Question 1

What does this GPU stress test do?

Accepted Answer

This test renders 500 animated circles per animation frame using the Canvas 2D API. Each circle has a random size, color, and velocity, and bounces off the canvas boundaries. The requestAnimationFrame loop runs continuously while the test is active. A live FPS counter measures how many frames per second the browser can complete. Dropping below 30 FPS indicates the GPU or CPU is struggling to keep up with the rendering workload.

Question 2

Can this test damage my GPU?

Accepted Answer

No. A Canvas 2D animation is far below the load that would stress a modern GPU. Real GPU stress tests use 3D rendering APIs like WebGL or Vulkan. This test is more accurately a GPU+CPU rendering test. If your system overheats from this simple 2D canvas workload, there is likely a hardware or cooling issue that warrants investigation regardless of this test. Stop the test immediately if you notice unusual heat or noise.

Question 3

Why can't the browser read GPU temperature?

Accepted Answer

Web browsers run in a sandboxed environment for security and do not have access to hardware sensors like temperature monitors, fan speeds, or power consumption. To monitor GPU temperature, you need a native application such as MSI Afterburner, GPU-Z, HWiNFO, or your operating system's built-in performance monitor. You can run this test alongside those tools to observe temperature changes under canvas rendering load.

Question 4

Why does FPS drop over time?

Accepted Answer

FPS may drop due to CPU thermal throttling (the processor slows itself to prevent overheating), browser garbage collection pauses, OS background processes stealing CPU time, or the browser throttling the tab if it detects excessive resource usage. Sustained FPS drops over 30 seconds may indicate thermal throttling. Opening your system's performance monitor alongside this test can help diagnose the cause.

Question 5

What FPS is expected from this test?

Accepted Answer

On a modern desktop or laptop, you should see 55–60+ FPS, as Canvas 2D rendering of 500 circles is well within the capabilities of current hardware. Mid-range systems should maintain 30–55 FPS. Below 30 FPS on a dedicated GPU system suggests the workload is being processed entirely on the CPU without GPU acceleration (software rasterization), or the browser has disabled GPU compositing. Integrated graphics on older hardware may see lower scores.

GPU Stress Test

Browser-Based GPU Testing

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FPS Test

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