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Open Box GPU's

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dremic

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Dec 9, 2011
Messages
5,178
Hey all;
I was curious about your experiences with open box GPUs from retail stores. The thought of this is scary to me. Today I went into frys for a 7970 and noticed they had an asus non-reference 670 that has been getting incredible reviews. Turns out theyre both open box. and the 7970's he has three of them... all open box. and the salesmen says to me its been a big problem here lately.. people taking home the cards trying them out and bringing them back... and I thought to myself oh hm thats weird. I bought the 670 instead and left.


Any thoughts on why somebody would return a card? My first guess would be overclocking capabilities or the lack there of.
 
With the 7970's, it's probably because it had a low ASIC value (<70%) meaning it isn't going to overclock all that great and uses more power to boot.

It may also be that they are defective but usually the store would return them to Asus if that were the case. Sometimes people just change their minds - especially when new hardware comes out.
 
personally there is no way I would ever purchase any open box component. if they were returned then it had to be for a reason.
 
As long as they have a decent return policy on open box items you can score some nice stuff for incredible prices if you are willing to put in the extra time to test it out.
 
I buy most of things now open box. For internal stuff I figure maybe people didn't need the extra performance.
 
Rizen said:
As long as they have a decent return policy on open box items you can score some nice stuff for incredible prices if you are willing to put in the extra time to test it out.
Click to expand...

What should I do to test it? 30 return policy same as close box. still has the manufacturers warranty as well



hajalie24 said:
I buy most of things now open box. For internal stuff I figure maybe people didn't need the extra performance.
Click to expand...

true true or figured 400 is just not worth the money
 
dremic said:
What should I do to test it? 30 return policy same as close box. still has the manufacturers warranty as well
Click to expand...
Physically inspect it carefully for any damage or signs of modification. Then I would suggest running a testing tool like EVGA's OC Scanner, loop Heaven Benchmark, or just play a ton of BF3/Crysis2 or other similarly intensive applications for several hours. If everything checks out, I would have no qualms with keeping it. Especially if it does have the original manufacturer warranty.
 
I've bought two open box video cards from Newegg. Both of them were defective. I've bought an open box monitor, it had a bright green stuck pixel and a blemish on the screen.

I won't be buying open box products anymore. I would rather just buy something used from a member off of the forums.
 
i was using the card it was smashing on bf3. and boosting like a champ 1110 1.175v

70% usage and than all the sudden 99% usage and the fps is down :(
 
I ran heaven everything maxed for 30 minutes no crashes... good sign?
 
Well, I just returned my ASUS 670 TOP yesterday because it won't run stable for more than 20 minutes in Heaven at stock speeds. You'll need to run it longer than 30 minutes to make sure it's stable. Who knows, maybe the person ran into money problems. Just test the hell out of it and if it runs stable, lucky you!
 
I just purchased an open box Asus 7970 DCU II from Newegg and everything seems to work fine.
 
I bought a couple brand new MSI GTX 670s just after release and had to return both.....on the surface they seemed just fine, but under stress the cards were not so good.

One had a really loud capacitor whine and one of its DVI ports would cause the monitor to blink on/off.

The other would crash under a benchmark like Furmark after about 5 minutes.

Like I said, on idle they were fine, but ramp them up......bam........I hope no one gets them as "open box", because if they are merely inspected and checked to be functional at idle, I could see them being resold easily.:D

The two I have now are just dandy.

I am very leary of open box stuff, I generally buy off this forum if I need a good used part.
 
I used MSI Kombuster and Heaven for awhile didnt seem to have an issue.. hm. Im going to play a couple more days see how it goes.



Im using MSI Afterburner is the boost clock not adjustable through afterburner like it is with ASUS GPU Tweak?


Also I am curious as to what exactly the power limit % functionality provides..
 
dremic said:
What should I do to test it? 30 return policy same as close box. still has the manufacturers warranty as well
Click to expand...

I don't mind open box items as long as theres a return policy. As far as tests I would first do Heaven Engine Benchmark for about 15-20 minutes. I would also run furmark for a few minutes. If the card can run those and be stable then its probably ok.

After that I would also test in a bunch various games. For example I had 5870 that would crash on me. But it would only do it on random titles at different times.
 
I bought an open box ASUS 260 GTX-216 from NewEgg 2 or 3 years ago and it's still running strong. Got it for $137 shipped when 260s were still selling for $180. I think there's a BIG difference between buying Open Box and buying Refurbished. I would never buy the latter.
 
dremic said:
I used MSI Kombuster and Heaven for awhile didnt seem to have an issue.. hm. Im going to play a couple more days see how it goes.



Im using MSI Afterburner is the boost clock not adjustable through afterburner like it is with ASUS GPU Tweak?


Also I am curious as to what exactly the power limit % functionality provides..
Click to expand...

You will need Afterburner 2.2.1 to fully utilize the OC functions of the 670 or 680.
The power function allow the GPU to go beyond the TDP limitations of the card and use more power draw to supply the boost beyond the typical stock boost for the card.

The boost clock in Afterburner is merely the core clock, OC = "+", stock = null.
 
featsdontfailme said:
You will need Afterburner 2.2.1 to fully utilize the OC functions of the 670 or 680.
The power function allow the GPU to go beyond the TDP limitations of the card and use more power draw to supply the boost beyond the typical stock boost for the card.

The boost clock in Afterburner is merely the core clock, OC = "+", stock = null.
Click to expand...

msi afterburner allows up to 122% power limit is it safe to allow that with a 600w PSU?

I monitor the power use to its strange it says its at 108% but my power limit is at 100%
 
dremic said:
msi afterburner allows up to 122% power limit is it safe to allow that with a 600w PSU?

I monitor the power use to its strange it says its at 108% but my power limit is at 100%
Click to expand...

Yes you will be fine sliding the power all the way over. The card only draws that power level when it needs it, so that's the maximum. it will fluctuate depending on the load it needs in game.

The boost uses more power intermittantly when it needs it.:D
 
featsdontfailme said:
Yes you will be fine sliding the power all the way over. The card only draws that power level when it needs it, so that's the maximum. it will fluctuate depending on the load it needs in game.

The boost uses more power intermittantly when it needs it.:D
Click to expand...

thanks for being so helpful man! going to try up the power limit % and raise the boost clock and memory speed a little and see what happens ;D
 
Keplers have also been shown to have very aggressive thermal protection logic. When your GPU hits 70C it will throttle itself back, and if it hits 80C it will throttle back some more. So make sure you have good airflow over the card. This could be a factor in the "hitting the wall" you have experienced.
 
Commander Suzdal said:
Keplers have also been shown to have very aggressive thermal protection logic. When your GPU hits 70C it will throttle itself back, and if it hits 80C it will throttle back some more. So make sure you have good airflow over the card. This could be a factor in the "hitting the wall" you have experienced.
Click to expand...

yeah I've noticed. I couldnt keep my temps below 70C either . . pretty annoying. I think it's a couple things I live in the desert and it's quite hot out here in las vegas. Also I have a shitty motherboard and theres 1 pci express and 1 pci. the pci is my wireless card and its literally right underneath the 670... i think thats causing some rubberbanding and also a lack of airflow. I ordered a usb adapter from newegg yesterday we'll see what happens
 
Only open box product I ordered was a motherboard, I got it and put a CPU in It and it fried the CPU. I assume it was set to send some outrageous amount of voltage through the CPU or something. Probably only used to overclock.

Anyway, Never tried a video card but watch out and make sure you check everything first.
 
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