42

I run MemTest86 a lot at work on customer's machines, and it's great for troubleshooting memory issues. My question is, how can I test that a GPU is starting to go?

I know of programs like 3DMark to push the graphics card to its limits, but what about with Video Memory? Is it worth testing? Is there a stress tool actually able to catch issues in the video card (memory), perhaps using CUDA/OpenCL?

Improve this question
5
  • 3
    (in my opinion) I think a stress test would do the trick, because if it is going bad it would either fail or not meet the benchmarks for that kind of card - but, if anyone can find a utility for this, I would be interested as well. – cutrightjm Aug 1 '12 at 19:54
  • 1
    @ekaj I actually just had a customer's computer in with 2 GTX670s in SLI, and it passed the benchmarks, but still kept freezing the computer when just running every day applications like IE9 and Microsoft Word. When I switched out just ONE of the cards, the pair worked great – Canadian Luke Aug 1 '12 at 19:57
  • That's really weird - afterwards, did you separately test that card in a different computer? – cutrightjm Aug 1 '12 at 19:58
  • No, we gave the customer back one of his working cards and a new one off the shelf that wouldn't crash. We will be testing the other one in a new system, but need a big one first to handle it – Canadian Luke Aug 1 '12 at 19:59
  • 2
    @Luke - I always test the cards individually for just this reason, and that approach has worked pretty well. – Shinrai Aug 1 '12 at 20:07
34

GPU stress tests are generally designed to attempt to overheat the GPU. Depending on the particular test, this might or might not use the entire video memory or check its integrity at some point.

Video Memory stress Test is specifically designed for this purpose, and it's quite similar to MemTest86+. You can test the memory using DirectX, CUDA or OpenGL.

The downloadable zip contains VMT (for Windows) and VMTCE (Clean Environment, bootable ISO). There's also a floppy version.

Screenshots

screenshot

screenshot

Improve this answer
6
  • 11
    There is also sourceforge.net/projects/cudagpumemtest which I use under Ubuntu 12.04 – math Aug 10 '12 at 10:09
  • How to make it work with GTX 660? I'm getting error ----- Trying 32bpp RGB:888 mode...OK PATTERN NOT FOUND Trying 32bpp BGR:888 mode...NOT SUPPORTED (Code: 80004001) NO PASS COMPLETED – Hooch Nov 19 '13 at 18:36
  • 1
    @Hooch: Did you try different test types? I'd expect DirectX and/or CUDA to work. If neither does, you should ask a new question. – Dennis Nov 20 '13 at 5:00
  • 3
    Seems like this limits out at 2GB video memory... or is my card messed up? – MattPark Jun 24 '14 at 1:49
  • 2
    Does anyone have a grub2 config for booting the ISO version of this? – starbeamrainbowlabs Jul 22 '15 at 18:19

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.