What test should I do to ensure...

Hello everyone,

I have an old PCI-E AMD R9 280X 3GB/384bits Sapphire Toxic which I would like to sell, but before doing so I would like to ensure it is working and that I can expect to sell it without having worries about the buyer at later time.

What tests should I do on the card to ensure that? And preferable what information do you think that would be a turning point to add along with my announce of this card?

In short I would like to ensure its in a sell-able state and to be able to provide the buyer with that assurance and information.

Thanks in advance and hope my post is fine.

to the forums.

My recommendation would be to run some combination of Unigene Heaven, Unigene Valley, and the latest 3DMark benchmark and make sure it 1) doesn't crash and 2) doesn't have crazy artifacts, etc.

Beyond that when you go to sell, my recommendation is to mention the following:

If it had been used for cryptocoin mining or folding (such as folding@home, seti, etc)

If it had been overclocked

If it came from a smoke-free/pet-free home

If it is still under warranty (although I believe Sapphire is a single-owner warranty so if it is still under warranty if you'd be willing to assist with a RMA if needed)

Make sure to take multiple pictures of the card, and wherever you plan to sell it (forums, etc) I'd recommend with the picture having a piece of paper with your username for that forum/etc with the date on it (commonly referred to as a 'timestamp') - many forums require this anyway

Hi Janus,

Thanks for the welcome.

Unigine looks interesting any specific reason as to why valley and heaven? That just picked my curiosity.

Is there a free version of 3DMark or have I gone to the wrong place? It seems to cost except for the 3DMark Basic Edition version would it suffice?

And thanks for the many advice, I will be posting it on a local online market, so I will be sure to post a lot of good pictures of it, given it still works as expected hehe, been jailed(not me, the card lol) for awhile without seeing the sun light in a very, very, very, dark corner of my closet...

How much do you think it could go for assuming its in good shape?

Trying to get ride of these excessive parts I have all over and perhaps get some upgrade for myself

The Unigene benchmarks are both considered to be pretty tough on cards without being damaging (like something like Furmark, etc). They are generally a good recommendation for putting a card through its paces.

The basic edition of 3DMark would be perfectly fine, no need to pay for any of the advanced licenses.


Unsure of what to expect for the card, maybe somwhere around $100-125 (assuming you are in the US). A quick/dirty estimate for the card can be seen by going to ebay and finding the card under sold listings and kind of averaging the price of the working ones (as I'm sure some will have been sold for parts, as-is, etc).

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...lete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc&_trksid=p2045573.m1684

Hi Janus,

Thanks for explaining the suggestions and recommending a price.

So I guess going 70~90$ it might sell easily hopefully.

And no, I'm not US based even tough I do buy from ebay and other sites alike, its not a common thing around here because of USD rates.

But yes I often check sites like these to come up with a base price but since its a used card and all, I'm always unsure of what to sell it for...

In addition I think I still have all the original packaging of it, with manuals and accessories, which might be a plus as well I hope, and I think it is in good condition need to pick it up to check.

So, I'm back ...

I've run the tests but not very sure if they are OK, or how to compare it against other models, if you could point me on the right way I would greatly appreciate.

Here are the images:

3DMark First Strike





3DMark Sky





Unigine Heaven Custom(it was the default option available)


Unigine Heaven Extreme


Unigine Valley Custom(it was the default option available)


Unigine Valley Extreme


Let me know if u feel I need to do any other tests...

Thanks in advance...

Looks like the card is working fine. Generally the main purpose was to make sure the card didn't show any artifacts or crash to desktop or anything. If it completed the benchmarks (and it looks like it did). I'd say you are good. The similar systems part looks about right for your card too.

Yes, it completed it without crashes and I was watching during the process some really cool scenarios and 3D stuff. Extreme mode looked really nice and I had to try it on my main PC which have a newer card it looked amazing as well...

Thanks a lot for letting me know its all good, I thought those scores and results would also indicate something like a ranking of that card against others of its own or something hehe.

Time to move to phase 2 once again thanks.

The scores do, to some extent. There are sites and forums that sort of combine people's submissions for cards that get submitted. For example hwbot (but using a modified version of the unigene heaven benchmark to give a fixed score). The problem is comparing against people with different CPUs, GPUs, and various clockspeeds and cooling can make it a bit more difficult to get an apples to apples comparison

I see, that makes the perfect sense. Thanks.

I feel 3dmark11 to be VERY TOUGH.

Run it in loop 10 times or so.

BTW, if the card is working, well... it's working!