Tool for burning in 3d graphics ctrlr?

I'm looking for a tool to burnin a 3d graphics controller on a refurb
laptop that has the notorious nvidia chip. I suppose something like a
prime95 I could use to cook that thing for a week straight while the
90 day warranty is still around. What do you good folks think?

A looping 3dmark graphics sort of thing?

On 30 Oct 2008 13:38:55 GMT, Howard <bit-> wrote:
: I'm looking for a tool to burnin a 3d graphics controller on a refurb
: laptop that has the notorious nvidia chip. I suppose something like a
: prime95 I could use to cook that thing for a week straight while the
: 90 day warranty is still around. What do you good folks think?
:
: A looping 3dmark graphics sort of thing?

....and it turns out that's provided in 3dmark06 if I'd looked before
posting

On Thu, 30 Oct 2008 23:00:57 -0400, Phil Weldon <> wrote:
: 'Howard' wrote:
: > I'm looking for a tool to burnin a 3d graphics controller on a refurb
: > laptop that has the notorious nvidia chip. I suppose something like a
: > prime95 I could use to cook that thing for a week straight while the
: > 90 day warranty is still around. What do you good folks think?
: >
: > A looping 3dmark graphics sort of thing?
: _____
:
: Wouldn't you rather heat up the GPU rather than the CPU? Prime95 will not
: even kick the nVida GPU out of 2D mode (for my nVidia 8600 GS 256 MByte in a
: Dell 1520 with T7400 [2.16 GHz dual core with 4 MB L2, 1680 X 1050 15.4"
: screen] has three modes, depending on demands of applications 2D, low 3D,
: high 3D; the GPU and graphics memory clock vary over about a 3:1 range, and
: for all I know, the GPU core voltage may also change. So, however you
: stress the GPU, you need to KNOW it is in the high 3D mode. ATITool does a
: good job of that. As for the stressor, forget the nVidia graphics tweaking
: module, that is completely useless.
:
: For what it is worth, I've had my Dell 1520 for 14 months now, never been
: particularly careful about ventilation or cooling, and never had a problem.
: 'Course I don't really use it for gaming (with ~ 3600 3DMark2006 the
: possibilities are somewhat limited to things like Civilization IV).
:
: I suggest downloading the nVidia demo "Cascades" and running that. You can
: also use ATITool to overclock the GPU and graphics memory.
:

Thanks. If the laptop hadn't been appropriated by Mrs Howard I'd have
tried this all out sooner. Atitool claims it's idling at 68C and
Cascades in "autopilot" yields about 1fps at the max settings and
stabilizes around 72C. That doesn't sound like much of a stressor,
does it? Time to overclock I guess.

: The complete disclosure demands that I reveal I have a warranty on my 1520
: good until August 2011.
:
: What I have found most useful for cooling my laptop is the iXpad from
: Thermaltake. The iXpad is a quilted pad filled with Sodium Sulfate
: Decahydrate (Na2SO4.10H2O). This chemical is a solid until it reaches about
: 33 C. It then remains at 33 C until ALL of the chemical changes to a liquid
: (same principle as a water and ice remaining at 0 C until the ice is all
: melted. The pad is flexible and uses no power. There is enough of the
: chemical to keep the pad at ~ 33 for hours.

I saw that in the cyberguys catalog. I'll have to try it out, it does
sound very cool.

:
: Phil Weldon
:
: "Howard" <bit-> wrote in message
: news:...
: > I'm looking for a tool to burnin a 3d graphics controller on a refurb
: > laptop that has the notorious nvidia chip. I suppose something like a
: > prime95 I could use to cook that thing for a week straight while the
: > 90 day warranty is still around. What do you good folks think?
: >
: > A looping 3dmark graphics sort of thing?
:

"~misfit~" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Somewhere on teh intarwebs "Phil Weldon" typed:
>> 'howard' wrote, in part:
>>> Thanks. If the laptop hadn't been appropriated by Mrs Howard I'd
>>> have tried this all out sooner. Atitool claims it's idling at 68C
>>> and Cascades in "autopilot" yields about 1fps at the max settings and
>>> stabilizes around 72C. That doesn't sound like much of a stressor,
>>> does it? Time to overclock I guess.
>>
>> The nVidia demo, 'Cascades' is an extreme stressor. That's why you're
>> getting only about 1 FPS. That's about what my notebook gets, and
>> the 72 C GPU temperature is about the same also. I think a good
>> frame rate for 'Cascades' requires something like dual 8800 GTX cards
>> B^)
>
> Hi Phil,
>
> I just went to download 'Cascades' but see that oneof the requirements is
> Vista / DX10. So I can't use it on XP Pro then? Just thought I'd ask
> before wasting a bunch of bandwidth.
>
> Cheers,
> --
> Shaun.
>
> DISCLAIMER: If you find a posting or message from me
> offensive, inappropriate, or disruptive, please ignore it.
> If you don't know how to ignore a posting, complain to
> me and I will be only too happy to demonstrate... ;-)

Yep.......Cascades is Vista DX10 only.


Ed
>

On Fri, 7 Nov 2008 18:58:44 -0500, Phil Weldon <> wrote:
: 'howard' wrote, in part:
: > Thanks. If the laptop hadn't been appropriated by Mrs Howard I'd have
: > tried this all out sooner. Atitool claims it's idling at 68C and
: > Cascades in "autopilot" yields about 1fps at the max settings and
: > stabilizes around 72C. That doesn't sound like much of a stressor,
: > does it? Time to overclock I guess.
:
: The nVidia demo, 'Cascades' is an extreme stressor. That's why you're
: getting only about 1 FPS. That's about what my notebook gets, and the 72 C
: GPU temperature is about the same also. I think a good frame rate for
: 'Cascades' requires something like dual 8800 GTX cards B^)
:
: You really don't want a hot spot in a notebook, and the good notebooks are
: designed to provide adequate cooling to the most power hungry components.
: It's also why I haven't been particularly worried about the 'nVidia
: problem.' A good notebook design and execution will not get too hot in a
: normal environment, a bad notebook design and execution has a high risk of
: failure.

I suppose then it's terrific the controller is setting up at 72. The
only thing I wanted to do was stress the video controller while there
were still days left in what has now become Mrs bit-bucket's brand
spanking new laptop in an attempt to get over the infant mortality
high failure phase on the failure curve. , and cascades seems to meet
my needs w/o any fiddling around with tweaking clocks so I'll let this
run on.



:
: Now, if all you want is to increase the internal temperature, then open the
: notebook and wrap a blanket around the half with the keyboard.
:
: But if all you want is a reasonable burn-in, then I don't think you need to
: overclock. In fact, a good design should reduce the GPU, CPU, and FSB
: speeds and perhaps the voltages when temperatures reach unsafe levels.
: That's part of what 'Centrino Inside' means.
:
: Running a notebook at extreme temperatures risks completion of the burn-in
: successfully, but with problems down the road caused by, say, loss of
: thermal compound, cracks started by thermal expansion.... That is the
: opposite of what you're seeking.

That's true. I don't want to push so far along where the electrolyte
departs from caps, cracks form things get brittle and the thermal
compound loses effectiveness.


This is more of a family issue but does anyone know if it's possible
to configure vista to run cascades as if it were a screen saver? It's
not possible to get Mrs bit-bucket to double click the cascades icon
when she's done. Howard