fillratetest (free video benchmark utility)

fillratetest is a free, lightweight utility for video card benchmarking on Windows. It performs three tests designed to measure video memory bandwidth, followed by two tests designed to measure GPU fill rate. You can save your results and/or submit them to the online results database.

Results from fillratetest can be compared directly with a video card's box specs to see if the manufacturer's bandwidth and fill rate claims are substantiated.

Download

fillratetest does not require installation - just run it straight from the ZIP file you downloaded. It won't clog up your registry or your user profile with unwanted files - in fact, it doesn't write anything to your hard drive. To uninstall, just delete the downloaded file.

Like any benchmark, fillratetest will give the most accurate results on a "clean" desktop with no other applications running.

System requirements

fillratetest requires Windows* and DirectX 9.0 or later. Administrator privileges are not required. An internet connection is required to submit your results to the online results database.

* fillratetest works on Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7 and Server 2008. Windows 98, Me, Server 2003 and Server 2008 R2 are untested, but may work. Apparently it will also run on WINE, but the results are bogus. If you get "device lost" errors on Windows 7 with an ATI card, try turning off Aero before you run fillratetest.

Results

Visit the Online Results Database to compare your results with other users'. Or look at the old charts.

Interpreting the results

Video memory bandwidth

This benchmark measures how much texture data the video card can read from video memory per second. Discrete video cards with dedicated onboard memory will usually score much higher than integrated cards, which share slower system memory.

Fill rate

There are various different definitions of fill rate, but put simply, it's the number of pixels that the video card can write to per second. Running games at higher resolutions and with full-scene anti-aliasing enabled demands a higher fill rate to maintain a high frame rate, since the card is rendering more pixels per frame.

Calculating memory bus width

Some video cards have had "crippled" versions released under the same name, e.g. utilising a 64-bit memory bus instead of 128-bit. With memory bandwidth scores from fillratetest and your video RAM's clock frequency, you can figure out the card's bus width.

For example, for a Radeon 9600XT-based card:

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