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How to use Furmark to test a GPU
Furmark is a free utility designed to stress test or "burn in" a GPU, and it will make your GPU run so hot you’ll legit feel like a bad person for putting your baby, er GPU, through such a stressful experience. Even if you have a massive graphics card with a cooler the size of a small mammal, Furmark will make it run hotter than you ever thought possible.
Furmark’s ability to run a GPU at its absolute peak temperature makes it a great for testing the stability of a GPU overclock, and a great way to test a GPU cooler as well. In general, if you have any doubts or questions about the stability of your GPU, running this app for 10 to 20 minutes will let you know if there's any issues. However, despite its positive attributes, some argue there are better tools for stressing a GPU these days, and that Furmark runs too hot, so it’s not a “realistic” way to measure a GPU’s performance, so your mileage may vary. Either way, here's how to use Furmark.
The Furmark app is small, streamlined, and easy to navigate.
How to Get Started
The Furmark utility itself is how software used to be: free, lightweight, and easy to use. It’s only 30MB in size and it can be run using either OpenGL or Vulkan APIs. You can also choose to run it as a stress test or as a benchmark that spits out a score, and the resolutions on offer range from 400x300 to 8K.
Therefore, to get started you just need to do three things using the drop-down menus:
- Select OpenGL or Vulkan API
- Select a resolution (1080p is fine)
- Click the button mared "Run" for the stress test, or "Benchmark" at whatever resolution is available (1080/1440/2160).
The test itself renders two things at once, and you can toggle each of them on and off as you like; a “furry object” and an animated checkerboard background. The “furry object” is what gives the application its name and rendering it will put a beatdown on your GPU and cause temps to immediately spike, but this is why you run this test in the first place.
Once you start the stress test it will run until you tell it to stop, and although it can be run at a variety of resolutions, even at 1080p your GPU will get hot enough to cook a meal. Thankfully the app displays GPU temp and hotspot temp so you don’t need to open a second utility to monitor temperatures.
Note the temp on the left, and on the upper-right you can toggle visual elements on/off.
If you’re used to seeing your GPU run at 60C or so in games, it’ll likely hit 80C and beyond with this utility almost immediately. The makers of the software warn people to stop using the app if temperatures go beyond 80C and keep rising, but note modern GPUs will thermally throttle around 95C, which should prevent any permanent damage. Despite these built-in safeguards, pay close attention to the GPU hotspot temp when the app first launches. Also note that you should only run this app for 20 minutes or so, as it’s not necessary to let it loop for hours.
If you don't like a furry donut, you can change to a "knot" instead, and temperatures will be similar.
What is the Point?
At this point you might be asking, “What’s the point of using this app if all it does is put your GPU in a hurt locker?!” It is good for testing GPU and system stability that is GPU-centric, so it can tell you if your system is stable with the graphics card pegged at 100%. That said, if your GPU has not been modified from its stock settings, it should be fine and there is no need to test it for stability.
Furmark is what's known as a "synthetic benchmark", which means the torture it puts your GPU through is completely unlike anything it will encounter during normal use. It's designed to totally max out the card, which gaming or any productivity task will never do.
But, if you have overclocked your GPU or added more cooling to allow it to overclock beyond stock, this is a great app to test overclock stability. If you nudge your clocks up a few hundred MHz and it crashes in Furmark, you were too ambitious, so back it off and try running the test again.
Temps on this RTX 4080 FE got up to 84C, which is about 20C hotter than it usually gets in games.
In addition to letting you know if your overclock is stable, Furmark will also let you know how your CPU cooler does with maximum heat pouring off the GPU and rising up to the CPU area. In this respect, Furmark is also a good way to test the effectiveness of your chassis' overall airflow. However, if the app is crashing you would be wise to look at your case’s airflow, number of case fans, your drivers, and other factors to make sure your PC has adequate cooling.
All that said, if your system crashes running Furmark, you should try an alternate app just to get a “second opinion” since Furmark is so brutal on GPUs. Those alternative apps for stress-testing a GPU include these freeware utilities: