Why do faulty GPUs sell for so much?

new boy · 15 Mar 2015 at 21:52

I frequently see faulty GPUs described as have no video output sell at more than 50% there fully working used value. I look at the pictures of these cards, and some have blackened PCB under the core, some have honorificly bent PCBs, some have small components missing from the PCB. Who buys them at that price? If it was 20%, then ok, I could see it being worth having a punt but surely its not worth it at that cost?

Does anyone on here frequently buy such cards? Do you have much success getting them working again?

Bit of a random thread I know, but I've always wondered who pays so much for them.

Akagi · 15 Mar 2015 at 21:54

I can't understand why people would ever buy visibly damaged cards like those you described, but in some cases GPU's can be fixed by a simple re-flow, and some people like to gamble.

new boy · 15 Mar 2015 at 21:55

Acme said:
I can't understand why people would ever buy visibly damaged cards like those you described, but in some cases GPU's can be fixed by a simple re-flow, and some people like to gamble.

Seams like quite the gamble though... Its like buying a £100 scratch card...

Tonester0011 · 15 Mar 2015 at 22:29

I've got a thing for GPU keyrings, got a few now and buying faulty is cheaper than buying working. Also, like ACME has said, a lot of the faulty cards are fairly simple fixes.

new boy · 15 Mar 2015 at 22:31

Tonester0011 said:
I've got a thing for GPU keyrings, got a few now and buying faulty is cheaper than buying working. Also, like ACME has said, a lot of the faulty cards are fairly simple fixes.

Funnily enough I've got a 3570k waiting to become a keyring here. Unfortunately is wasn't meant to be one, so it cost me a fair bit

Uncle Petey · 15 Mar 2015 at 22:34

*goes to check on prices for 7950's with knackered vram and wonders if it would be less hassle to just make a keyring instead*

Tonester0011 · 15 Mar 2015 at 22:36

Keyring Pete

I've got different cards on my different lorry keys, and the spares

Uncle Petey · 15 Mar 2015 at 22:38

I actually do need a keyring.. And what better way to cement my nerd-dom to anyone who asks what it is?

new boy · 15 Mar 2015 at 22:42

Uncle Petey said:
I actually do need a keyring.. And what better way to cement my nerd-dom to anyone who asks what it is?

But does it matter if its a 290x or a 5450?

Uncle Petey · 15 Mar 2015 at 22:43

Depends on how nerdy your mates are, I guess

Here's a question: Would an X79 keyring be like a 'Yorkie' of chip keyrings and only for the manliest of geeks?

Tonester0011 · 15 Mar 2015 at 22:50

10000% if ****ing matters.
You don't want to show up at some place with your under-endowed chip showing. Trust me, people speak behind your back if you're rocking a GK106 instead of GK110

varkanoid · 15 Mar 2015 at 22:50

Uncle Petey said:
Depends on how nerdy your mates are, I guess

Here's a question: Would an X79 keyring be like a 'Yorkie' of chip keyrings and only for the manliest of geeks?

Only if you fill up the PCIE slots with more keyrings!

Uncle Petey · 15 Mar 2015 at 22:53

Tonester0011 said:
10000% if ****ing matters.
You don't want to show up at some place with your under-endowed chip showing. Trust me, people speak behind your back if you're rocking a GK106 instead of GK110

I ****ing knew it! Those backstabbing *******s lied to my face! My ****ing face!!

varkanoid said:
Only if you fill up the PCIE slots with more keyrings!

Well, there's a manly keyring and then there's an 8Pack keyring...

varkanoid · 15 Mar 2015 at 22:54

new boy said:
I frequently see faulty GPUs described as have no video output sell at more than 50% there fully working used value. I look at the pictures of these cards, and some have blackened PCB under the core, some have honorificly bent PCBs, some have small components missing from the PCB. Who buys them at that price? If it was 20%, then ok, I could see it being worth having a punt but surely its not worth it at that cost?

Does anyone on here frequently buy such cards? Do you have much success getting them working again?

Bit of a random thread I know, but I've always wondered who pays so much for them.

I've bought the odd faulty card where it says it crashes when they install the drivers only to find it was fine when I did it. Cleaned it up, sold it on made a profit. Also once bought a Nvidia 260 which was said to have no output when it turned up one DVI port was faulty but the other worked fine. My brother had that card for about 2 years.

I always wondered about the cards that they said produce no output but you could hear windows boot up okay whether these would be okay as the 2nd card in sli/crossfire card ? Surely you only need the output from the 1st one ? Or am I missing it ?

new boy · 15 Mar 2015 at 22:54

gotta get 'dem quad SLI titan keyrings

edscdk · 15 Mar 2015 at 22:54

I always assumed people buy the faulty cards to scam other people (as in buy a faulty one and a working one, return the faulty one to the seller of the working card and get a refund)

Uncle Petey · 15 Mar 2015 at 22:57

varkanoid said:
I've bought the odd faulty card where it says it crashes when they install the drivers only to find it was fine when I did it. Cleaned it up, sold it on made a profit. Also once bought a Nvidia 260 which was said to have no output when it turned up one DVI port was faulty but the other worked fine. My brother had that card for about 2 years.

I always wondered about the cards that they said produce no output but you could hear windows boot up okay whether these would be okay as the 2nd card in sli/crossfire card ? Surely you only need the output from the 1st one ? Or am I missing it ?

I don't know if this is quite the same thing, but with my dodgy vram'd 7950 that produces screens of many wonderous colours due to said borked memory (I believe), it basically produces those wonderful colours in every alternate frame when run as a second card in xfire.

Tonester0011 · 15 Mar 2015 at 22:59

Tried slapping it in the oven? That cures a lot of problems and i have no idea how

I'm not knowledgeable enough to buy faulty with intent on fixing, shame really.

Uncle Petey · 15 Mar 2015 at 23:01

No, but I assumed the memory was buggered and the card was only 4 months old when it went, so dry solder or whatever it is probably wasn't the problem there.
I stopped caring ages ago tbh. Don't even know why I still have the bloody thing actually...

new boy · 15 Mar 2015 at 23:03

Uncle Petey said:
No, but I assumed the memory was buggered and the card was only 4 months old when it went, so dry solder or whatever it is probably wasn't the problem there.
I stopped caring ages ago tbh. Don't even know why I still have the bloody thing actually...

sell it, they sell for loads like I said lol