Would you purchase a card that was used for mining

Good question. Seeing more cards on Craigslist lately that sellers admit to using for mining. I suspect the mining is hard on the card's capacitors and shortened their life though.
 
I wouldn't pay the same price for a card used for mining as a normal card, but have bought several mined on 290s at deep discounts after x11-x13 mining died. I haven't had any trouble with them.

Any serious miner is running undervolted and with decent cooling. The ones you actually need to worry about are noobs that crank up voltages, power limits and fans to max for a minor increase in hash.
 
I would personally I also mine though. Most cards still have their warranties plus most "smart" miners are trying to keep their cards from blowing up so they run them safetly. Low temp, underclocked so forth.
 
A seller selling one card from mining? Like a gamer who mined?

Likely ran it at 120% TDP and overheated.

Legit miners typically did 70-80% TDP and put relatively low stress compared to gaming/overclocking on the card.
 
No way would I buy a mining card.

But saying that, if it worked @ 100% when mining it should do the same for gaming.

I also doubt that because its been used for mining, I doubt that its only got x months left to live, as long as its not damaged, the fan spins when powered up, technically it should be ok.

Their is a thing called electromigration which says, usage no matter what it is, shortens x life, but I highly doubt that it would play any part in a graphics card thats 2 years old.

Bottom line, as long as it works, it should be ok.
 
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Depends what card, even then it'd better be cheap or warranty available via seller. Some Vegas have HBM degradation (HBM often hotter than GPU!), some people OCing ram because of hash gains or frames then get degradation in stable speed..
I have heard a few times of this with GDDR too but not kept an eye on it. Anyone else hear of it much?
 
No way man once it has been mined on it's damaged goods. You see there are many miners on this very forum who won't let you in on that fact just so they can sell their tainted cards unbeknownst to the next buyer. It's all a giant scam for them to make more money on their already ill-gotten gains from crypto. Only God can judge them and I hope they burn in hell!
 
Furious_Styles said:
No way man once it has been mined on it's damaged goods. You see there are many miners on this very forum who won't let you in on that fact just so they can sell their tainted cards unbeknownst to the next buyer. It's all a giant scam for them to make more money on their already ill-gotten gains from crypto. Only God can judge them and I hope they burn in hell!
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Lol That's bullshit. Have you mined before? A smart miner keeps the card undervoted, is it used? Yes! Damaged goods, hell no! I have never lied if I sold the card if I mined on it. I guess every business is a scam by your definition. I have met nothing but good people in this forum. May be you should learn to deal with people with good Heat. You have a choice not to buy a card that is mined on. But calm down with those accusations. All you gotta make sure is the card has warranty. Obviously if a card is mined on for 2+ years one might want to think about it. If someone is selling from a big lot that's different too. Each situation is different. To look at everything from the same lens is not fair game.
 
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Spoonie_G said:
How many hours a day is the card used for gaming vs a card being used for mining?
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You a mining hater?

What is your sample size for your opinions? Before we start arguing, consider that miners have very large quantities of GPU's to form reliability opinions from.

Do you?
 
thebufenator said:
You a mining hater?

What is your sample size for your opinions? Before we start arguing, consider that miners have very large quantities of GPU's to form reliability opinions from.

Do you?
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Was that addressed to me? I am not sure what part of my comment was me hating on miners. Lol
 
Yup, I would depending on the price, condition (includes original box + receipt?), and their knowledge of mining/undervolting/maintenance of the cards.
 
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Spoonie_G said:
How many hours a day is the card used for gaming vs a card being used for mining?
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That doesn't really matter though, other than the fans potentially dying prematurely due to spinning at 50-80% 24/7.

Some make the argument that because mined cards were consistently run at xyz temperature rather than the ups and downs load (rapidly cooling and heating up periodically) of a gamer, that it may have a longer life. Similar to the old concerns with hard drives (keeping a computer on 24/7 versus restarting every day).
 
NKD said:
Lol That's bullshit. Have you mined before? A smart miner keeps the card undervoted, is it used? Yes! Damaged goods, hell no! I have never lied if I sold the card if I mined on it. I guess every business is a scam by your definition. I have met nothing but good people in this forum. May be you should learn to deal with people with good Heat. You have a choice not to buy a card that is mined on. But calm down with those accusations. All you gotta make sure is the card has warranty. Obviously if a card is mined on for 2+ years one might want to think about it. If someone is selling from a big lot that's different too. Each situation is different. To look at everything from the same lens is not fair game.
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Well I obviously failed lol.
 
Yes, and I have, with no issues.



Just like any used item purchase, know who you are buying from — review feedback through some mechanism. My current EVGA SC black card has been mining for nearly a year and it works just like the day I bought it for gaming and the fans are no louder than when new. I had two in my gaming/mining rig, purchased at the same time. When I sold one recently (because mining profits are down and two 1080tis are wholly unnecessary to max out 3440x1440 gaming with gsync). In good faith, I sold the bottom one because it didn’t run as hot (since heat rises). I kept the top one for myself because I personally have no concern at all with it dying any earlier than the other card. It’ll last much longer, in all likelihood, than it will be relevant as a good enthusiast gaming card. Meaning — it will be obsolete before it dies from a mining load.

I mine with my cards between 65-75% power target. , because that’s the most profitable, most efficient hashing point. Under volt and Overclock = Less heat, less fan RPM, ~same hash rate as stock. Overvolting and Overclocking the card can double power use (as compared to undervolting) for 20% more hash rate. NOT a good profitability trade!
 
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Krenum said:
You put too much faith in people.
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Lol. Hey that is such a bad thing to do right? Like I said been dealing with this forum for years now. Sold and bought here. 0 negative experience so far. So yeah math is on my side for now. I guess so you can say my faith and only dealing with reputable sellers has paid off.
 
I've dealt with a couple mined cards. Unless I know them personally I wouldn't buy a mined card.
 
Nope
I say let those filthy miners eat that cold hard steel.

Don't buy it for any price.

Let em eat it.

New cards coming out. No need to help miner ROI.
 
I mined for a short time on a small scale. The 2 cards I ran were OEM Dell R9 270X 2gb's. They had a very slight overclock and were undervolted quite a bit. ran at 50* or so with 50% fan.. Now those same cards are crossfired in a Dell T3500 as a second gaming computer. They are slightly over volted with a slight overclock and run 62* or so ramped up to 75% fan or so. Not much different, but mining is sure easier on them..

Would I buy a 1080 TI out of warranty for less than a $200 discount, no. But that would go for a gamers card too. But I always buy new graphics cards. Even the R9 270x were new old stock
 
Would I be scared about it being too worn out - No

Would I rather let the miners eat shit for their mining activity - Yes

For me it's rather a political discussion that I don't want to support mining in any way, I'd prefer it to die out completely. It's just those things that brings out the greed in humans, we don't need the greed lvls raise higher than it already is.
 
In short? Sure, I would buy a card that was mined on.

I see nothing wrong with an everyone wins deal. Miner gets rid of a card after the ROI or just wants to upgrade or even get out of it all together. I think a healthy discount is fair and full disclosure is a must. If someone is up front about using the card for mining and is honest about it sure Ill buy. Used gear is a great way to save some cash. I understand the risks and am OK with taking them. I also understand that some are not willing to do so and totally understand that there is peace of mind going new and having a warranty.
 
RPGWiZaRD said:
Would I be scared about it being too worn out - No

Would I rather let the miners eat shit for their mining activity - Yes

For me it's rather a political discussion that I don't want to support mining in any way, I'd prefer it to die out completely. It's just those things that brings out the greed in humans, we don't need the greed lvls raise higher than it already is.
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I don’t hate miners. I tried it for 6 months. Then I realized I never wanted to do it again. I broke even and sold off all my parts. I was shocked at how much energy I was blowing through. After being a green guy and doing everything I could to preserve energy I realized I was on the wrong side of my moral values. This is a true statement. It sort of hit me. But I didn’t want me investment to be bust So I kind for about 6 months. I believe it was at the end of 5 months where I realized even if I sold my cards I would be above even. I actually sold 12 cards to my buddy and sold all my evga 1060s. But I think mostly miners took em here as well as I sold em in bulk. I couldn’t bring myself to comfort with the energy I was burning through lol. If it's one thing I hate about crypto its the energy it takes mining. I can't wait until all coins go proof of stake for the sake of energy conservation.
 
As long as there is warranty and the price can justified the time and shipping in case it does need warranty within the next 30 days.

Example:

I bought a Gigabyte GTX 1070 mini for $175. It was mined and it died after three weeks of owning it.

Gigabyte slow-ass RMA took 5 weeks.

If it was an EVGA card, I wouldn't mind paying more since their turn-around time is insanely quick.
 
I think the only question that remains now is should you buy a used card or no? It's a risk to take. I'll take reputable sellers word for it but places such as Ebay you are just buying used. If someone wants to avoid buying mining cards. Avoid buying used I guess. Its either used or new at this point. Want to avoid mining cards? Buy new! Don't buy used
 
No. The chances of getting a card that has a substantially shorter life is too great. I don’t care how it was undervolted or what conditions it was run in. Mining cards are run under load for long periods of time and that’s reason enough for me to say no thanks.

Another interesting thing is generally these threads have two kinds of people posting in them. People who don’t want to buy mining cards, and people who mine and defend the value of their cards.
 
AltTabbins said:
No. The chances of getting a card that has a substantially shorter life is too great. I don’t care how it was undervolted or what conditions it was run in. Mining cards are run under load for long periods of time and that’s reason enough for me to say no thanks.

Another interesting thing is generally these threads have two kinds of people posting in them. People who don’t want to buy mining cards, and people who mine and defend the value of their cards.
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Pshhh

Way to one side it.

You forgot:
people who mine and aren’t afraid to buy cards that were mined on, and people who don’t mine and who aren’t afraid to buy cards that were mined on. All four types are already represented in this thread by previous comments.

Here’s what you did —- but in reverse. Two kinds of people in this thread: Those who are smart and realize mining doesn’t hurt cards in any meaningful way and those who argue otherwise.

——-

The only thing this thread is missing now is the Anti-miners crowd who irrationally say that GPU memory is damaged goods because we mine at RAM speeds that their games can’t stably run. (Never mind they haven’t got a single shred of tangible evidence that overclocking the RAM has led to specific, directly attributable gameplay failure). I’ve mined with over 50 cards and I haven’t seen it yet. Not one instance.
 
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Archaea said:
Pshhh

Way to one side it.

You forgot:
people who mine and aren’t afraid to buy cards that were mined on, and people who don’t mine who aren’t afraid to buy cards that were mined on. All four types are already represented in this thread by previous comments.

Here’s what you did —- but in reverse. Two kinds of people in this thread: Those who are smart and realize mining doesn’t hurt cards in any meaningful way and those who argue otherwise.
Click to expand...


Lol good one. I guess knowing and making an educated decision is defending mining to some. You said it well. Its not rocket science if you are worried go buy new. If you wanna save money and are okay with card mined on for 6 months but it. People seem to think too much in to it.
 
Except mine was neutral. I didn’t have to label either side to make my point.
 
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