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Don't Buy A Used Mining GPU

Soldato
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You repeatedly say "ex mining card", but the truth is it could happen with any 2nd hand card. The fact it was used for mining is irrelevant, so why keep mentioning it?

Of course it can happen to any secondhand card, infant mortality, just plain worn out, overclocked overvolted, hamfisted application of aftermarket coolers, etc, the list goes on. I'm mentioning mining cards, because the thread is about mining cards and why you shouldn't buy them. I stuck my 10 pennyworth in due to my experience with an ex-mining card showing proof of what "COULD" happen if you're not careful.
 
Soldato
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That's fine but you can also watch Linus recent video on the same topic and reach the polar opposite conclusion?

And thats the point I've been trying to put over, that not all mining cards are knackered when they're sold on, BUT there is a fair chance you might get a bad one (for whatever reason) due to lack of care and attention and I posted a pic showing an example of the sort of damage that can occur ('cos it did!)
 
Soldato
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Question, do you get what I'm trying to say here regarding buying an ex mining card?
You take a chance buying any used card regardless of what it's been used for and most people selling a card will just lie about its use anyway, EG "never overclocked" "used for light gaming" "never mined" etc.
 
Soldato
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Bexhill on sea
You take a chance buying any used card regardless of what it's been used for and most people selling a card will just lie about its use anyway, EG "never overclocked" "used for light gaming" "never mined" etc.

Totally agree, not all mining cards are bad, and will go for long after mining, but you might get a duffer, thats what I'm saying because the impression I got from this thread was that mining cards were safe to buy, thats all
 
Soldato
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You take a chance buying any used card regardless of what it's been used for and most people selling a card will just lie about its use anyway, EG "never overclocked" "used for light gaming" "never mined" etc.

+1. Touch wood ones I got ended up being ok. Does happen in some items that you will get that bad egg but depends if its serviceable or with electronics sometimes just kaput. I have not bought a second hand GPU in a while though, one of them items I get new as its my fault if it fails and also if it is poor in some way you can usually tell in the first week which is when you return it.
 
Soldato
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Of course it can happen to any secondhand card, infant mortality, just plain worn out, overclocked overvolted, hamfisted application of aftermarket coolers, etc, the list goes on. I'm mentioning mining cards, because the thread is about mining cards and why you shouldn't buy them. I stuck my 10 pennyworth in due to my experience with an ex-mining card showing proof of what "COULD" happen if you're not careful.

Well really your argument is "don't buy a 2nd hand GPU", but if you had to, which would you rather have:

Only used for gaming, stuck in a poor airflow SFF case because "gamer aesthetic" and overclocked for extra FPS, constant heat cycling for 6-8 hrs/day due to variable load during gaming.

Or

Only used for mining, stuck in a big tower case with plenty of fans, underclocked & undervolted, and run at a constant 60c 24/7

?
 
Soldato
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I brought a used 1070ti for £250 back when the RTX2060 was released as I didn't want to pay £100 more for a card with similar performance but only 6gb VRAM and it was fine for a couple of years then I sold it on for £230 back last September after picking up a 3080 on release so it only cost me £20 for 2 years of use which is a bargain IMO. Had I brought it new from a store it would have been around £400 at the time and I'd have lost £170 so there are some good reasons to go used.

Buying a used card for over £500 though I'd ask the seller to provide the original purchase receipt as that's a lot more to lose if it goes bang.
 
Soldato
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If someone says it's used for mining then they're an honest person.

If someone says it's used for light gaming then they could be a dishonest person.

The question is, who looks after their GPU the most - an honest person or a dishonest person? Surely you'd trust the honest person.
 
Soldato
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Well really your argument is "don't buy a 2nd hand GPU", but if you had to, which would you rather have:

Only used for gaming, stuck in a poor airflow SFF case because "gamer aesthetic" and overclocked for extra FPS, constant heat cycling for 6-8 hrs/day due to variable load during gaming.

Or

Only used for mining, stuck in a big tower case with plenty of fans, underclocked & undervolted, and run at a constant 60c 24/7

?

No my argument is not "don't buy a second hand card" and never has been, I also never inferred that either. My "words of caution" have been, and always will be, if you buy an ex mining card, be careful, you might end up with a bad one. Thats all, nothing more, nothing less and I illustrated my own particular issue with a image of said damaged card
 
Soldato
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If someone says it's used for mining then they're an honest person.

If someone says it's used for light gaming then they could be a dishonest person.

The question is, who looks after their GPU the most - an honest person or a dishonest person? Surely you'd trust the honest person.

I'd be asking why someone had bought a £600+ GPU for "light gaming" :D

But yes, if I was spending a significant amount on a 2nd hand GPU, I'd be chatting to the seller to get an idea of them first. Would have no issues buying a mined card if they sounded switched on and like they knew what they were doing
 
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Soldato
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Oh it certainly would have. To give an idea, I had to used "wet and dry" paper to get the thermal paste off the heatsink, it had baked on that hard, and the edge of a credit card was used to slowly scrape the remains off the die, which when cleaned, had a surface very similar to the moon, ie: pock marked and severely damaged. The Vram pads literally disintegrated and virtually "blew" away!

My 2 gigabyte GTX 1080's were just as bad and I didn't mine on these. Gigabyte just used the worse thermal paste they could find, it was shockingly bad even with pure alcohol it was like removing cement. Repasted and they are now 10 degrees cooler than they were new. Also one of the fans failed on one card, so replaced. Constant starting and stopping has an effect, this was the bottom card of an sli system, so a very low use card in terms of full boost.
 
Soldato
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Tbh them thermal pads look normal compared to the **** we've seen on them nvidia cards this gen. The die, that can't be from being used for mining as the core gets undervolted and underclocked to as low as it can go.
That looks like gigabytes poor thermal paste, looks like it's they put on in solid form. Their aorus cards seem to use much better paste.
 
Associate
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21 Apr 2007
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Just make sure you factor in any warranty that you can or cannot claim against if something does go wrong.

Its one thing paying £200-300 and taking a chance, its something else when your looking at used/2nd hand GPUs with prices above £500 with zero come back.

This imho is going to be a problem as we approach the next gen launches next year cos 3080's, 3090's all looking rosy for 2nd hand buyers but they aint gonna be cheap and most have zero transferable warranty.
 
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