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Don't Buy A Used Mining GPU

He’s simply become a click-bait shill.

Sad, as he used to be worth watching. Now it’s just about clicks and sponsors.
 
He is right, though. Mining heavily stresses the chips, it's like running Furmark forever, sooner or later it will melt the chips.
 
Actually I’ll give a shout-out to Anthony who works for him. But the rest of the LTT range of videos are glorified advertisements.
 
GPU's installed in servers run 24/7 for years without an issue.
Most mining is for Eth and it's common to undervolt and down clock the core as it's pretty much memory bandwith that counts.
GDDR6 is well proven so overall risk is low with most cards though I think I'd wait and see with the GDDR6X as that seems to run on the hot side.

I'd want a bit of a discount as it may need repasting after sustained use which would likely void warranty and the cooler is likely to need a good cleaning.

Otherwise ex mining GPU's are fair game.

The only reason not to buy one is out of principle given the shortage we've seen over the last year.
Even then, not likely to make a difference as plenty of other buyers.
 
I have known people who bought secondhand ex-mining GPUs,and the cards failed within a year(the memory went south,and I have never seen anybody with a new Polaris card who had that problem). The issue is not so much the mining,but the people who actually own the cards. There are some who pamper their cards,undervolt them,etc.

There are others who just get in on a smaller scale,and get out very quickly so probably push the cards as much as they can to maximise their returns in as short a time period as possible(and cheaper models lack proper RAM cooling),and dispose of them when they start to have problems. Hence,I would be more inclined to use certain highstreet secondhand shop,who give a two year warranty on their secondhand GPUs.
 
4K8KW10 said:
He is right, though. Mining heavily stresses the chips, it's like running Furmark forever, sooner or later it will melt the chips.
Click to expand...

Melt the chips? Come on.....

There are lots of arguments either way, but chips melting is not one of them.

Mining Eth for instance is nothing like Furmark it doesn't put much load on the GPU at all, the VRM is nowhere near peak output and it's all about RAM bandwidth.

Nearly all mining GPUs are run undervolted and run 24/7 so haven't gone through all the thermal cycles a desktop gaming GPU would have.
 
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Psycho Sonny said:
Spot the person who never watched the video
Click to expand...

:cry: Even though I haven't watched it yet, I can get the gist of why he made the video. Its obviously an old wives tale or in the case of AIB's, they want you to upgrade and buy new! Some folk already lay convinced before bringing their opinion.

Ed - just watched it. Evidence confirms what I would have said. Miners are still using cards from 2017 and recycling/refurbishing them as although fans start failing the majority of them will last ages if you look after them! After all if they are making you free internet money, why would you neglect them?

You could argue lazy gamers would be worse people to buy cards from as they don't look after them and lots of hot/cold cycles from turning off their machines daily.
 
Mining operations will usually take good care of the graphics cards and make sure that they are in good condition unlike gamers. Buying a gpu that has been used for mining is not as bad as you might think as long as the cooler(s) are in good condition.
 
Used & old cards are fine no matter what they used for. I ran a 2500k CPU @ 4.4ghz to 4.8ghz for over 10yrs no problem. It still works fine now. (yes i know its not a GPU but the same applies)

I am still using a 780ti well over MF clock speed, its hot but it works. You will know when a GPU is going as soon as you boot and play a game or run it hard.

They either die on the spot or you get the artifacts when gaming. Silicone is pretty hard as nails in this day and age so if you can grab a bargain go for it.

Am not paying the prices they want for new GPU's now, they can jog on. I can wait and i will get what i want for the price i want to pay.
 
I'd agree that the cards can likely be as fine as a new card.

But the issue is that as a secondary or further owner of the miner card now, you could be getting a dud. Or soon to be dud (things like this happen with new cards after all) and it may not have anything to do with use. But it does mean that getting warranty may be impossible. All the seller you purchased from needs to say, is that they got it second hand as well, and then no repair/warranty for you.

I certainly won't be taking such a chance. If you have that type of money to throw, good for you. But I'll never take such a route. Official new purchase from retailer only for me.
 
People say miners look after cards. However they always run the fans close to 100% (if its not a dude in his bedroom etc).

I bought a used 7970 after the first mining boom. The fans were completely shot. Getting the exact correct size replacement fans isn't as straight forward as nipping on Ebay if it isn't the most mainstream brand. And going to the manufacturer will cost you more than you expect. I waited 3 weeks for an ali baba order, and they sent me the wrong size.

I'll be looking at 2nd hand 3090s next year after the mining collapse. But I'll be expecting to have to change the memory pads at least.
 
I just don't brlieve that running these cards hard does any damage at all, with the exception of moving parts (i.e. fans).

The cards typically have built in protections so they cannot be damaged, with rare exceptions, If they get too hot they throttle back.

Fans, wear, as all moving parts do. But remember these GPUs are sold worldwide, and they have to run gappily in countries where it's really hot, every day. I would hope that we can get replacements for 10 years (maybe right-to-repair will help).
 
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