Second-hand GFX - How Dependable?

[Uriel]

My last few GPUs have been fine. Ages ago I had one that artefacted in one or two games but it was a factory overclocked model and running at stock clocks worked fine. It might be just that the manufacturer was over-ambitious.

[Spreadie]

I'm pretty sure the last brand new card I bought was a GTX 670. I think I had an issue with a 960 I bought for one of the kids' PCs, but that was an immediate ebay return so no drama. Everything else has been just fine.

[squirrelz]

Just out of curiosity, did the seller make any mention of mining, or not mining, in the description on EBAY?

No mention of mining, which I'm not surprised about as people think that mining leaves the cards burned out. It's been rock solid since I put the OEM BIOS back on it though.

[Shante]

When it comes the graphics card, I will always buy brand new
The second-hand prices do look good but the quality of care taken by their previous owner is questionable and I rather not deal with it unless it was an important exception situation where I need a card right now

[Disputes]

all depends on the past owner(s), ive had GPUs from miners who looked after their cards better than most gamers, ive seen the complete opposite. most problems with a used GPU you will spot within the ebay return policy anyway. if theres a GPU to be cautious when getting New is 100% polaris imo.


my 290x was a ex mining GPU from my uncle, it was a 290 flash to 290x. i wouldnt be shocked if it was still working today. i sold it after getting a 1070 when my PSU died and i thought it was the GPU that died. that gpu did mining, bios modding, a bit of extreme oc.
my first 1070 was then a gigabyte XOC used, there were no new GPUs at the time due to the mining boom, i then sold that for a 1070 seahawk for a smaller case which was a refurb from OCUK, which i sold and got a used evga 1080ti because 20 series was near double for the same price all for RTX, thats been sold now and im getting my first new GPU ever.


ive also had to get GPUs for friends and family, my sisters GPU was gonna be a used 480, which was artefacting like crazy, it was returned and that was the end of that she got a used 570 instead, i later upgraded her to a manli 1070 off reddit €150 well spent.

also had someone attempt to scam me too, sold me a 480 with a bad bios flash never mined, arrived with a smashed fan and blown up VRM, ended up checking the bios with a bios reader and indeed it had a mining bios on it. and another from the same guy was just artefacting like crazy when he said it worked fine. thankfully both were returned. also another time with a ebay like service and a 1070 but paypal refunded me quickly.

if you buy used, just make sure you test the GPU and give it a good look over for damage before you put it into a computer, idk if the GPU with the blown up VRM would have damaged my pc, it could have. any time ive had a bad used GPU ive been able to get my money back no problem.

if you dont test after you buy then you will have a bad time, im sure of that. just run firestrike, heaven, superposition etc for at least 15 mins, check the temps and fans are spinning etc

[Hasnain]

EVGA warranties carry over right? If so I think I would always try to get an EVGA card 2nd hand if I could just for the peace of mind.

[k9wazere]

In reply to one of my other threads, and in threads in here, a few people have mentioned second-hand graphics cards. That's not something I'd ever even thought of and my first reaction is to avoid a false economy situation where you spend less on card only to have it die quickly and then spend again to replace it.

However, owing to the various mentions I've seen it occurs to me that maybe I'm wrong and that perhaps there a market of decent second-hand cards because lots of users keep upgrading - or some other reason.

So I wanted to ask if anyone here has any experiences with/knowledge of 2nd hand GFX cards and what your thoughts are.

Cheers.

I'm not sure how rational my standpoint on this is, thinking about it. As I type I'm aware that I spent several thousand on a 2nd hand car, whether that means something or nothing I'm not sure.

But when it comes to specifically to electronics/PC components, personally I wouldn't buy anything 2nd hand over £100-200, max. I think beyond that, the risks outweigh the saving, imho. And the lack of any kind of transferrable warranty with most vendors.

So I think the first 2nd hand card I ever bought was an 8800GT 512 from eBay. One of my best ever purchases and lasted until I replaced it with a new GTX 460. The 8800GT was ~£80 I think? Memory is iffy. No problems at all with it. Fantastic card as everyone knows.

Some time later I bought an AMD 280X which had been used for mining (the seller was selling it as ex-mining stock). It came with a custom (upgraded) cooler and was again about £100. This one failed after a couple months of gaming (artifacting due to VRAM issues). Replaced it with an RX480 (I'm a mid-range kind of guy).

The trouble is that eBay is a gamble. I prefer these days to avoid it, in preference to selling forums/members markets, where trust and reputation is worth more. eBay ratings seem to be worth nothing these days. Either accounts are hacked or there is a way to easily gain a few hundred rep before scamming the heck out of everyone

And even if it isn't a scam, eBay is variable in terms of seller honesty, shall we say? Maybe wanting to shift something that they've damaged - I had this with an ASUS motherboard that arrived with bent pins. Seller sold "as new" but had obviously damaged it and then tried to flog it again...

So yeah, I personally don't touch eBay for PC components, and I won't be spending more than a couple hundred on any 2nd hand component. The trouble is, all this is 100% anecdotal, and YMMV.

[Smikis]

My current pc is second hand and it does need an upgrade now, its been eternity. I got it off ebay, it was used for around half a year or so, maybe bit more, as it had all the latest and greatest components at that time, so it was quite good deal.
Sadly the GPU didn't survive the delivery, at least that's what I think, as owner claimed it was working and considering that gpu which at that time was r9 280 or so was quite big with no back plate, you could see it wobble and move quite easily in the case due to sheer mass being held by just 2 screws or so, so its easy to see how it would twist bit too much during movement unassembled (always remove gpu from the box when moving the pc).

Anyway I got partial refund for broken GPU and I've bought my self second hand sapphire r9 290 (the last great amd gpu? (until now)).
290 was used as mining card, that was at the collapse of mining when everyone was selling their gpus and I've managed to land r9 290 for less than £200, which at that time was great value.
That was I don't know how long ago, 6 years now? Sure the gpu wasn't used in mining for years and years, I don't recall exact purchase date, but if i had to guess, it was used in mining for maybe half a year or bit more.

The card is still going strong, I never had gpu's die on me, I had them slowly start dying, after 24/7 usage over 8+ years, I'm sure my 9600 gt in sli would still fire up (and I used those for what feels like decade, overclocked and in SLI ( more heat, less space).
I would not worry too much about buying second hand GPU, if you can get good deal and you buy from someone reputable, and on a place that could refund you, just in case it arrives dead.

[easyrider]

I've bought and sold 100's of used GFX cards over the years...with no issues...

[EasterEEL]

I wouldn't. My own experience as a regular owner and overclocker of AMD/Nvidia cards is they tend to fail eventually. I often pass them on to friends/family.

Four AMD AIW cards failed for various reasons between 4-6 years. GeForce 7800gs (MSI 5y fan failure) GTX-560 ti (Asus 4y CoD's), GTX 980ti (Gigabyte 3y3m two components burnt out and Gigabyte declined to repair under their £50 fee out-of-warranty promise). I still have working GTX580 & GTX680.

[the_weegie]

I've bought a couple of graphics cards off the aution site and all have served me well for a good number of years. I tend to buy EVGA cards which normally have a double warranty on them so the second hand buyer is covered as well.

[ik9000]

I've bought a couple of graphics cards off the aution site and all have served me well for a good number of years. I tend to buy EVGA cards which normally have a double warranty on them so the second hand buyer is covered as well.

I thought EVGA had watered down their policies recently - might be worth double checking that still applies.