Q:  What to do with the stress test?
A:  This test heats up the processor of a video card if in 10-30 minutes the video card does not hang and there are no artefacts, everything is all right.

Q:  Benchmark, why am I sending this?
A:  Periodically I write down results here: "Video Card Stability Test - Benchmark Results".

Q:  With regards the benchmark within the "Video Card Stability Test" - would it please be possible to explain why the results of ATI cards and Nvidia cards are so different? For example, a GeForce 6800 GT is a pretty decent card (I thought), however is expected to return a lower score than the dated Radeon 9800 PRO adapter. Is there a reason for that?
A:  In this program, the benchmark it is secondary and can serve only for comparison of video cards of one series. In this case, video cards ATI are faster because of the small size of a window of rendering. (It is changed in the new version, the benchmark has turned out more "fair")

Q: Your program won't run since I immediately get Error Message. Why?
A:  Your video card does not support 3D completely in DirectX 9, try to update the driver video card. Also start dxdiag.exe, check up that acceleration DirectDraw/Direct3D enabled. (Unfortunately ATI any more do not support RAGE. Last supported version DirectX - 8. Also video cards NVIDIA TNT/TNT2, 3dfx Banshee/Voodoo3, Matrox Millennium G400/G450, S3 Graphics ProSavageDDR will not work.)

Q: I ran your video card stability test many times and get a 0 as my bench mark I press start and the 2 worlds move in and out. How long do i let this go on?
A:  “Start” is the test for survivability (non stop). For the test for speed, press button "Benchmark".

Q: How would I recognize an artefact?
A:  Artefacts as a rule, the big triangles or strips of solid color. Example. (In the new version has been added module of automatic detecting of artefacts during the stability test)

Q: I've tried it out and i'm getting 1262 on a 7900 gt 450/1320. I've got 3.4ghz ht pentium processor, (533MHz) PC2-4200 Memory 1gb, 450 psu OCZ modstream, 250gb sata hd. 1262 seems low compared to lesser cards on the benchmarks webpage. What do you think could be the problem?
A:  On fast video cards the benchmark result can be limited to the processor.  Try disabling Hyper-Threading Technology in BIOS Settings.

Q: The PC restarts itself in the first 1-3 mins during the Benchmark testing. That could be video card problem or I have to look at something else?
A:  Most probably: a) Overheating CPU (Make sure all dust has been removed from the case, particularly the heatsinks. Make sure all fans are running, especially the cpu and psu fans. Reseat the heatsinks with a fresh coat of thermal paste, particularly on the CPU). b) Faulty Power supply unit (Can only replace it).

Q: When from a 7900GTX (scored 2665) to the new 8800GTX (scored 1100). I always test with AA/AF off, and I was totally surprised to see the huge drop. Checked your posted benchmarks and it seems that's all the 8800 is scoring, less than half of 7800's and up. Why?
A:  Probably at 8800 there is a bottleneck.... In real the app it will not play a role as seldom FPS happens more than 1000. In the future we shall try to take into account this, and to make benchmark more difficult for new GPU.
Added: 1. Install nvidia driver 169.12 or better. 2. If OS Vista: Add hotfix - Windows6.0-KB938660, Windows6.0-KB938194, Windows6.0-KB938979, Windows6.0-KB940105. It will help to receive the speed more than 2000 fps for 8800GTX.

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Success story

Just wanted to tell you that all my games were locking up after about 10 minutes.
So I ran your stability test and it declared "failed" in 1 second.
I reduced the core clock from 275 to 250, and memory from 550 to 520, on the video card.
Your stability tester didnt hang for 5 mins.
I then took out my video card and removed collected dust from the cooling fan etc.
Then I reset the core and memory back to normal (275 & 550) and VOILA !T
The stability test is still running now at 15 minutes.
I just wanted to let you know that cleaning the cooling system of a video card can be a MAJOR factor in the stability test failing, or not failing.
                    Riff

I run Dual monitors one on an Nvidia GeForce 6800GT and the other on a
MX4000 I've been having hangup issues and realized that it was my
6800GT video card i ran your test and couldn't make it 5 seconds
without failing..i then looked inside my machine that was been running
open and found that it had a rubber band on it that had fallen from
some wires...i sware i removed it and now the test has run for...22
minutes without failing and i got a benchmark of 1328.
                    Justin

Thanks for your test, I ran it last night and it froze up the computer.
I cleaned all the dust out and ran it again, with much better results!
We’ve got dual cards on our Dell XPS 700 and was running into issues
with games like Oblivion, the Witcher and Tabula Rasa.
Hopefully cleaning the dust out of the cards will let us play these games again!
                    Shawna

I am absolutely thrilled with your program and the problem it has
enabled me to fix on my 7900gtx video card!
A while ago, i noted that the aluminium heatsink spreader on the back of
the card was not attached properly, so i pulled the aftermarket arctic 5
cooler off the videocard, re attached the heatsink spreader and
re-assembled the card.
2 weeks later it started crashing the pc with corrupted graphics on the
screen and funky characters appearing on the bios screens, i thought
"wtf?!" it's dead!
So i tried re-applying thermal paste, buytthe video card still crashed
the system, once in windows- after about 3 minutes. i then found your
program, and with everest (temp monitoring prog etc) i found that the
heatsink hadn't seated properly as soon as i ran your prog, gpu temps
went up to about 80degrees C !
With your program, and everest combined i found that by squeezing the
heatsink onto the card caused the temperatures to drop about 30 degrees.
which lead me to discover that the bracket attachment on theback of the
card was bent and not putting enoiugh force down onto the heatsink!
It's hard to explain the situation really, but i am truly truly
grateful!. i thought i had to replace my video card! but nowi don't!
                    *happyface!*