Second-hand GFX - How Dependable?

[Galant]

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.

[ik9000]

it's like cars. One careful owner, never been raced, well serviced and not blocked with gunk, not too many miles on the clock etc? Then yeah can be fine. If however it's been used for mining, thrashed daily to within an inch of its life, had the chips running hot and the fan bearings burnt out, then no. Best avoided. Trouble is, unlike cars with a proven maintenance history and mileage, how can you tell from an ebay advert? Therein lies the rub. You pay your money and you take your chance I'm afraid.

I had someone try to sell me a card recently missing a fan. Er no. That's quite important. I'm not subsidising their next card by taking something hamstrung! All they wanted for it was the cost of my current GPU (which I'd bought brand new). No. No no no. Even a snapped fan blade would be enough to put me off, but a whole fan? Just no.

[Galant]

it's like cars. One careful owner, never been raced, well serviced and not blocked with gunk, not too many miles on the clock etc? Then yeah can be fine. If however it's been used for mining, thrashed daily to within an inch of its life, had the chips running hot and the fan bearings burnt out, then no. Best avoided. Trouble is, unlike cars with a proven maintenance history and mileage, how can you tell from an ebay advert? Therein lies the rub. You pay your money and you take your chance I'm afraid.

I had someone try to sell me a card recently missing a fan. Er no. That's quite important. I'm not subsidising their next card by taking something hamstrung! All they wanted for it was the cost of my current GPU (which I'd bought brand new). No. No no no. Even a snapped fan blade would be enough to put me off, but a whole fan? Just no.

Exactly. That sort of thing is where my thoughts went when I heard about second-hand cards. But having seen multiple mentions it made me reconsider.

[Kanoe]

Until my current card I had always gone for brand new and my old card was always passed to the other half or family as they didnt mind it as they would get a cheap upgrade and they would know that it had been looked after.

Due to the high prices for the current generation from nvidia and not top end performance from AMD I went for a second hand 1080ti.

I was very careful to pour over the ebay post of it and do some research before bidding on it and so far it has worked out well.

On a side note I am running 2 second hand CPUs in this PC and 8 sticks of second hand RAM and all of them have worked fine so I came to the conculsion that if I was willing to accept that for those parts then maybe I should for GPU as well.

Also the 1080ti was never an economical pick as a mining card so I had less to worry about there.

[kompukare]

The mining things isn't as straightforward as people think.

Pretty much any miner who did any research would probably aimed at the max hash/watt rate unless they lived in a place where electricity is crazily cheap (and/or very cold and they heated the whole house with electricity).

No guarantees of course. A gamer might try to squeeze the last MHz out of their card by over-volting and over-clocking versus. A miner might possibly be running ten or hundreds of cards at the best hash/watt rate possibly by under-volting.

In the case of the miner, the are most likely to wear out the fans, while the power delivery and the actual silicon were probably run at modest speeds.

[jimbouk]

It's been a while since I've had a component die on me after a length of time - generally they work for many years or are DOA/never quite work right. Upgraded my second hand (from Hexus ) gpu recently to an Amazon warehouse card - dusted it off a bit and running a treat. Got a second hand cpu in the wife's computer, that one from CEX. Don't think I'd bother with (private sellers on) eBay for anything over £30 mind, nice to have a business to send things back to if there's a problem.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I am more cautious now,but had many secondhand GPUs which were fine. However,the problem with mining,is that faster RAM helps,so if someone has pushed the RAM too much,it might start having problems down the line. I would second looking at CEX,as there is a two year warranty.

[samuraiweasel]

I've bought my last couple off CEX due to budget constraints and their warranty.

I've got an ASUS 970 triple fan OC thats been running for about a year now with no issues.

[silent]

i have had lots of 2nd hand cards inc mining cards which if mined on properly have usually been under clocked and volted so actually be better than a gaming card in some circumstances.

cex have '2 yr warranties' and i say that losely as after a while they often wont give you the full value back. ebay is a gamble but i always use feedback on the seller.

[Kovoet]

I got a spare one from CEX. I will never sell one again privately because of the problems it can cause or buy one. CEX you can get the warranty with it.

[Saracen999]

I got a spare one from CEX. I will never sell one again privately because of the problems it can cause or buy one. CEX you can get the warranty with it.

It shouldn't cause too many problems selling privately .... unless sold via someone like ebay, with a very high-handed approach to refunding on your behalf. Unless you commit to contract terms with someone likes that, then the over-riding rule (short of actual misrepresentation) is caveat emptor - let the buyer beware. That is, the GPU equivalent of prior to buying a horse, walk round and check there's a leg on each corner. Fail to notice and, buyer's problem.


As for the OPs question, ik9000 said it - a LOT depends on the seller and how they treated it. But it's a risk, and probably a saving. The trick is weighing up how big a risk you'll take for what level of saving.

Personally, it's a non-starter because I'm pretty risk-averse. Or rather, hassle-averse. Not that even buying brand new guarantees absence of hassle but it does at least mean you've a leg to stand on, and the hassle ought to be minimal. I would either buy new, or not at all. But that's me.

[Spudbynight]

With a second hand GPU, I would be very wary about buying from somewhere like EBAY. Companies like CEX offer a warranty which is nice. The only other place I would buy one is from the classified ads on a tech forum site like either here, Overclockers or AVForums. There you have a certain degree of protection in that people want to maintain their reputation. If someone stiffs you, ultimately you don't have much recourse, but established community members won't want to lose their reputations.

[squirrelz]

My son bought a 2nd hand RX580 from ebay, was a Sapphire Nitro one, and it was awful when I first installed it for him, crashing out in games, causing reboots etc. Then I looked at the clock timings in vGPU utility and realised it was running mining specific BIOS. As soon as I changed to the correct OEM BIOS, it was absolutely bang on and he's well happy with it.

[Spudbynight]

My son bought a 2nd hand RX580 from ebay, was a Sapphire Nitro one, and it was awful when I first installed it for him, crashing out in games, causing reboots etc. Then I looked at the clock timings in vGPU utility and realised it was running mining specific BIOS. As soon as I changed to the correct OEM BIOS, it was absolutely bang on and he's well happy with it.

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

[Ttaskmaster]

Bar one, all my GPUs have been second hand. Far more affordable way of computering.
Always buy from trusted sources, which in my case is people I know either here or in person.
My latest one was a record overclocker at one point and has been absolutely solid. Came with waterblock included, too, which was nice.

[cptwhite_uk]

ooops