As the price of graphics cards is no longer so exaggerated, new generations of graphics cards are also being launched one after another. Many players must be considering upgrading or replacing them with new ones. However, just like other products, graphics cards are getting more and more expensive. Not everyone has such a big budget. When buying second-hand graphics cards, many people worry about buying mining cards, but mining cards may not be as bad as you think.
Recently, a foreign hardware channel with more than 10 million subscribers uploaded a shared video. After testing multiple mining cards, they showed that buying second-hand mining cards is actually not a bad idea. Most of the performance is as good as second-hand gaming graphics cards.
Actual testing by a well-known foreign hardware channel shows that “buying second-hand mining cards is not a bad idea.” Most of them are as good as second-hand gaming graphics cards.
In the past few years, due to the surge in cryptocurrency, many graphics cards have been bought by miners for mining. Mining will put the graphics card in a high-load operating state for a long time, which will affect its lifespan. This is why most people and the media will recommend not to buy mining cards. However, Linus Tech Tips, a well-known foreign hardware technology channel, tested about 19 mining cards and believed that this argument is wrong.
Linus Tech Tips purchased 19 second-hand graphics cards from 17 unknown buyers in the past year, including NVIDIA RTX 3060, RTX 3070, RTX 3080 and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, etc. Some of them have been widely used for mining:
Although these 19 second-hand graphics cards are all functioning normally, of course they are not so lucky. There are still two minor problems, namely Gigabyte Eagle RTX 3060 OC and Sapphire Pulse RX 5700 XT.
They first used the MSI Kombustor tool to test the maximum and average clock speed of each graphics card. The average clock speed of the Gigabyte Eagle RTX 3060 OC was too low, and the measured temperature exceeded 100 degrees, so this one was not run in subsequent tests. The Sapphire Pulse RX 5700 XT clock speed is a little lower, but not much lower. They also recommend that people who are interested in buying second-hand graphics cards, if possible, ask the seller to test it with this tool. It only takes a few minutes to know the results:
Next, let’s look at the actual game measurement results. The top is the reference value. You can see that there is no difference between the two second-hand RTX 3080:
Next is the RTX 3060. Except for the MS Ventus 2X OC which is a little lower, the rest are similar to the reference values:
Finally, there is the RX 5700XT. All the pictures are similar to the reference values:
Some people believe that VRAM performance will deteriorate after a long period of mining. They also conducted tests. The Gigabyte Eagle RTX 3060 OC in question did not pass, but everything else was fine:
In the second half, Linus also shared the argument that many people believe that long-term use of mining cards will cause damage to the graphics card. He does not agree with this. He believes that the damage caused by long-term playing of the game may be greater. Those who are interested can also listen to this paragraph:
In any case, although only 1 of the 19 second-hand mining cards they tested had problems, Linus also added that you must check first when purchasing. There are several steps you can refer to:
- Communicate with the seller, most people will honestly tell you the condition of the graphics card
- Shake the graphics card to check if there is anything loose
- Check whether there is damage to the outside and inside of the graphics card
- If you buy in person, you can even test the graphics card on the spot
In addition, they also mentioned that most miners actually take good care of their graphics cards:
Of course, this report does not encourage everyone to buy second-hand mining cards, but compared to ordinary second-hand graphics cards, mining cards are indeed cheaper. If you choose carefully and follow the steps provided by Linus, you may be able to find a cheap and problem-free second-hand mining card.
Full video:
Data reference source: Wccftech
Source: KOCPC Chinese