3 ms·

It’s not like this memory use actually causes wear and tear though - DRAM doesn’t involve some irreversible process like Flash does. At the end of the day it is

It’s not like this memory use actually causes wear and tear though - DRAM doesn’t involve some irreversible process like Flash does. At the end of the day it is still the same slow thermal death - mining just means the RAM is more prone to overheating than the GPU. And yes it’s hard to know after the fact how the RAM has been treated - but if the RAM is properly cooled it should have no wear just due to use.

dragontamer 4y ago
All transistors wear out the more you use them. DRAM is pretty durable but the controller, bus pins, and other parts would be the wear/tear in my opinion. Those other bits inside the DRAM could very well wear out.
- 7speter 4y ago
  Also the gddr6x that’s used on the higher end ampere cards (3070ti and above) are known to get really hot
- danachow 4y ago
  That transistor wear is going to be on a timescale far longer than at issue here - the silicon aging effects referring to will take place over decades of full time for use at low operating temperature - none of these graphics cards are anywhere near that old.
  - dragontamer 4y ago
    > low operating temperature Debatable. A lot of these miners are keeping their GPU-stations inside of a garage with no air-conditioning (so 90F+ temperatures, maybe 100F+ ambient). These miners are going for the cheapest-of-cheap conditions, they weren't running a datacenter, but a mining operation. I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of them never paid attention to airflow issues. Closets, garages, maybe even sheds. While GPU cores are underclocked and undervolted (but not necessarily), the RAM is going to be processing at full tilt as quickly as possible, possibly overclocked and overvolted and therefore at even higher temperatures. -------- Finally, buying used means having a very ambiguous warranty. You might not have anyone to send the GPUs to. Its generally not a good idea, especially now that new-prices of GPUs is below MSRP. Honestly, we're not getting a temperature graph of these GPU's life. We're only getting assurances from some cryptobro that they treated their GPUs correctly (and no offense to the cryptobro community, but... there's a lot of lying scammers out there). Its not a trustworthy community at all.
    - danachow 4y ago
      No disagreement on any of this - I would not trust the second hand miner stuff wasn’t treated like shit myself either.

dragontamer 4y ago

All transistors wear out the more you use them. DRAM is pretty durable but the controller, bus pins, and other parts would be the wear/tear in my opinion. Those other bits inside the DRAM could very well wear out.

7speter 4y ago
Also the gddr6x that’s used on the higher end ampere cards (3070ti and above) are known to get really hot
danachow 4y ago
That transistor wear is going to be on a timescale far longer than at issue here - the silicon aging effects referring to will take place over decades of full time for use at low operating temperature - none of these graphics cards are anywhere near that old.
- dragontamer 4y ago
  > low operating temperature Debatable. A lot of these miners are keeping their GPU-stations inside of a garage with no air-conditioning (so 90F+ temperatures, maybe 100F+ ambient). These miners are going for the cheapest-of-cheap conditions, they weren't running a datacenter, but a mining operation. I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of them never paid attention to airflow issues. Closets, garages, maybe even sheds. While GPU cores are underclocked and undervolted (but not necessarily), the RAM is going to be processing at full tilt as quickly as possible, possibly overclocked and overvolted and therefore at even higher temperatures. -------- Finally, buying used means having a very ambiguous warranty. You might not have anyone to send the GPUs to. Its generally not a good idea, especially now that new-prices of GPUs is below MSRP. Honestly, we're not getting a temperature graph of these GPU's life. We're only getting assurances from some cryptobro that they treated their GPUs correctly (and no offense to the cryptobro community, but... there's a lot of lying scammers out there). Its not a trustworthy community at all.
  - danachow 4y ago
    No disagreement on any of this - I would not trust the second hand miner stuff wasn’t treated like shit myself either.