Switching From HW to SW has cause my display driver to stop working

[Blyss Sarania]

Furmark will only kill your GPU if there was already something wrong with it.

A program can't kill hardware unless the hardware is faulty (excluding BIOS flashes gone wrong). If the cooling is insufficient, it might overheat. If the voltage is too high, it might fry. If the overclock is unstable, it might crash. But those things are the fault of the hardware, and a game can do it just as easily.

[Nobbs66]

Yeah, furmark is just another stress test/ benchmark. It's the same as running any other demanding bench like Unigine Heaven or the Fire Strike benchmark in 3D Mark Vantage

[fade2black001]

Either it be true or not I am skeptical on running it. Mt card is old and srill had the original thermal paste on it. I don't have the proper tools to take it a part and replace it. So my card gets hotter than what it did originally. How long should I run furmark for?

[Blyss Sarania]

Well, watch the temps, and if they get too hot, kill it. Other than that, ~15 minutes should give you a good idea. I always run it overnight for stability testing myself, but usually if it's gonna fail, it will happen in the first 15 minutes.

[fade2black001]

After 20mins on 1080P no AA on noromal burn in test. The max temp was 88

[Blyss Sarania]

That's pushing it heat wise. But if you didn't crash, I guess it's stable at least.

[fade2black001]

MAx temp for my card is 95. So Almost pushing it. I used to be able to run Furmark on 1080P with 4x AA for hours and hours without going above 68. The paste is definitely shot in it.

[fade2black001]

I now got my card running at 74c max temp now. I managed to drop it 14 degress

[rama]

Stop using furmark please. It is one exception to the rule that "software can't break hardware".
What happens is that the particular load created by it far exceeds the hardware reference design specs.
It manages to draw more current than the card's power supply can deliver or the cooling solution can dissipate the heat of.

GPU manufacturers are aware of it and even try to detect and performance gate the application.

[Blyss Sarania]

Stop using furmark please. It is one exception to the rule that "software can't break hardware".
What happens is that the particular load created by it far exceeds the hardware reference design specs.
It manages to draw more current than the card's power supply can deliver or the cooling solution can dissipate the heat of.

I'll need a source before I believe that it can kill a perfectly healthy, not overvolted, not modified card.

If I get that source then I'll admit I was wrong.