Is it possible to get the serial number of a GPU without opening the case?

Note: Note that this technique only works if the hardware manufacturer implements it. I can't give a percentage of accuracy, but I would guess the big players would implement it. If it's not implemented, Windows will generate a unique number instead.

Method 1 - Device Manager

Open the Windows Device Manager. Find your video card under Display Adapters. Double-click on it. Under the "Details" tab, select the "Device Instance Path" property.

Method 2 - WMI

Using WMI, at the command line, run the following command.

wmic PATH Win32_VideoController GET Description,PNPDeviceID

Method 3 - Use a Tool

A program like SIW will grab the PNP Device ID for you, but it won't do the parsing for the serial number.

Parsing It

Looking at the PNPDeviceID value, break it up by "\".

• The first piece it the bus type. For me, it is PCI.
• The second section describes the card. There's a vendor code, model number, etc.
• The last section contains a number separated by ampersands. The serial number is the second number in that list, formatted in hex.

I contacted Nvidia via chat-support on this subject, and unfortunately the official answer to your question is no:

the only way to get the serial number of the graphics card is, it will be written on the graphics card hardware or the box of purchase.

chatlog from http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/chat/chat_landing