why do people state whether video card were used for mining?

Makes sense, I always wanted to know why. I typically assumed its because of wear. It's like saying my I'm selling my 2018 (obviously now old) car but it has 100k miles already.
 
For conservative settings, +200 memory -400 core 65% TDP

If you're mining Ethereum anyway. I hear ZCash is the way to go for 1080Ti's but haven't looked into what the best settings are for that coin.
 
I have yet to see someone stating that a card was used for mining. Pretty much everyone states that the card was NOT used for mining (or light mining).

Not that you could tell either way.
 
For conservative settings, +200 memory -400 core 65% TDP

If you're mining Ethereum anyway. I hear ZCash is the way to go for 1080Ti's but haven't looked into what the best settings are for that coin.

That's good for equihash too. Could even drop down to 50-55% tdp if you want to bump efficiency.
 
Why are hard drives the only type of hardware with smart data? It seems like knowing the history of hardware would be beneficial. Hours of use, max load time, etc.
 
OP, if they are selling the mining card for a good price and is within warranty, you should be fine.

There seems to be tons of proof out there (along with everyone’s own anecdotal evidence) that every GPU for mining dies shortly after being sold.

Not like no other video cards has died prematurely before GPU mining became well known.....
 
I don't think mining per se can kill a video card.

I think it has more to do with too high OC, voltage, proper cooling and a good PS.
 
Used is used guys. I’ve seen people post cards for sale: ‘Never mined on never overclocked’ but the board looks like it was pulled out of a landfill. Some people never clean out their computers so the dust and pet hair builds up all over the card. Not to mention some peoples houses are just gross or they smoke inside etc etc. I’ve seen some grimey shit for sale that I wouldn’t touch with a 10 foot pole but hey it hasn’t been mined on. Always ask for pics. The surroundings can be just as important as the board itself. Check the heatware. If all looks good youre probably good to go.
 
my question is what does mining do to video cards?


If the guy mining is undervolting the GPU's, those GPU's have a much longer shelf life even if 24/7 usage. Voltage has a direct relationship to GPU temps, those temps affect the silicon over time as the silicon "burns" off with sustained higher temps.

I wouldn't be too afraid of GPU's from people mining, I would be more wary of gamers with overclocking and over voting their GPU's to the hilt.
 
If the guy mining is undervolting the GPU's, those GPU's have a much longer shelf life even if 24/7 usage. Voltage has a direct relationship to GPU temps, those temps affect the silicon over time as the silicon "burns" off with sustained higher temps.

I wouldn't be too afraid of GPU's from people mining, I would be more wary of gamers with overclocking and over voting their GPU's to the hilt.

I would agree. The concern over cards being used for mining is far overblown. Effects from thermal cycling are much more likely to cause a board fault than simply running for extended periods. As I understand mining, they tend to just stay pretty loaded and the goal is to NOT have them sit idle and cool (lost money).

I wouldn't bat an eye at buying a used mining card, personally. YMMV.
 
Seems like the memory is what takes a beating or is overclock to near limits while the GPU is just taking a slow jog through the park. Mining with the Vega FE, it's memory gets rather toasty, GPU 60c HBM 80c. So mining maybe not too stressful to the GPU, VRMs etc. but it can be to the memory. I just have not seen memory fail due to usage, have seen it fail due to damage or too much voltage. As for buying a used card - someone did not want keeping it for what ever reason.
 
This is so misleading that it needs to stop being repeated. ETH is currently the most popular form of GPU mining and while people undervolt and under clock the GPU, they also at the same time crack up the VRAM speeds to clocks that are MUCH higher than any gaming card would see because it would crash or artifact at a far lower clock speed. Then there’s the fact that it’s under load 24/7 which also doesn’t happen in games.
This isnt misleading. I am a miner and ETH doesnt require your GPU to be overused or burnt. they are usually very undervolted. Its temp that wears the circuits, not use.
 
This isnt misleading. I am a miner and ETH doesnt require your GPU to be overused or burnt. they are usually very undervolted. Its temp that wears the circuits, not use.

You either didn't bother to read or have no idea what the difference between VRAM and GPU is.

I mine too, I know exactly what happens.

For any doubters it's really very simple. Go to google, type in something like "GTX 1060 ethereum settings" and take a look at some of the suggested clock settings. Then apply those settings and launch a game and see if you don't get a shit load of artifacts or system hangs with many of the suggested VRAM settings.
 
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I would agree. The concern over cards being used for mining is far overblown. Effects from thermal cycling are much more likely to cause a board fault than simply running for extended periods. As I understand mining, they tend to just stay pretty loaded and the goal is to NOT have them sit idle and cool (lost money).

I wouldn't bat an eye at buying a used mining card, personally. YMMV.


Yep its a common misconception that just because an electronic device is on 24/7 its bad for it. Its bad for mechanical parts because of friction and physical wear of the parts, solid state devices don't have those issues. Heat and heat variance is what kills electronics.
 
Why are hard drives the only type of hardware with smart data? It seems like knowing the history of hardware would be beneficial. Hours of use, max load time, etc.
They don't expect you will be using most other pc parts after they reach 3-5 years. I would guess they are built with that in mind. Especially high end video cards. They expect those will be changed out fairly regularly.
 
They don't expect you will be using most other pc parts after they reach 3-5 years. I would guess they are built with that in mind. Especially high end video cards. They expect those will be changed out fairly regularly.

I suspect it has much more to do with how critical the component is as well as the odds of failure then how long you'll use it. People who upgrade their video cards are an extremely small minority of PC users. If anything, for the vast majority, it's the drive that will fail first, prompting a new computer purchase. Not to mention things like memory sticks and CPU last far longer than a hard drive even for enthusiasts.

If your drive fails, you've lost potentially millions of dollars of data, there's no other component with quite that much liability.
 
Considering I am mining on some 7950's from 2012 that were used in the litecoin days.........I have no idea why people get their pants in a wad over it. Nobody asks someone selling a used CPU, "How much rendering did it do in PovRay? Was it idling or clocking up when you owned it?"

Mostly butthurt gamers mad about GPU prices being high demanding a discount I think.

Last time I sold off all my mining cards (here on [H]), not one person complained of problems with the video cards. I was even expecting problems and told people to let me know if they have issues.

yeah i have 2 8800GT's that basically folded 24/7 from 2008-2015 both are volt modded and both ran balls out at 836/1836/1000 overclock the entire time.. both cards still work and both cards still overclock exactly as they did in 2008. i'm all for people disclosing how the cards were used since it at least gives an educated buyer an idea what to look out for if there happens to be a problem.. the other thing is that with cards that are used for mining typically never play games and thus issues can show up with gaming that are completely unrelated to mining since it doesn't access those parts of the gpu.. for example i had a GTX 260 that literally could not play a game to save it's life but it had zero issues running F@H error free. either way i'd say a heavily used mining card was probably better taken care of then most cards used for gaming since uptime and stability are far more important to them.

to each their own.
 
I have yet to see someone stating that a card was used for mining. Pretty much everyone states that the card was NOT used for mining (or light mining).

Not that you could tell either way.
I sold some cards over the weekend and stated clearly that I’d used them for mining (for a few days). Dude who bought them paid in ether and we talked about mining while we waited for his payment to clear.

I think stating it, for full disclosure, is the right thing to do, but I also think folks who freak out about it are overreacting. I’m yet to see any conclusive data that suggests it’s really an issue, other than maybe fans wearing out, and I’m yet to see that happen in a mining card. I’ve had it happen to several cards I used just for gaming, though.
 
I have been running many, many 1080tis in a mining farm for the past year. Almost all of them are Founder's cards. I run 60-100% power limit. No undervolting but also no overvolting or overclocking.

I have not had a single card failure or issue. My racks are enclosed with excellent, direct to atmosphere-vented exhaust. I am not using air conditioning or temp control on the cold side.

The modern, low power cards are solid. The FE blower heatsink is a great design. I really expected to have at least 1 card issue in 12 months of 24/7 use...but none so far.
 
I personally appreciate full disclosure on the cards. my preference is to buy gaming cards as they typically dont see the crazy loads that mining cards do, but realistically i have come to grips that because cards are hard to find in my area and i dont have a ton of cash that i am basically playing the silicon lottery. to me building a rapport with the seller and actually getting to see the hardware working is worth more than anything in my books!
 
I personally appreciate full disclosure on the cards. my preference is to buy gaming cards as they typically dont see the crazy loads that mining cards do, but realistically i have come to grips that because cards are hard to find in my area and i dont have a ton of cash that i am basically playing the silicon lottery. to me building a rapport with the seller and actually getting to see the hardware working is worth more than anything in my books!


Mining cards are typical less load than gaming cards. Mining cards usually don't go to max voltage or frequencies (if the miner knows what he/she is doing), and only use the shader array. My gtx 1070's sip power, 80 watts each max (if I was dual mining, eth and what ever else they would use 95 watts). You think a gaming card is going to be like that?
 
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That's a totally fair argument, my experience has been that having a seller who is willing to demo the card and actually build some rapport with you is valuable, and also shows some pride of ownership. Someone who is just trying to dump a card won't go to those lengths, but at the end of the day I kow that still doesn't impact the mining vs gaming card debate.
 
Part of the issue is people buying for their home use / hobby, vs people that use large quantities for money making purposes.
If you know what you are doing with CPUs, GPUs, Memory etc. in large quantities in the used market, you don't worry really about how it was used, just does it hit the price point you want to be at.
You also generally worry less about warranties, but just care about overall failure rate by batches, and build that into your cost calculations.

It's just like the CPUs.
Small home / office end users (or even more so, resellers trying to sell it off as "NEW" to some smaller user) are all whiny about does it have any scratches, how was it used, how long was it powered on for, what's the date code, I want one that looks perfect, I like this factory more than that factory etc.
Large commercial users couldn't care less. It's in a server never to be seen again till the server comes apart after being sold off. As long as it is stable in the tests, it's generally good to go for many years for them.

On the people that do the GPUs to make money towards the higher end scale, there is a calculation between cost of card, profit based on hash rates for the chosen mining currency, power usage & residual value for the card. The moment they can swap out to something better that makes money quicker and the other cards are right at the best point for residual resale value, they are swapped out and the next level down the food chain snaps them up. (Of course availability changes everything).

Much like Servers & CPUs, the top of the food chain swaps out as soon as something newer (that they can get at a price that works), makes more sense from the operating / ownership cost standpoint & then they work their way down the chain based on performance / budget for the tiers after that.

If someone is going to be all picky to the extreme and wants all this hand holding, I usually find it's not worth the trouble and it's better to just take a little bit less from someone who actually uses the hardware on a regular basis commercially & knows what they are doing.
If you have just the 1 precious item, then it means the world to you, if you got 30 of them used but paid 20% less than new, even if one fails you are still ahead.
 
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