A comparative study is made on root bending fatigue performance of spur gears and plane bending fatigue performance of notched test bars. R = 0 root bending fatigue tests are made on small spur gears with critical root radius 1.0 mm. The results are compared to plane bending fatigue tests of 0.9 mm radius notched specimens. Results are presented for tests on 4%Ni/2%Cu/1.5%Mo prealloyed PM steel with addition of about 0.6% graphite. Predicted values from the test bars coincide well with the results obtained from the gear root fatigue tests.