1. What Is GPU Testing?
A Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is a specialized microprocessor engineered for massive parallel computation. Unlike a Central Processing Unit (CPU), which typically utilizes between 4 and 32 high-clocked cores optimized for sequential single-threaded logic, a modern GPU incorporates thousands of smaller Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs) executing identical mathematical instructions across large blocks of data simultaneously (SIMD/SIMT architecture).
GPU testing refers to the practice of executing controlled computational and graphical workloads on the GPU to measure its rendering performance, computational throughput, driver stability, and thermal resilience.
How the GPU Rendering Pipeline Works
When a browser or game renders a scene to your display, it dispatches commands through a graphics API (such as WebGL, WebGPU, DirectX, Vulkan, or Metal). The hardware processes this through a multi-stage pipeline:
- Vertex Shading: Transforms 3D geometry coordinates into 2D screen-space projections and calculates lighting vectors for each vertex.
- Primitive Assembly & Rasterization: Groups vertices into geometric primitives (typically triangles) and interpolates them across discrete screen pixels or fragments.
- Fragment / Pixel Shading: Executes user-defined programs (fragment shaders) for every rasterized pixel, calculating mathematical colors, surface textures, reflections, and shadows.
- Blending & Framebuffer Output: Combines rendered fragments with existing screen buffers, applying transparency, depth testing, and anti-aliasing before delivering the finished frame to the display compositor.
Synthetic Workloads vs. Real-World Applications
A synthetic benchmark isolates specific hardware components—such as shader math ALUs, memory bandwidth, or instanced draw calls—using pure mathematical models like fractals or volumetric ray marching. In contrast, real-world workloads (such as video games or 3D CAD tools) involve unpredictable combinations of CPU draw calls, physics simulations, disk streaming, and network latency. Synthetic tests are uniquely valuable because they eliminate external variables, allowing precise measurement of the GPU itself.
Why In-Browser Testing Is Uniquely Powerful
Historically, GPU benchmarks required downloading multi-gigabyte installer packages and granting administrative privileges. Modern web standards—specifically WebGL 2.0 and WebGPU—have eliminated this barrier. Today's web browsers compile shader code directly into native machine instructions executed on your physical graphics card. In-browser testing is:
- Instant & Safe: Runs entirely within the browser's sandboxed environment without installing third-party executable binaries.
- Cross-Platform: Runs seamlessly across Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS, iOS, and Android.
- Honest to Web Workloads: Directly measures how your graphics card handles modern web applications, interactive canvas experiences, video streaming engines, and web-based games.
2. Why Test Your GPU?
Regularly testing your GPU provides critical technical diagnostic insights that go far beyond satisfying hardware curiosity. Practical motivations include:
If web games, 3D canvases, or video streams stutter or hitch, GPU benchmarks isolate whether the slowdown originates from graphics hardware limits or software configuration issues.
Laptops and thin devices often suffer from cooling constraints. Sustained tests reveal if your GPU loses performance over several minutes as internal heat builds up.
Browsers implement graphics differently. Chrome (DirectX ANGLE), Firefox (WebRender), and Safari (Metal) often deliver noticeably different rendering efficiency on identical hardware.
Verify whether your browser is actively leveraging your dedicated graphics card rather than falling back to slow software emulation (SwiftShader or CPU rasterization).
Stress testing highlights unstable GPU overclocks, corrupted graphics drivers, or memory leaks by observing whether the WebGL context crashes or resets under load.
Test whether your GPU's dedicated hardware video decoder can smoothly decode high-bitrate 1080p and 4K streams without dropping frames or burdening your CPU.
3. Types of GPU Tests
Because GPUs contain distinct functional pipelines—such as rasterizers, compute cores, texture sampling units, and dedicated video ASICs—a single benchmark cannot evaluate all capabilities. Here are the core categories of GPU testing:
GPU Stress Testing
Purpose: Evaluates sustained hardware endurance, cooling capacity, and driver resilience under prolonged, heavy computational workloads. While a standard test lasts 10 to 30 seconds, a stress test runs for minutes, intentionally generating continuous heat to test for thermal throttling and context crashes.
Featured tool on this website: Stress My GPU.
Shader Arithmetic (ALU) Testing
Purpose: Evaluates the raw mathematical computing throughput of GPU shader cores. Shader benchmarks stress floating-point vector math, trigonometric functions, fractal iterations, and procedural ray marching without relying on heavy external texture assets.
Featured tools on this website: Shader Performance Test, Volume Shader Benchmark, and Volume Shader Test.
Particle & Instanced Geometry Testing
Purpose: Evaluates how efficiently the GPU can process massive quantities of dynamic vertices and blended primitives. Modern games and interactive interfaces rely heavily on particle systems for smoke, fire, sparks, and environmental effects.
Featured tool on this website: Particle System Performance Test.
Rendering-to-Texture (FBO) Testing
Purpose: Tests multi-pass rendering pipelines using WebGL Framebuffer Objects (FBOs). Scenes are rendered into off-screen memory textures before being sampled in secondary passes for post-processing effects like bloom, depth-of-field, and motion blur, testing VRAM bandwidth.
Featured tool on this website: Rendering to Texture Test.
WebGPU & API Robustness Testing
Purpose: Evaluates low-level graphics driver adherence, pipeline compilation behavior, and device-loss recovery using the next-generation WebGPU API. Controlled fuzzing tests boundary conditions to verify that driver stacks remain stable under complex state permutations.
Featured tool on this website: WebGPU Fuzzing Test.
Hardware Video Playback Testing
Purpose: Exercises the dedicated hardware media decoding silicon on modern GPUs (e.g., Intel QuickSync, NVIDIA NVDEC, AMD VCN, Apple VideoToolbox) to measure frame drop rates and decoding latency.
Featured tool on this website: Video Playback Test.
4. GPU Testing Tools Directory
Real Test Keyboard offers a comprehensive suite of free, client-side GPU diagnostic and benchmarking utilities. Each tool targets a specific facet of graphics pipeline performance:
Stress My GPU
WebGL2 SustainedExecutes an intensive, multi-minute fullscreen procedural ray-marching workload with post-processing filters to test GPU thermal endurance, sustained clock pacing, and driver stability.
Launch Stress My GPUVolume Shader Benchmark
Standardized ScoreRuns a timed 30-second volumetric ray-marching benchmark through procedural 3D density fields with dynamic lighting absorption to produce a standardized performance score.
Launch Volume Shader BenchmarkVolume Shader Test
Interactive VolumeAn interactive volumetric ray-marching shader renderer allowing users to adjust step counts, density thresholds, and light absorption in real time.
Launch Volume Shader TestParticle System Performance Test
Instanced ParticlesRenders hundreds of thousands of dynamic physics particles simultaneously using WebGL2 hardware instanced arrays and additive blending modes.
Launch Particle System Performance TestShader Performance Test
Multi-Tier ShaderSubjects GPU execution units to escalating tiers of GLSL fragment arithmetic, testing trigonometry, mathematical fractals, domain coordinate warps, and branch execution.
Launch Shader Performance TestRendering to Texture Test
Multi-Pass FBOMeasures GPU performance when rendering complex off-screen scenes into textures using WebGL2 Framebuffer Objects (FBOs) and applying ping-pong post-processing passes.
Launch Rendering to Texture TestWebGPU Fuzzing Test
WebGPU FuzzerExecutes controlled, randomized WebGPU workloads to validate shader compilation, pipeline state stability, device loss recovery, and low-level graphics driver robustness.
Launch WebGPU Fuzzing TestVideo Playback Test
Hardware Video ASICTests dedicated GPU hardware video decoding blocks (NVDEC, QuickSync, VCN) by analyzing frame delivery, dropped frames, buffer starvation, and playback smoothness across resolutions.
Launch Video Playback TestAdditional Graphics Diagnostics on Real Test Keyboard
Beyond specialized shader benchmarks, you can also explore complementary 3D and display diagnostic tools:
- 3D Rendering Performance Test (WebGL2 / 3D Meshes): Evaluates real-time 3D polygon throughput, dynamic lighting calculations, shadow maps, and mesh transformations.
- GPU Stress Test (WebGL): A rapid, high-draw-call graphics test designed for instant load generation across broad legacy and modern browser engines.
- GPU Benchmark (WebGL): A general synthetic browser GPU test measuring rasterization and shader rendering across standard test scenes.
- Display FPS Test (requestAnimationFrame / Performance Timer): Measures browser display synchronization, monitor refresh rate alignment, and compositor frame delivery consistency.
5. How to Choose the Right GPU Test
Selecting the appropriate tool depends on whether you are verifying stability, diagnosing stutter, comparing hardware, or testing next-generation graphics APIs. Use this scenario-based guide:
6. Tool Comparison Table
Compare the underlying technology, primary workload, and specific diagnostic utility of each GPU tool:
| Tool | Primary Purpose | Technology | Main Workload | Useful For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stress My GPU | Sustained Stress | WebGL2 / GLSL ES 3.00 | Ray marching, 3D fBm, FBO blur passes | Stability & endurance |
| Volume Shader Benchmark | Standardized Benchmark | WebGL2 / GLSL ES 3.00 | 3D procedural density, ray absorption | Standardized benchmarking |
| Volume Shader Test | Shader Rendering | WebGL2 / GLSL ES 3.00 | Interactive ray marching & density steps | Volumetric shader exploration |
| Particle System Performance Test | Particle Throughput | WebGL2 / Instanced Arrays | 200k+ instanced physics particles, alpha blending | Vertex & fill-rate stress |
| Shader Performance Test | ALU Math Stress | WebGL2 / GLSL ES 3.00 | Progressive GLSL mathematical complexity | Fragment shader ALU limits |
| Rendering to Texture Test | Framebuffer Pipelines | WebGL2 / Framebuffers (FBO) | Multi-pass ping-pong FBO rendering & blurs | Offscreen buffer & memory bandwidth |
| WebGPU Fuzzing Test | Next-Gen API | WebGPU (navigator.gpu / WGSL) | Randomized compute/render pipelines & buffers | API robustness & driver validation |
| Video Playback Test | Media Hardware Decoder | HTML5 Video / VideoPlaybackQuality API | Multi-resolution media stream decoding | Hardware media decoding diagnostics |
7. Technical Breakdown: How Each Test Works
Each test on Real Test Keyboard uses real, hardware-executed rendering pipelines. Here is the technical engineering behind each tool:
Stress My GPU
Stress My GPU sets up a continuous fullscreen WebGL2 rendering pipeline using GLSL ES 3.00. The fragment shader evaluates analytical 3D signed distance fields combined with multi-octave Fractional Brownian Motion (fBm) noise. Rays are marched through procedural coordinate spaces for every pixel on screen. Simultaneously, the rendered output is passed through an off-screen Framebuffer Object (FBO) where chromatic dispersion and multi-pass blur kernels cycle VRAM memory bandwidth. The engine partitions recorded frame times into initial, mid, and final windows to objectively quantify performance drop-off caused by thermal throttling.
Volume Shader Benchmark
Volume Shader Benchmark evaluates fixed-step volumetric ray marching through a procedural 3D volume. For every on-screen ray cast from a virtual camera, the shader takes uniform distance steps through 3D space, sampling procedural density and accumulating Beer-Lambert exponential light absorption. Because the workload duration (30 seconds) and mathematical complexity are strictly controlled, it calculates a reproducible composite score (VSB Score) factoring in average FPS, frame delivery consistency, and 1% low pacing.
Volume Shader Test
Volume Shader Test provides an interactive laboratory for real-time volumetric exploration. Users can adjust ray march step counts, density thresholds, and light absorption coefficients on the fly. This demonstrates the quadratic relationship between shader iteration depth and frame latency.
Particle System Performance Test
Particle System Performance Test uses WebGL2 instanced array drawing (gl.drawArraysInstanced) to render hundreds of thousands of independent point or quad particles. Particle physics (velocity integration, gravity, orbital forces, and bounds collisions) are calculated in parallel. Rendering tests the GPU's vertex fetch units and tests blend fill-rate as thousands of semi-transparent particles overlap.
Shader Performance Test
Shader Performance Test isolates GPU Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs) by progressively increasing the computational density of a fullscreen fragment shader across four discrete tiers: Basic, Medium, Heavy, and Extreme. Workloads include recursive trigonometric formulas, Mandelbrot fractals, domain coordinate distortion, and procedural noise loops. It isolates pure mathematical calculation limits from memory and rasterization bottlenecks.
Rendering to Texture Test
Rendering to Texture Test creates multiple WebGL2 Framebuffer Objects (FBOs) attached to high-precision color textures. The engine renders dynamic 3D geometry into the primary framebuffer, binds the resulting texture as an input to a secondary shader pass, and performs horizontal and vertical gaussian blur passes before compositing to the canvas. This directly measures render-target context switching overhead and off-screen texture bandwidth.
WebGPU Fuzzing Test
WebGPU Fuzzing Test operates on the modern navigator.gpu API. It dynamically creates compute and render pipelines using WebGPU Shading Language (WGSL), creates high-frequency buffer allocations, executes dispatch calls, and injects controlled edge-case parameter variations. The tool tracks API validation performance, device loss events (device.lost), and graphics driver crash recovery.
Video Playback Test
Video Playback Test streams HTML5 media elements using various encoding resolutions and codecs. Rather than stressing general-purpose compute ALUs, it exercises the dedicated hardware ASIC video decoder silicon built into modern GPUs. Utilizing the browser's HTMLVideoElement.getVideoPlaybackQuality() API, it tracks exact decoded frames, dropped frames, and delivery latency.
8. WebGL vs WebGL2 vs WebGPU
Modern web graphics have evolved across three major technological generations:
Released in 2011, based on OpenGL ES 2.0. Uses GLSL ES 1.00. Supported universally across almost all browsers and devices. Limited to 2D textures, basic vertex/fragment shaders, and lacks native 3D textures, floating-point render targets without extensions, and hardware instancing.
Released in 2017, based on OpenGL ES 3.0. Uses GLSL ES 3.00. Ships standard in all modern browsers. Features native 3D textures, hardware instanced arrays, Transform Feedback, Multiple Render Targets (MRT), high-precision depth textures, and expanded uniform buffer objects.
Standardized in 2023+. Redesigned from the ground up based on Vulkan, Metal, and DirectX 12. Introduces general-purpose compute shaders (WGSL), drastically lower CPU driver overhead, immutable pipeline state objects, and explicit multi-threaded resource management.
Most tests on this website use WebGL 2.0 to deliver the optimal combination of modern graphics features and universal browser compatibility. The WebGPU Fuzzing Test specifically targets the modern WebGPU standard.
9. Performance vs Stability Testing
Understanding diagnostic results requires distinguishing between performance testing (how fast the GPU can render) and stability testing (how consistently the GPU renders without crashing or throttling).
The standard metric of throughput. Calculated by counting completed frames delivered over a unit of time. While useful as a high-level summary, average FPS masks micro-stutters and frame delivery spikes.
The exact time required to compute, render, and present an individual frame. At 60Hz, a frame must be presented every 16.67ms. At 120Hz, each frame must arrive in 8.33ms; at 144Hz, 6.94ms. Lower, consistent frame times provide true smoothness.
The average frame rate of the slowest 1% of all frames recorded. Even if average FPS is 60+, a 1% Low of 20 FPS indicates severe visual stutter, driver hitches, or background resource contention.
The variance between consecutive frame times. Low jitter (<2ms) means frame pacing is uniform. High jitter (>8ms) causes noticeable perceptual stutter even when total frame count appears high.
When a graphics driver crashes, resets, or exceeds the operating system's Timeout Detection and Recovery (TDR) limit, the browser fires a webglcontextlost or WebGPU device.lost event. Tracking context loss is critical for stability testing.
10. How to Interpret GPU Test Results
Always interpret benchmark metrics within the specific context of your testing setup:
- Workload Complexity: High-iteration volumetric shaders naturally yield lower FPS than basic geometric transforms. Compare identical tests across configurations rather than different tests against each other.
- Target Resolution: Rendering at 4K (3840×2160) requires calculating four times as many pixels as 1080p (1920×1080). A test running at native 4K will deliver substantially lower frame rates than at 1080p.
- Display Refresh Rate Caps: In many browsers, frame rates are synchronized to the monitor's refresh rate (V-Sync). If your display is 60Hz, achieving 60 FPS means your hardware is meeting the maximum possible display throughput.
- Sustained Pacing: If frame rate starts at 75 FPS and steadily degrades to 40 FPS after 3 minutes, your device is experiencing thermal throttling or power budget limitations.
11. Key Factors Affecting GPU Performance
Variations in GPU test results across runs or devices are governed by several hardware and software factors:
Dedicated GPUs (NVIDIA GeForce, AMD Radeon) feature independent high-speed VRAM (GDDR6). Integrated GPUs (Intel Iris Xe, AMD Vega, Apple Silicon) share unified system memory, making memory bandwidth a common constraint.
Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Edge, Brave) utilize the ANGLE translation layer to convert WebGL to DirectX 11/12 on Windows. Firefox uses WebRender, and Safari on macOS maps directly to Metal.
High-DPI displays (such as MacBook Retina or 4K monitors with 150-200% scaling) force the browser to render canvases at high backing-store pixel counts unless internal resolution scaling is explicitly clamped.
Laptops running on battery power often throttle GPU power draw by 30% to 60% compared to when connected to AC power. Operating system power-saving modes also cap browser compositor frame rates.
Outdated or corrupted graphics drivers can cause WebGL shader compilation stutters or disable hardware acceleration entirely, falling back to CPU software rendering.
Running hardware-accelerated desktop apps (Discord, OBS, Spotify, video editors, or additional browser tabs) shares GPU memory and compute queues, introducing periodic frame hitches.
12. Browser Sandbox Limitations
To provide honest, technically accurate diagnostics, users must understand the privacy and security boundaries of modern web browsers:
- Real-time rendering throughput (FPS and Average FPS)
- Individual frame delivery duration in milliseconds (frame times)
- Frame-time jitter, pacing variance, and 1% low drops
- Shader compilation times and pipeline generation latency
- WebGL context losses, driver reset events, and WebGPU errors
- Hardware video decoding dropped frames and playback smoothness
- Performance degradation curves between test windows
- Physical GPU Temperature (°C): Blocked by browser security sandboxes to prevent user tracking.
- Exact GPU Hardware Utilization (%): Web APIs have no access to hardware load percentages.
- Fan Speeds (RPM): Fan controllers require native operating system kernel privileges.
- Total Board Power Draw (Watts): Power rail sensors are inaccessible to web pages.
- Physical VRAM Allocation (MB): Protected to prevent cross-origin memory snooping.
- Clock Frequencies (MHz): Core and memory clock states are shielded.
Note: Any website claiming to show your real-time GPU core temperature or fan speed purely inside standard browser JavaScript without a native desktop companion app is displaying fabricated or simulated numbers.
13. GPU Testing Best Practices
Follow these standardized steps to obtain consistent, reliable diagnostic benchmarks:
Before Testing
- Plug In AC Power: If testing a laptop, connect it to the wall charger and switch the power profile to "High Performance" to avoid battery-saver throttling.
- Close Heavy Background Applications: Close resource-heavy apps like video rendering software, game clients, hardware overlays, and dozens of idle browser tabs.
- Allow the System to Idle: Wait 1 to 2 minutes after closing apps so the GPU core cools down to baseline idle temperatures before launching a test.
- Keep Your Browser Updated: Ensure your browser is running the latest stable release for up-to-date graphics driver workarounds and security patches.
During Testing
- Do Not Switch Tabs or Minimize: Browsers automatically deprioritize or throttle rendering in background tabs. Keep the benchmark in an active, focused foreground window.
- Keep Resolution Consistent: If comparing two devices or two browsers, ensure the browser window size or fullscreen resolution is identical.
- Stop if Device Freezes: Modern graphics cards protect themselves with built-in thermal safeguards. However, if your display flickers repeatedly or your operating system becomes unresponsive, abort the stress test.
After Testing
- Perform Multiple Runs: Complete 2 to 3 consecutive runs and evaluate the median result to account for transient operating system background tasks.
- Observe the 1% Lows: Do not judge performance on peak or average FPS alone. Examine 1% Lows and frame-time jitter to confirm true visual stability.
14. Hardware Privacy & Sandboxing
All GPU testing tools on Real Test Keyboard operate strictly client-side inside your browser's secure JavaScript runtime:
- No Executable Downloads: No native executable files (
.exe,.dmg,.sh) are downloaded or run on your operating system. - Zero Telemetry Uploads: Benchmark scores, frame rate records, and hardware strings remain strictly in your local device memory. Nothing is sent to remote tracking databases.
- Standard Web Standards: Workloads strictly adhere to the W3C WebGL 2.0 and WebGPU specification boundaries, preventing buffer overruns or unsafe memory operations.
15. Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions regarding browser-based GPU diagnostics, benchmarks, and hardware testing:
What is a GPU test?
A GPU test is a specialized software workload designed to evaluate the performance, stability, rendering accuracy, or thermal characteristics of a graphics processing unit (GPU). By executing controlled mathematical calculations, 3D geometry transformations, and fragment shading passes, the test measures how fast and consistently the GPU can deliver rendered frames to the screen.
Why should I test my GPU?
Testing your GPU helps identify performance bottlenecks, diagnose micro-stuttering or frame drops, check for hardware thermal throttling in laptops, compare graphics efficiency across different web browsers, and verify that modern hardware acceleration features like WebGL2 and WebGPU are functioning properly with your graphics drivers.
Can I test my GPU directly in a web browser?
Yes. Modern web browsers feature high-performance hardware-accelerated graphics APIs, including WebGL, WebGL2, and WebGPU. These standards compile shaders directly into native machine code executed by your graphics card's physical cores, enabling genuine hardware stress testing without downloading executable software.
Does a browser GPU test use my actual GPU hardware?
Yes. When hardware acceleration is enabled, the browser delegates all graphics rendering, shader math, vertex transformations, and texture filtering directly to your physical graphics card (whether integrated Intel/AMD graphics, Apple Silicon, or a dedicated NVIDIA/AMD GPU). The browser acts solely as a secure interface to the GPU driver.
What is a GPU stress test?
A GPU stress test is an endurance workload that applies heavy, continuous computational pressure over an extended period (several minutes to hours). Unlike short burst benchmarks that measure peak speed, a stress test evaluates thermal dissipation, power delivery consistency, clock stability, and graphics driver reliability under sustained heat.
What is a shader performance test?
A shader performance test measures how efficiently a GPU's Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs) execute programmable shader programs. Fragment and compute shaders perform mathematical calculations—such as procedural noise, lighting formulas, trigonometric waves, and coordinate transforms—for millions of pixels every frame.
What is a WebGL GPU test?
WebGL is a cross-platform, royalty-free web standard for rendering interactive 3D and 2D graphics without plug-ins. A WebGL test executes OpenGL ES-based rendering pipelines directly on your GPU, evaluating rasterization, buffer mapping, and GLSL shader performance inside the browser sandbox.
What is WebGPU, and how is it different from WebGL?
WebGPU is the next-generation web graphics and compute standard designed to replace WebGL. Modeled after modern low-level desktop APIs like Vulkan, Apple Metal, and Microsoft DirectX 12, WebGPU provides more explicit hardware control, significantly reduced CPU driver overhead, and native support for general-purpose GPU compute shaders (WGSL).
What is the difference between a GPU benchmark and a stress test?
A GPU benchmark runs a fixed, standardized workload to produce a comparative numerical score or average frame rate. A stress test, in contrast, runs a continuous or prolonged heavy workload to evaluate hardware reliability, temperature build-up, and sustained frame pacing over time.
Why can GPU test results vary between different browsers?
Even on the exact same computer and GPU, browsers utilize different JavaScript engines (V8, SpiderMonkey, JavaScriptCore), distinct graphics compositors (DirectX ANGLE on Windows, Metal on macOS), and unique driver translation layers. Differences in browser version, flags, and power-saving policies can significantly impact rendering throughput.
Can browser tests measure GPU temperature, wattage, or fan speed?
No. Web browser security sandboxes strictly prevent web pages from querying hardware sensors such as GPU core temperature (°C), fan RPM, core voltage, or board power draw (Watts). This restriction protects user privacy and prevents device fingerprinting. Browser tests measure external effects, such as frame rate drops caused by thermal throttling.
What does FPS mean in GPU testing?
FPS stands for Frames Per Second. It measures how many complete visual frames your graphics processor renders and displays in one second. A higher FPS generally produces smoother visuals, while frame delivery consistency is measured in frame times (milliseconds per frame).
What is 1% Low FPS, and why does it matter?
1% Low FPS represents the average frame rate of the slowest 1% of all recorded frames during a test. While average FPS reflects overall speed, 1% Low FPS highlights micro-stutters, driver hitches, and thermal throttling drops that ruin visual smoothness even when average FPS appears high.
Why does GPU performance decrease during a long test run?
Performance degradation during a prolonged test is typically caused by thermal throttling. As the GPU core and memory heat up, built-in hardware protection mechanisms automatically reduce clock frequencies and voltages to prevent overheating, leading to measurable drops in frame rate over time.
Which GPU test should I use?
Use 'Stress My GPU' to evaluate thermal endurance and sustained stability; 'Volume Shader Benchmark' for a standardized comparative score; 'Shader Performance Test' for raw mathematical ALU limits; 'Particle System Performance Test' for high-instance draw call limits; 'Rendering to Texture Test' for off-screen FBO memory bandwidth; and 'Video Playback Test' for dedicated media decoder diagnostics.