Fine-grained compact 10 mol% scandia stabilized zirconia (10ScSZ) bulks were sintered by SPS using powders synthesized by the combustion method as raw materials. The densification process of as-processed powders was investigated by measuring the real-time ram displacement of SPS during heating. It was estimated that the densification temperature of this material was around 1200 ℃ at which the ram displacement is minimum. In order to verify the effectiveness of the approach, 1050 ℃, 1100 ℃, 1150 ℃, 1200 ℃, 1250 ℃ were chosen as the sintered temperature to prepared bulk samples respectively. The results revealed that the 10ScSZ sample sintered at 1150 °C had the highest density, reaching 99.4%, and a fine grain structure with an average grain size of 194 nm, which was basically consistent with the speculated results. In this study, an efficient and reliable method was proposed and confirmed for judging the proper SPS sintering temperature through the densification development.