FurMark

What is FurMark?

FurMark is a very intensive OpenGL benchmark that uses fur rendering algorithms to measure the performance of the graphics card. Fur rendering is especially adapted to overheat the GPU and that’s why FurMark is also a perfect stability and stress test tool (also called GPU burner) for the graphics card.

All benchmarks were run for 60000ms (60 seconds) and the average and minimum frame rate recorded with the following settings:

1. 1280×1024, 0xAA
2. 1280×1024, 8xAA
3. 1920×1080, 8xAA

Not quite sure what happened on the lower settings. However, the GTX 590 picked things up again towards the end; even if the frame rates still arn’t anything to shout home about. The latest edition of furmark is still a challenge for even the most powerful GPUs it seems.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is the prequel of the hit title S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl; unfortunately it took an obscene period of time and patches for the game to reach a decent standard of stability.

Clear Sky uses the X-Ray engine, the same as the other S.T.A.L.K.E.R. title but has been updated so as to cope with DirectX 10 effects such as volumetric light and wet surfaces.

For benchmarking this particular game we downloaded the official S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky benchmarking tool. It records the FPS for ‘day’, ‘night’, ‘rain’ and ‘sunshafts’. We decided to take the average frames per second of all four at the following settings:

1. 1280×1024, default quality, full dynamic lighting
2. 1280×1024, extreme quality, full dynamic lighting
3. 1280×1024, extreme quality, enhanced DX10 lighting, 4xAA
4. 1920×1080, extreme quality, enhanced DX10 lighting, 4xAA

Displaying more than 30FPs throughout all benchmarking tests (and nearly above 60) makes the GTX 590 the first GPU I’ve tested that can handle this benchmark with no problems.