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Buy a card from a miner?

bejamartins
By bejamartins
in Graphics Cards
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Go to solution Solved by samcool55,
1 minute ago, bejamartins said:

 

Ok, but do cards have some flag that manufacturers can detect for warranty purposes.

Nah, they don't.

It's impossible to know if a card is actually used for mining unless it's actually broken in some way.

 

Actually, the ones that have a flashed bios are the "better" ones because they will have been undervolted so they ran colder.

Just make sure they flash back the original BIOS.

Posted

Sorry of n00b question but I have arranged to buy an RX 580 8GB OC from a miner, with still one year warranty from the store. My question is, do miners alter the card in any way (ex. firmware flashing) that either voids warranties or require some work to set it back for regular use?

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Just now, bejamartins said:

?

They can but it is not the norm.

 

You should check with GPU-z with the card running on the system to check on it.

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Some do use custom BIOSes. Recommendation is to have the seller flash back the original one.

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20 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

They can but it is not the norm.

 

You should check with GPU-z with the card running on the system to check on it.

 

15 minutes ago, jj9987 said:

Some do use custom BIOSes. Recommendation is to have the seller flash back the original one.

Ok, but do cards have some flag that manufacturers can detect for warranty purposes.

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2 minutes ago, bejamartins said:

Ok, but do cards have some flag that manufacturers can detect for warranty purposes.

Yes if the card has a custom BIOS instead of the stock one that can render into RMA issues.

Personal Desktop":

CPU: Intel Core i7 10700K @5ghz |~| Cooling: bq! Dark Rock Pro 4 |~| MOBO: Gigabyte Z490UD ATX|~| RAM: 16gb DDR4 3333mhzCL16 G.Skill Trident Z |~| GPU: RX 6900XT Sapphire Nitro+ |~| PSU: Corsair TX650M 80Plus Gold |~| Boot:  SSD WD Green M.2 2280 240GB |~| Storage: 1x3TB HDD 7200rpm Seagate Barracuda + SanDisk Ultra 3D 1TB |~| Case: Fractal Design Meshify C Mini |~| Display: Toshiba UL7A 4K/60hz |~| OS: Windows 10 Pro.

Luna, the temporary Desktop:

CPU: AMD R9 7950XT  |~| Cooling: bq! Dark Rock 4 Pro |~| MOBO: Gigabyte Aorus Master |~| RAM: 32G Kingston HyperX |~| GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX (Reference) |~| PSU: Corsair HX1000 80+ Platinum |~| Windows Boot Drive: 2x 512GB (1TB total) Plextor SATA SSD (RAID0 volume) |~| Linux Boot Drive: 500GB Kingston A2000 |~| Storage: 4TB WD Black HDD |~| Case: Cooler Master Silencio S600 |~| Display 1 (leftmost): Eizo (unknown model) 1920x1080 IPS @ 60Hz|~| Display 2 (center): BenQ ZOWIE XL2540 1920x1080 TN @ 240Hz |~| Display 3 (rightmost): Wacom Cintiq Pro 24 3840x2160 IPS @ 60Hz 10-bit |~| OS: Windows 10 Pro (games / art) + Linux (distro: NixOS; programming and daily driver)
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1 minute ago, bejamartins said:

 

Ok, but do cards have some flag that manufacturers can detect for warranty purposes.

Nah, they don't.

It's impossible to know if a card is actually used for mining unless it's actually broken in some way.

 

Actually, the ones that have a flashed bios are the "better" ones because they will have been undervolted so they ran colder.

Just make sure they flash back the original BIOS.

If you want my attention, quote meh! D: or just stick an @samcool55 in your post :3

Spying on everyone to fight against terrorism is like shooting a mosquito with a cannon

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48 minutes ago, samcool55 said:

Nah, they don't.

It's impossible to know if a card is actually used for mining unless it's actually broken in some way.

 

Actually, the ones that have a flashed bios are the "better" ones because they will have been undervolted so they ran colder.

Just make sure they flash back the original BIOS.

Better in terms of general performance or durability?

 

I talked to the seller, it s a dual BIOS, it has both the original and a custom BIOS installed.

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3 minutes ago, bejamartins said:

Better in terms of general performance or durability?

 

I talked to the seller, it s a dual BIOS, it has both the original and a custom BIOS installed.

In durability, the ones that have a custom BIOS probably had an "easier" life than the ones that didn't (mining is still worse than the card not being used at all, regardless of what it mined)

 

But you need to get rid of that custom BIOS because as long as that's there, no warranty.

Once it's flashed back, it's probably fine.

If you want my attention, quote meh! D: or just stick an @samcool55 in your post :3

Spying on everyone to fight against terrorism is like shooting a mosquito with a cannon

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