How to do Environmental Test for Graphics Card

What is Graphics Card?

A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or colloquially GPU) is a computer expansion card that generates a feed of graphics output to a display device such as a monitor. Graphics cards are sometimes called discrete or dedicated graphics cards to emphasize their distinction to integrated graphics processor on the motherboard or the CPU. A graphics processing unit (GPU) that performs the necessary computations is the main component in a graphics card, but the acronym "GPU" is sometimes also used to refer to the graphics card as a whole.

Most graphics cards are not limited to simple display output. The graphics processing unit can be used for additional processing, which reduces the load from the central processing unit. Additionally, computing platforms such as OpenCL and CUDA allow using graphics cards for general-purpose computing.

Applications of general-purpose computing on graphics cards include AI training, cryptocurrency mining, and molecular simulation. Usually, a graphics card comes in the form of a printed circuit board (expansion board) which are to be inserted into an expansion slot. Others may have dedicated enclosures, and they are connected to the computer via a docking station or a cable. These are known as external GPUs (eGPUs).

Quality Inspection of Graphics Cards

A good graphics card needs to go through many processes from the chip output to the final part of your whole machine. Before you can buy a graphics card, the graphics card must go through three stages, go through layers of inspections, and finally be sold to end users. Below, LIB will introduce the R&D, production, and quality inspection of a graphics card, so that everyone can clearly understand how the manufacturer guarantees the factory quality of the graphics card.

After debugging by hardware engineers, the specifications and materials of the product have been determined. Before mass production, they will carry out TR (test machine) and MP (small batch production) processes, adopt the complete debugging scheme of the R&D part, and produce 100~200 pieces for QE product verification engineering (high temperature test, four-corner test, continuous reliability test, MTBF life acceleration test), find out the defects on the graphics card and modify the material correction.

MTBF Life Acceleration Test

Simulate the aging phenomenon of the graphics card in the actual use environment. The use of the graphics card after 5 years in a short test environment is simulated by a specific calculation formula. Including: moist heat aging, hot air aging, etc.

55 °C / 90%RH temperature and humidity test

The high-load test of graphics cards in high-temperature environments, especially the ultra-overclocked extreme version of graphics cards, through high-temperature testing, products with better overclocking physique can be selected.

Internal Dimension	320*350*450(mm)	400*400*500(mm)
Overall Dimension	800*1050*950(mm)	900*1100*1000(mm)
Interior Volume	50L	80L
Temperature Range	Model A:-20℃ ~150℃ Model B:-40℃ ~150℃ Model C:-70℃ ~150℃
Humidity Range	20% ~ 98% RH
Cooling Rate	1 ℃ / min
Heating Rate	3 ℃ / min

Benchtop Temperature Humidity Environmental Test Chamber is mainly used in the fields of aviation, aerospace, information, electronics and other fields to determine the environmental adaptability and reliability of instruments, electrical products, materials, components.

Environment Test Chamber can carry out high temperature, and low temperature and is suitable for the above mentioned test.

High and low temperature shock test

Quickly switch between -55°C~125°C to test the welding physical characteristics of the graphics card and the high and low temperature adaptation of the components.

Hot and cold shock test, also known as temperature shock test or high and low temperature impact test, is used to assess the adaptability of products to rapid changes in the surrounding environment temperature, is an indispensable test in the identification test of equipment design and routine test in the mass production stage, and in some cases can also be used for environmental stress screening test. It can be said that the frequency of application of hot and cold shock test chambers in verifying and improving the environmental adaptability of equipment is second only to vibration and high and low temperature tests.

During the use of the computer, we will turn on the air conditioner in the summer and the heating machine in the winter. Therefore, the performance requirements for the graphics card are relatively high. The graphics card must be able to adapt to this change in environment.

Name	LIB Temperature Shock Test Machine
Model	TS-500
Inner dimensions of test room	650*650*500 m m
Load of test room	50 kg
Upper limit preheat temperature	+220 ℃
Heating time	Ambient temperature to ~ + 200 ℃
Lower limit pre-cool temperature	-75 ℃
Cooling time	Ambient temperature to ~ -70℃

Four Corners Limit Test

The graphics card is tested in four extreme states:

①　high temperature and high pressure,

②　high temperature and low pressure,

③　low temperature and high pressure,

④　low temperature and low pressure.

Find out which use case the graphics card is defective in order to improve the ability of the graphics card to adapt to deviating from the normal use environment.

Low Temperature Test

Use the instrument to set the operating environment of the graphics card to -5 ℃~5 ℃ to verify whether the graphics card runs normally at low temperatures for a long time (especially for graphics card power supply modules, some transistors or capacitors will have abnormal function for the first time at low temperatures, and need to be reopened two or three times to be normal, followed by video memory).

Continuous high-temperature test

For the supreme version of the graphics card, because the preset is greatly overclocked, in order to ensure that these high-frequency products for DIY enthusiasts are at a high level of quality, each piece must be tested in a high-temperature chamber (45 °C) to ensure the stability of the graphics card at high frequency.

Although the above QE verification also includes the test of the fan, the data obtained from the repair part is that the graphics card failure is mainly concentrated on the display screen, unstable operation and other performances, and a small number of complaints focus on the problem of too much fan noise. 70% of the causes of these failures are directly or indirectly related to the heat dissipation system, because the heat dissipation is not smooth, resulting in the chip overheating and unstable or damaged.

Although it has a perfect test process, it is impossible to test every graphics card in practice, especially the low-end products shipped in large quantities. The standardized production process can ensure that the quality of the graphics card body is at a high level of the same level, but the cooling fan needs to use the products of various suppliers, and the probability of individual differences is relatively higher, so the quality of the cooling system is the main cause of failure of the graphics card. There are two main causes of fan failure, the first is because of poor use environment, dust accumulation causes the fan to stop, and a large amount of heat accumulates to damage the graphics card; The second is that dust enters the fan bearing, which reduces the speed of the graphics card, the startup noise is huge, and the lower speed is not enough to meet the heat dissipation needs of the graphics card, and the graphics card is damaged after years of use. Therefore, the dust level test is also necessary。

IP Ingress Test

An Ingress Protection (IP) rating refers to the degree of protection an electronic or electrical enclosure provides against external dust, fluid, insects, or other objects that may pass through into the product. IP testing helps ensure and validate a product’s enclosure will withstand moisture and dust and perform as expected in environments where extreme weather conditions are prevalent.

The test methods and main test conditions of the waterproof test (IPX5) are defined as follows:

Test method – The inner diameter of the nozzle is 6.3mm, and it is placed 2.5-3m away from the test sample.

Flow rate – 12.5 l/min ±5%

Test duration – 1 min/m2 but at least 3 min.

Test Conditions – Spray the test sample from every feasible angle.

Standards - IEC60529

IP65 Waterproof Test Chamber

IP65 Waterproof Test Chamber, IP 65 protection test is a common shell sealing test, mainly including sand dust sealing test and waterproof sealing test. LIB IP test equipment can meet the testing requirements of ip 6x and ip x5.

standard	IEC 60529
Workroom dimension (mm)	Customization
Turntable Rotation Speed	0~7r/min (Adjustable)
Internal Diameter of IP X5 Nozzle	6.3 mm
Internal Diameter of IP X6 Nozzle	12. 5 mm
Water Flow Rate IP X5/ IP X6	12. 5 L/ min ±5% / 100 L/ min ±5%
Build-in Water Tank(mm)	Customization
Water Supply	Water tank, booster pump, Automatic water supply, Water purification system

Summary

During the above test, strengthening quality control at the production end and doing a good job of adequate inspection and testing can greatly reduce the probability of product failure, avoid inconvenience caused by users returning to repair products. After the above tests, you can find out the shortcomings of the debugged graphics card, and then change the material and other measures to correct it, eliminate the hidden dangers of the graphics card, and then you can start mass production.

If you need the test mentioned in the article, contact LIB industry for quality environmental test chambers immediately.