diff --git a/.azure-pipelines/ipu-tests.yml b/.azure-pipelines/ipu-tests.yml
index 763549e88200b..c1474ee1c9187 100644
--- a/.azure-pipelines/ipu-tests.yml
+++ b/.azure-pipelines/ipu-tests.yml
@@ -89,3 +89,11 @@ jobs:
       env:
         MKL_THREADING_LAYER: "GNU"
       displayName: 'Testing: standard'
+
+    - bash: |
+        source ${{ variables.poplar_sdk }}/poplar-ubuntu*/enable.sh
+        source ${{ variables.poplar_sdk }}/popart-ubuntu*/enable.sh
+        bash tests/special_tests.sh
+      env:
+        MKL_THREADING_LAYER: "GNU"
+      displayName: 'Testing: special'
diff --git a/tests/callbacks/test_pruning.py b/tests/callbacks/test_pruning.py
index d4957905454d8..f198b29d24e84 100644
--- a/tests/callbacks/test_pruning.py
+++ b/tests/callbacks/test_pruning.py
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ def test_pruning_callback(
     )
 
 
-@RunIf(special=True)
+@RunIf(special=True, min_gpus=2)
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("parameters_to_prune", [False, True])
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("use_global_unstructured", [False, True])
 def test_pruning_callback_ddp(tmpdir, use_global_unstructured: bool, parameters_to_prune: bool):
diff --git a/tests/special_tests.sh b/tests/special_tests.sh
index cf81700291b8d..b6de1ca69ecef 100755
--- a/tests/special_tests.sh
+++ b/tests/special_tests.sh
@@ -68,7 +68,9 @@ for i in "${!files_arr[@]}"; do
   done < <(echo "$test_code")
 done
 
-nvprof --profile-from-start off -o trace_name.prof -- python ${defaults} tests/test_profiler.py::test_pytorch_profiler_nested_emit_nvtx
+if nvcc --version; then
+    nvprof --profile-from-start off -o trace_name.prof -- python ${defaults} tests/test_profiler.py::test_pytorch_profiler_nested_emit_nvtx
+fi
 
 # echo test report
 printf '=%.s' {1..80}