FurMark, a popular tool for PC enthusiasts, is officially described as a lightweight but intensive stress test for GPUs. To earn its ‘Mark’ it also provides benchmark scores for comparing performance between GPUs. Unbeknownst to many, the FurMark app is now very close to its first major upgrade since 2007, and not just a point upgrade, but a move from version 1.X to version 2.X.

We often use FurMark in our GPU reviews purely for its stress testing. Thus, you will usually find references to the fur rendering engine app in the Power, Temps & Noise section of our reviews.

You may be wondering what’s new in FurMark 2.X to warrant the version number upgrade. At the time of writing, we don’t have any official release notes to compare versions; the beta only seems to offer change logs from prior beta releases. Our own investigations dug up a few notable differences, though.

If you look at the screenshot of the UI above, you can see the new app looks very different from its predecessor. A new part of the revamped UI, with its text glitching theme, is the live GPU temperature/usage chart. Another major change we have spotted is with the graphics test toggle, which lets you switch between FurMark(GL) and FurMark(VK), which use the OpenGL and Vulkan APIs, respectively. The latest Furmark 1.36.0 only offers OpenGL rendering, stress testing, and benchmarking.

FurMark v2 incoming

Access to complementary tools like GPU Shark, GPU-Z, and CPU Burner remains just a button click away in the new version of the software. Other similarities exist in the resolutions presented and the quick linking to online result comparisons. We noted that there were already quite a lot of tests logged on the FurMark 2 results database, which don’t mix with results from the previous version of the app.

You can grab the latest FurMark v 2.X beta from Geeks3D’s Discord server now. Those with an aversion or nervousness concerning beta software shouldn’t have to wait too long for a general release of FurMark 2.X, as the beta released last month is likely the final test.