GPU Questions from a noob

[gabbdogg]

Hi people of LTT

So I have built a PC, but I want to benchmark/ stress test my GPU (Palit Jetstream 960), and I will overclock it btw.

 

I have a few questions 

 

1. How to like, find out the FPS and stuff

- I have Fraps, but I want to know what FPS will the game get, like how Linus comes up with the FPS on this certain card and game

 

2. Any good benchmarking apps/ stress testing apps

-Any suggestions? It should be free tho, because I'm broke. I have both Unigine Benchmarks (Valley/Heaven), but I want to know what other benchmarking or stress testing apps that are free

 

3. How far am I supposed to turn up the sliders in MSI Afterburner

-I had a close call with the GPU because I put the sliders to like 1000 (both), and weird stuff happened

How much am I supposed to turn it up for a mild overclock

 

4. What are the "safe temps" for an overclocked GPU

-yeah what are the "safe temps"

 

Im sorry if i took too much of your time

but Big thanks in advance for answering my questions

 

Have le good day!

[DimasRMDO]

1. There should be an option to show your FPS in Fraps' option.

2. Unigine Heaven, MSI Kombustor, 3DMark (Firestrike or Sky Dive). There are many more but these are my favourite.

3. Slowly (try 10MHz or more but not crazy), then stress test it, if artifacts or crashes occurs increase the voltage or downclock to previous stable clock.

4. Just make sure it doesn't reach 90C+.

[Sauron]

1) Fraps allows you to save benchmark data if you wish.

 

2) unigine valley

 

3) as far as it goes before it either overheats or starts showing artifacts in valley. Also make sure you don't overvolt it, in fact don't touch voltage unless you know what you're doing.

 

4) depends on the gpu, for a 960 anything below 75 is fine

[nhatduy1611]

1 Fraps will show the fps on the corner of your screen if you have it running while playing.

2 3dmark and furmark are also great benchmark softwares.

3 Watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNsMBzaysMQ.  You have to be patient adjust the slider slowly until you start to see artifact in game or crash

4 Safe temp is under 85c for nvidia card. If it pass 85c it will start throttling

[typographie]

snip

 

1: FPS is going to vary depending on your specific hardware combination, but if you want to find benchmarks of games, here's some great tech sites that sometimes do it:

http://www.anandtech.com/

http://www.techspot.com/

http://www.tomshardware.com/

 

2: I like Unigine Valley and Heaven lately, but they don't seem to push my video card past about 60 °C even at 100% load. MSI Kombustor does, though. I believe it's based on Furmark, another free stability test.

 

3: Overclock only a few tens of MHz at a time, test for stability, then either push it further or increase the voltage. Dragging all of the sliders to the right is probably just going to make the card unstable.

 

4: The 80's are safe for the hardware. I prefer to aim a bit lower, personally.

[XplosiveNoctua99]

1. when you open fraps there will be 4 options at the top. 

click(fps)

2. I don't know

3. I don't know

4. the GTX 960 for me in the most demanding of games maxed out dosen't reach 70 degrees around 60 ish