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Are there any reliability issues with used mining cards? AFAIK most miners undervolted their cards to maximise profitability vs. power/cooling requirements. Wo

by scrlk 4y ago

Are there any reliability issues with used mining cards? AFAIK most miners undervolted their cards to maximise profitability vs. power/cooling requirements. Would applying new thermal paste + replacing fans on the cooler be enough?

ur-whale 4y ago
> Are there any reliability issues with used mining cards? Yes. Specifically, voltage regulators tend - for some reason I am not familar with - wear out and die. I'd be very careful when buying a second-hand GPU that was used for mining. > Would applying new thermal paste + replacing fans on the cooler be enough? Doubtful.
timtom39 4y ago
Yes but I have owned several with no issues. I usually will only buy from sellers who have lots of positive feedback. New sellers have nothing to lose.
scambier 4y ago
There's a nice Linus Tech Tips video about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKqVvXTanzI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKqVvXTanzI The tl;dw is that used cards don't perform worse than new cards - your card either works, or it doesn't. But like any electronics, they have an "expiration date", and if it's been used for 2 years, it's 2 years closer to dying. It's up to you to decide if the discount of a used card might be worth it.
- benj111 4y ago
  But what's the bathtub curve on GPUs though? I'm guessing like most electronics, if they don't break in the first few months, they'll probably last until they're thrown away.
  - doubled112 4y ago
    Depends how long until you throw them away. A bathtub curve needs to come back up, right?
    - benj111 4y ago
      Yes. And when was the last time you had a processor fail, or ram, or motherboard? I've had one motherboard on a laptop go. And that was due to flexing at the hinge. Everything else was mechanical, and I keep pcs for longer than average. My current laptop is 7 years old I believe.
      - doubled112 4y ago
        Everything fails eventually, and I agree, usually once they're a certain age they keep going a while. How many I've had fail? Or how many I've replaced? I worked for a few years in a warranty depot doing desktop and laptop repair. I've replaced a lot of parts outside of that first few months. I keep my stuff around a good long time too. I replaced a 5 year old GPU in my desktop just this spring. Tossed a desktop motherboard that would no longer POST with known good parts this summer that was probably about 7 years old. A couple of laptops hit the recycle bin last year because their screens stopped displaying a picture, but it wasn't physical damage or the cable. They were probably close to 8 years old. Stuff happens, as they say.
- zajio1am 4y ago
  > The tl;dw is that used cards don't perform worse than new cards - your card either works, or it doesn't. For electronics, it is often not just "either works, or it doesn't", but there is also decreased reliability (increased rate of random crashes and restarts). We ran many PCs as routers in often inadequate temperature conditions and that was pretty common failure mode.
  - hot_gril 4y ago
    Was going to say, "it either works or it doesn't" doesn't even match my experience using home routers at obviously tiny scale. Every router needs a reboot sometimes, question is how often. My parents' router is on a lamp timer now to ensure it reboots daily. Amortized like 1 "9" of reliability. A better one maybe gets 3 "9"s.
  - scambier 4y ago
    The "it works or it doesn't" was opposed to "used cards perform worse" (which they don't).
dimman 4y ago
Not necessarily more than any other card. As long as it's been running within component specs (especially temperatures), I wouldn't be worried. It's obviously been running fine under high loads, so why would it just decide to stop working fine? I think the major issue is that many cards have been running outside of specs for a long time. High loads tends to increase the risk of that, so the problem lies in figuring out the case for the card you're interested in.
- squeaky-clean 4y ago
  > It's obviously been running fine under high loads, so why would it just decide to stop working fine? I think most people don't really get how durability works with solid state electronics. It makes sense that a truck used under high loads for 2 years straight is going to show some issues. If I was buying a used tube guitar amp and the seller told me it had been left continously playing a test tone at maximum volume for years I'd assume the tubes and speaker cone are F'd. The idea of "it's been running fine for 2 years under high load, so that's a good sign it will continue to run" is correct but very unintuitive.

by scrlk 4y ago

ur-whale 4y ago

> Are there any reliability issues with used mining cards? Yes. Specifically, voltage regulators tend - for some reason I am not familar with - wear out and die. I'd be very careful when buying a second-hand GPU that was used for mining. > Would applying new thermal paste + replacing fans on the cooler be enough? Doubtful.

timtom39 4y ago

Yes but I have owned several with no issues. I usually will only buy from sellers who have lots of positive feedback. New sellers have nothing to lose.

scambier 4y ago

There's a nice Linus Tech Tips video about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKqVvXTanzI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKqVvXTanzI The tl;dw is that used cards don't perform worse than new cards - your card either works, or it doesn't. But like any electronics, they have an "expiration date", and if it's been used for 2 years, it's 2 years closer to dying. It's up to you to decide if the discount of a used card might be worth it.

benj111 4y ago
But what's the bathtub curve on GPUs though? I'm guessing like most electronics, if they don't break in the first few months, they'll probably last until they're thrown away.
- doubled112 4y ago
  Depends how long until you throw them away. A bathtub curve needs to come back up, right?
  - benj111 4y ago
    Yes. And when was the last time you had a processor fail, or ram, or motherboard? I've had one motherboard on a laptop go. And that was due to flexing at the hinge. Everything else was mechanical, and I keep pcs for longer than average. My current laptop is 7 years old I believe.
    - doubled112 4y ago
      Everything fails eventually, and I agree, usually once they're a certain age they keep going a while. How many I've had fail? Or how many I've replaced? I worked for a few years in a warranty depot doing desktop and laptop repair. I've replaced a lot of parts outside of that first few months. I keep my stuff around a good long time too. I replaced a 5 year old GPU in my desktop just this spring. Tossed a desktop motherboard that would no longer POST with known good parts this summer that was probably about 7 years old. A couple of laptops hit the recycle bin last year because their screens stopped displaying a picture, but it wasn't physical damage or the cable. They were probably close to 8 years old. Stuff happens, as they say.
zajio1am 4y ago
> The tl;dw is that used cards don't perform worse than new cards - your card either works, or it doesn't. For electronics, it is often not just "either works, or it doesn't", but there is also decreased reliability (increased rate of random crashes and restarts). We ran many PCs as routers in often inadequate temperature conditions and that was pretty common failure mode.
- hot_gril 4y ago
  Was going to say, "it either works or it doesn't" doesn't even match my experience using home routers at obviously tiny scale. Every router needs a reboot sometimes, question is how often. My parents' router is on a lamp timer now to ensure it reboots daily. Amortized like 1 "9" of reliability. A better one maybe gets 3 "9"s.
- scambier 4y ago
  The "it works or it doesn't" was opposed to "used cards perform worse" (which they don't).

dimman 4y ago

Not necessarily more than any other card. As long as it's been running within component specs (especially temperatures), I wouldn't be worried. It's obviously been running fine under high loads, so why would it just decide to stop working fine? I think the major issue is that many cards have been running outside of specs for a long time. High loads tends to increase the risk of that, so the problem lies in figuring out the case for the card you're interested in.

squeaky-clean 4y ago
> It's obviously been running fine under high loads, so why would it just decide to stop working fine? I think most people don't really get how durability works with solid state electronics. It makes sense that a truck used under high loads for 2 years straight is going to show some issues. If I was buying a used tube guitar amp and the seller told me it had been left continously playing a test tone at maximum volume for years I'd assume the tubes and speaker cone are F'd. The idea of "it's been running fine for 2 years under high load, so that's a good sign it will continue to run" is correct but very unintuitive.