Testing GPU before selling, what's the proper stress tests these days? 2025

[Upgrayedd]

I intend to sell some video cards and was curious about the proper tests that should be ran for potential buyers.

I thought Firestrike was the old go to but I'm not sure about modern tests, TimeSpy? Maybe an entirely different program? Something from MSI?

Thanks

 

[R-T-B]

I generally just run it through the stress test loop of either timespy or steel nomad. I like Steel nomad because its faster runtime wise, but either test will do for a DX12 card.

If its ray tracing I also generally throw Port Royal at it with one run of the demo and just visually watch for anomalies (you'd be shocked how many turing cards throw up here).

These tests won't catch some issues but they catch major common ones like 99% of the time. If it doesn't pass its certainly not fit for sale, anyways.

 

[Apocalypsee]

Any of UNIGINE benchmark works too

UNIGINE Benchmarks

Performance benchmarks by Unigine

benchmark.unigine.com

 

[Upgrayedd]

I generally just run it through the stress test loop of either timespy or steel nomad. I like Steel nomad because its faster runtime wise, but either test will do for a DX12 card.

If its ray tracing I also generally throw Port Royal at it with one run of the demo and just visually watch for anomalies (you'd be shocked how many turing cards throw up here).

These tests won't catch some issues but they catch major common ones like 99% of the time. If it doesn't pass its certainly not fit for sale, anyways.

Do I need to reinstall drivers for every card?

They're all Nvidia 30 series but they are different classes and some from different vendors. Like 3070ti, 3080 etc, Evga, Asus, MSI etc.

Thanks for your help everyone.

 

[ir_cow]

Do I need to reinstall drivers for every card?

No. Not if they are supported by the same drivers already.

For stability test, I just do Steel nomad on loop for a few hours.

 

[Frick]

It all depends on how much you want for them. As much as possible? Yeah you gotta test them, maybe even leave some kind of guarantee of function if they are modern cards. Do you just want to be rid of them? Then just write you sell them as is, no returns or refunds and set a lower price.

 

[R-T-B]

It all depends on how much you want for them. As much as possible? Yeah you gotta test them, maybe even leave some kind of guarantee of function if they are modern cards. Do you just want to be rid of them? Then just write you sell them as is, no returns or refunds and set a lower price.

The "as-is" approach is of course valid too, especially for older stuff.

 

[gwync]

I recently sold a solid chunk of my GPU collection on eBay and my method for testing was showing a picture of the card on a test bench in front of a system with GPU-z on the screen, and then i included a 30 second video of it playing some kind of game at cranked settings to show it under real load, with afterburner onscreen.
If you just want to test and make sure the card works normally, play something demanding on the card for a decent bit of time like an hour or so. Ive run across GPU's where theyd handle a round of csgo and then 30 minutes in something would cause artifacting.

And if its on ebay and you further want to protect yourself as a seller, keep a full recording of testing the GPU on the bench in front of the screen, remove it and detail any defects physically, then package it up and seal the box fully on camera. You dont need to share that with anyone other than ebay in case theres a "item not as described" complaint. Describe it exactly "as-is", never mention servicing or refurbishing, dont even mention if youve cleaned or repasted it. Because people will try and turn things around on you when you describe something as "as-is" and they say "it was tampered with"...

If youre selling to forum people here or wherever, ask them what they want to see the card do and document how it handles that. "Play halo infinite multiplayer" and document the framerate, any issues, thermals and noise. I expect out of tech-literate people in communities like this that if the card is described as working fine, its working fine. Tell me if i have to service it and let me know how it handles XYZ game.