You SHOULD buy Used GPUs - Testing Used Mining Cards

Don’t buy used GPUs! A warning we’ve heard far too many times. But does mining actually harm your GPU? We think not. So we tested 19 different used GPUs from AMD and NVIDIA to determine if cryptomining will make your PC Hardware purchase die on arrival.

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

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MUSIC CREDIT
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Intro: Laszlo - Supernova

Outro: Approaching Nirvana - Sugar High

CHAPTERS
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0:00 Intro
1:12 Purchasing Cards
3:30 How We Tested
4:25 Clock Speeds and Thermals
6:52 Gaming Results
8:19 VRAM Performance
8:39 She's Dead, Tim
9:24 Responding to the Media
12:35 Price Used vs New

[LinusTechTips]

Have you purchased a used GPU before? Let us know how your experience was down below.


Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

[TAJHADproductions]

The problem I’ve had with used GPUs is people trying to sell them for the price they bought them for or only like 50 less

[KNnY_G]

Honestly, these are the kinda LTT videos I really look forward to.

I really can't wait for labs to be in full swing, however long that's gonna take.
Their touch is apparent in every video they really put in legwork for.

[tkburn]

That vinegar smell is common for cards mined at the coast or in high humidity environments. When miners are done with the cards they usually have some level of oxidation, disassembling the card and leaving the rusty bits in a vinegar-water solution usually dissolves the rust so that your left with a 'clean looking yet smelly card'

[treschlet]

this is honestly one of the most important videos linus has made

[PK]

i really appreciated the candor and honesty displayed in this video. the fact that linus media group has managed to scale up so much and maintain the integrity the have is pretty incredible

[dunnst]

Bought used 3070 some months ago and it ran with 100% fun speed once in the game. Thermals looked fine, but when I checked the hot-spot, it was at 107°C. I opened the card and found out, that only half the chip was covered in thermal paste. Re-pasted it and it workes fine.

[assetaden]

I always try to sell my used stuff instead of throwing them away, and I definitely will return the money if the product I sold didn't work (that's why I sell locally). The last i7 3770 I sold found its new owner and continues to live a happy life of crunching numbers.
And I always encourage people to buy used, even helping them by visiting the seller and doing tests. You better save damn landfills.

[OcanMaster]

I've literally been waiting for this video for so long, thank god it came. I've ran a few multiple mined cards for awhile now and never had issues with GPU issues and overall performances. I always knew that it was way blown out of proportion of how bad 'mined' cards are. Honestly just make sure it's a good brand with a decent warranty and one that is transferrable and you will be fine.

[jubul]

I know it may not be the easiest thing to actually produce but if you want to encourage people to buy used its a perfect time to bring back scrapyard wars!
You can even get lab involved to run some more in depth testing on the systems you build

[mintagenart]

I recently bought a used GPU that ended up working like brand new. Should be noted that there are used computer shops that receive used GPUs, and test and repair them before redistributing. They will charge little extra for their work saving these cards, but it can make buying used a lot less of a headache while still being heaps cheaper than brand new.

[ryant]

The Eagle OC is also a discount card to begin with so not as surprising that it was the one that failed.
Fortunately, as you said, eBay has a great buyer protection scheme so all you lose is a bit of shipping time.

[FcoEnriquePerez]

You can't imagine how much tankful I am for this video, and I don't even sell GPUs, but I do buy them, always second hand since my last new purchase that was a 480 when GPU prices were fair.
And I've never had a problem buying used GPUs, like you said, is about knowing how to do it, and knowing the reality about GPUs life span and degradation.

[BDenes]

I worked at a gaming PC manufacturer as quality control/repair and noticed a consistent issue with Eagle branded cards from gigabyte. Fresh out of the box there was a 15c variance between the ones that ran coolest and the ones that ran hottest. The cool ones ran around 80, hot ran 95c.

Just avoid gigabyte Eagle cards new or used.

[badonpurpose]

my wife bought an ex-mining 3060 ti and not a single problem with it. i'll admit i was doubtful at first, but she gets flawless performance and this video put the rest of my worries to rest. big fan of the points you made about preventing e-waste by buying used

[iankrauss]

I hope you guys now do a follow up video on this performing the same tests after a proper maintainance to each GPU with a good clean, quality TIM and pads and stock vbios. Ive some nice improvements after doing this to mined gpus

[Nostalgia_Realm]

Thanks for this video! I've had the same experience buying used. As long as you're not buying something that is at the end of its lifecycle, say from less than 8 years ago, you should be good most of the time. Still rocking a second-hand R7 260x for light gaming and bought an open-box 165Hz MSi monitor recently that was also completely fine. Plus saves you a ton of money!
I had most of my issues is when buying hardware for ancient computers, such as a Pentium III build I restored a while back.

[BrendanGeormer]

Something to note about the part near the end where it was mentioned that you weren't buying especially savvy, I think it's important to consider that not everyone knows the warning signs for buying used, like if they show photos of the fans or it plugged in vs out in hand, or if they show benchmarks or anything else. A novice might think anything they see with just 1 image is good enough and end up getting duped. Hopefully they can get their money back through buyer protection through ebay in such a case, but it would turn a lot of people away from buying used because they just don't want to deal with the hassle of return shipping, even if they get the money back, only to have to try again after just getting burnt.

[sarugesh]

I bought a GPU from a miner, he was very chill and gave me a great deal and lots of info about how he ran his cards such as clock speed and etc... At the end I got a 3060 TI and till this day it's one of the best deals ever!

[arizonawatermelon]

When buying used gpu I’d say the most common consideration is adding cost of new fans. Most I’ve bought the fans were operable but bearings started making scratchy noises even after lubing.