best to run the benchmark at resolution you usually run games such as 1920×1080, which is the resolution you run Windows as well. Then select ‘System’.
If you want out how well your graphics card will work with stereo 3D such as Nvidia 3D vision, you can enable 3D as well. It test runs well without major frame rate drops or any other errors, then grab a pair of 3D glasses and get gaming.
If you don’t know the settings to use, a couple of readymade presets are available that will get you benchmarking easily and quickly. Next to ‘Presets’ click the drop down box and select either ‘Basic’ or ‘Extreme’, both names suggest their potential.
Benchmark Results:
When the Heaven benchmark runs, there will be a number of attractive 3D environments with camera panning over them, which is a handy way to see how your GPU handles this level of graphics. You can make out any tearing, graphical glitches or dropped frames with your eyes.
And you already know what about benchmark not running smoothly means, i.e., your graphics card is going to struggle with certain graphics. There will be a FPS (frames per second) counter on the top right-hand corner of the screen, which provides you a lot more information. You want that counter to be around at least 30 for a smooth gameplay experience.
Any drop will result in your games feeling choppy and slow. The higher the score, the better and you would really like that to be at 60FPS. If your graphics card struggle here, try changing settings in the Heaven Benchmark settings page.
You will also get to know about your GPU including memory and model. It will also record temperature of your GPU so pay close attention as high temperatures can mean your GPU is struggling and its overheating can lead to problems and system instability.
To start recording results of the benchmark, press F9 on the keyboard or click ‘Benchmark’ on the top-left hand side of the screen. It will now run a couple of tests and then display your results in a new window.
You will get along with a score your average, min and max frame per seconds. The higher are the scores, the better. There is no speedy way to compare scores with others but there are plenty of websites such as Overclock.net and TechPowerUp that feature message boards dedicated to discuss Heaven benchmark results.
How to improve your Graphics card:
If you are not satisfied with the score your graphics card hits, then there are number of things to do in order to improve the score before ripping out your GPU and replacing it with a newer model.
For this, first make sure you have installed the latest stable drivers for your graphics card. You can check this by either using a program such as GeForce Experience for Nvidia cards or by going to the website of your graphics card manufacturer. If you have some experimental or beta drivers then you should roll them back to the last official stable release. When done, restart your computer; wait for two minutes for all start up programs and services to launch.
Once Windows has restarted close down any open programs and re-run the benchmarks. If still not satisfied then there might be another reason for the issues. Make sure your PC is well ventilated and dust free as mentioned earlier; overheating could be the cause of poor performance and low scores. If still that doesn’t work, upgrade.