# Where can I do free, video card stress testing?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-do-free-video-card-stress-testing/341846>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 27, 2006, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-do-free-video-card-stress-testing/341846 "2006-01-27T15:09:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Surbey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@Surbey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surbey)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2006, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-do-free-video-card-stress-testing/341846/1 "2006-01-27T15:09:07Z")

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Any idea where I can get a free benchmarking software? Something like Aquamark (is that free??)  
I wanna test my new computer and see how I do.

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**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2006, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-do-free-video-card-stress-testing/341846/2 "2006-01-27T15:15:32Z")

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> [@Surbey](#):
>
> Any idea where I can get a free benchmarking software? Something like Aquamark (is that free??)  
> I wanna test my new computer and see how I do.

The free version of SISoftware Sandra Lite is a pretty good benchmarking tool that includes stress-testing of your hardware components.

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**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2006, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-do-free-video-card-stress-testing/341846/3 "2006-01-27T16:18:50Z")

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[3dMark](http://www.futuremark.com) is the most popular and most comprehensive 3D card benchmarker. A word of warning; 3dMark 06 will kick the everlivin’ crap out of anything but the highest-end cards (GF 6800GTX or higher, ATI Radeon X1800) and the CPU benchmarks will look like slideshows on anything lower than, say, an Athlon 64 3800+ or P4 3.6.

I think you can still get old versions (05, 03, 2001) from their site. 3dMark 05 is good for the GF 6800LE/Radeon X800 and lower cards for DirectX 9 tests; 3dMark 03 is good for the GeForce FX/Radeon 9000 series cards for DirectX 8 cards, and 3dMark 2001 is DirectX 7, so GeForce 4000 series and Radeon 8000 series.

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**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2006, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-do-free-video-card-stress-testing/341846/4 "2006-01-27T16:20:53Z")

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Forgot to mention – 3dMark is free for the basic version, or you can pay $20 for all the Pro features.