PCI-e & AGP Graphics card tester

[dicky96]

I came across this one while nosing around on AliExpress. I didn't know such a thing existed.

I'm a sucker for buying gadgets like this when I see them - I just find them very hard to resist.

Has anyone seen or tried one of these? It claims it can quickly detect open circuit or short circuit BGA signal connections from the GPU edge connector. I think. I guess it is similar to the DDR socket and CPU socket testers I have seen.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/7029...7-d01ee044a6a8

[llonen]

Re: PCI-e & AGP Graphics card tester

Unless you have a reference board to compare your graphics cards to, without something to drive the PCI lanes unless I am missing something here I don't see how this is supposed to work. It might be good for testing fixed rails such as power(s) and ground(s) but to test anything that is either state or dynamically changing then I don't see it.

[stj]

Re: PCI-e & AGP Graphics card tester

pci-e is complimentary serial - it probably has termination resistors in the chip.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: PCI-e & AGP Graphics card tester

Unless you have a reference board to compare your graphics cards to, without something to drive the PCI lanes unless I am missing something here I don't see how this is supposed to work. It might be good for testing fixed rails such as power(s) and ground(s) but to test anything that is either state or dynamically changing then I don't see it.

i agree with this too. i dont see how this tester can test the memory bus connections from the gpu chip. when a gpu fails, one or more solder connections either in the bga or the substrate-die interface can also fail, this causes artifacts to be displayed due to missing memory bus connections. i dont think those testers can test that. u still have to put it into a mobo with a display to test. the tester can only say at most whether it can power up without blowing up due to shorts or open connections.

[brethin]

Re: PCI-e & AGP Graphics card tester

All these testers do is check for open traces basically useless.