Posted December 20, 2020 About a week ago I purchased a used Gigabyte RTX 2080 Windforce off Facebook Marketplace for $450. The seller provided video footage to me of the GPU in a system working so I trusted the seller. When the RTX 2080 arrived yesterday, I opened it up and threw it in my system to test it out. Booted into windows with no problem. I then installed the latest Nvidia drivers and opened Minecraft RTX for my first test. Once I loaded Minecraft RTX in my GPU fans immediately went to 100% and at that moment I knew something was not right. I opened up MSI Afterburner only to see throttling clock speeds of 1500Mhz and a GPU temperature of 89 degrees. It doesn't take a computer wizard to know that those temperatures show that something is seriously wrong, so I pulled the GPU out of my system and noticed some blue aftermarket thermal padding squished in between the cooler and PCB. I then knew that whoever previously owned this GPU messed up the thermals pretty bad so I decided to take the GPU apart. Following an easy disassembly guide, I split the PCB and the cooler only to find this: https://ibb.co/JHBpC2x What a mess! whoever tried to thermal pad this RTX 2080 had no idea what they were doing. Not to mention that the seller never mentioned any thermal issues OR that the GPU had been tampered with. Upon closer inspection, we can see what is undoubtedly the main thermal issue https://ibb.co/P9b49N6 https://ibb.co/5hdVGMp The previous owner had attempted to use a thermal pad instead of thermal paste. Speaking of thermal paste, it was everywhere. https://ibb.co/MND6zGG Apparently whoever decided to thermal pad this Graphics card thought that the extra high-temperature thermal paste would make a difference for low-temperature thermal pads. In this image here: https://ibb.co/P9b49N6 on the right you can see that the market blue thermal pads are way too thick and likely the reason the previous owner put a thermal pad on the IHS to actually make contact with the cooler because without the thermal pad on the IHS it doesn't even touch the cooler. Either way, this GPU was a mess. I ordered thermal grizzly padding in the correct thickness as a replacement and I will repaste the IHS with some KPX paste I have lying around. What a disaster, be careful what you buy! By the way, this is what it is supposed to look like stock... https://ibb.co/p1Sy8Ss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted December 20, 2020 while I agree... this is a useless endeavor as most people are of the opposite opinion - completely disregarding there's a 50-50 chance a used gpu was used for mining or other shenanigans, and not every miner or gamer takes care of their equipment (on the contrary) On the other hand people know about the risks, and they're not that high apparently... personally I don't have money to throw out of the window so a used gpu without warranty is a no go (unless sub €50 lol) The direction tells you... the direction. -Scott Manley, 2021 Softwares used: Corsair Link (Anime Edition) MSI Afterburner OpenRGB Lively Wallpaper OBS Studio Shutter Encoder Avidemux FSResizer Audacity VLC WMP GIMP HWiNFO64 Paint 3D Paint GitHub Desktop Superposition Prime95 Aida64 GPUZ CPUZ Generic Logviewer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted December 20, 2020 I'm really sorry for what happened. This is exactly the reason most people NEVER use marketplace. Personally I'd rather but one from ebay, as at least you have some protection. A guy asking and answering in his bedroom since he has nothing else to do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted December 20, 2020 Author 4 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said: while I agree... this is a useless endeavor as most people are of the opposite opinion - completely disregarding there's a 50-50 chance a used gpu was used for mining or other shenanigans, and not every miner or gamer takes care of their equipment (on the contrary) On the other hand people know about the risks, and they're not that high apparently... personally I don't have money to throw out of the window so a used gpu without warranty is a no go (unless sub €50 lol) I agree with you these are the risks you take buying a used Graphics card! I just thought people would like to see what can happen sometimes buying used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted December 20, 2020 Author 3 minutes ago, George Vella said: I'm really sorry for what happened. This is exactly the reason most people NEVER use marketplace. Personally I'd rather but one from ebay, as at least you have some protection. I bought this GPU through marketplace so my money actually went through Facebook, they guarantee you up to $500. Better then you would expect! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted December 20, 2020 Looks like a prime candidate for a water block! Sorry for your misfortune GamersNexus has decent videos about GPU tear downs and the proper specs for thermal pads and whatnot if you're looking to reassemble it properly! Just a PSA to all of those out there looking to mess with their card: If it starts with a 6, 7, 9, 10, 20, or 30, the thermal paste is definitely fine, just leave it. I tore apart a couple of GTX295s the other day for a "retro Crysis tier" water cooled build I'm planning (yes, I managed to track down a couple of water blocks for them) and the paste was still pastey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted December 20, 2020 Just now, msm202 said: I bought this GPU through marketplace so my money actually went through Facebook, they guarantee you up to $500. Better then you would expect! That's actually quite surprising! Here in Malta we don't have any of that. You can only pay through cash, not through Facebook themselves! I know because a friend of mine shops quite a lot on there and got scammed multiple times, without having a way of recovering his money since he paid in cash. A guy asking and answering in his bedroom since he has nothing else to do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted December 20, 2020 4 minutes ago, George Vella said: I'm really sorry for what happened. This is exactly the reason most people NEVER use marketplace. Personally I'd rather but one from ebay, as at least you have some protection. That protection can really suck as a seller tho. I sold two GTX 980s a long time ago. They were in working condition, as I just replaced them with a GTX 1080. One of them sold without any issues. With the other one the buyer claimed it wouldn't be functioning. At the end eBay ruled that I was only able to keep half of the money I sold it for. So instead of 300€, I got 150€. Both were shipped in their original box and both were running without any issues in the same system and handled by me identically. To this day I call bs. Either the guy wanted to trick me or he was too stupid to get the thing running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted December 20, 2020 2 minutes ago, Senzelian said: That protection can really suck as a seller tho. I sold two GTX 980s a long time ago. They were in working condition, as I just replaced them with a GTX 1080. One of them sold without any issues. With the other one the buyer claimed it wouldn't be functioning. At the end eBay ruled that I was only able to keep half of the money I sold it for. So instead of 300€, I got 150€. Both were shipped in their original box and both were running without any issues in the same system and handled by me identically. To this day I call bs. Either the guy wanted to trick me or he was too stupid to get the thing running. Ebay isn't that fair, especially to genuine sellers. That's a huge downside of selling on ebay I learnt the hard way A similar thing happed to me a year ago. My friend just bought an iPhone 11 Pro and gave me his old 8, I didn't want to switch to iOS , so I decided to sell the phone on ebay. It was sold for a reasonable price, but the buyer claimed the phone didn't work, even though I tested it multiple times. It was sold for around $200, and I only got to keep 50$, as the complaint was that the phone didn't turn on. Upon chatting with the buyer, it was becuase he didn't know phones had to be charged, but he wouldn't give me the $150 he stole from me. A guy asking and answering in his bedroom since he has nothing else to do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted December 20, 2020 1 minute ago, George Vella said: Ebay isn't that fair, especially to genuine sellers. That's a huge downside of selling on ebay I learnt the hard way A similar thing happed to me a year ago. My friend just bought an iPhone 11 Pro and gave me his old 8, I didn't want to switch to iOS , so I decided to sell the phone on ebay. It was sold for a reasonable price, but the buyer claimed the phone didn't work, even though I tested it multiple times. It was sold for around $200, and I only got to keep 50$, as the complaint was that the phone didn't turn on. Upon chatting with the buyer, it was becuase he didn't know phones had to be charged, but he wouldn't give me the $150 he stole from me. Yeah, lots of little pieces of sh*t on eBay. I now will only sell stuff like that to people that come to pick it up so I can show them, that it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted December 20, 2020 14 minutes ago, thermalgoop said: Looks like a prime candidate for a water block! Sorry for your misfortune GamersNexus has decent videos about GPU tear downs and the proper specs for thermal pads and whatnot if you're looking to reassemble it properly! Just a PSA to all of those out there looking to mess with their card: If it starts with a 6, 7, 9, 10, 20, or 30, the thermal paste is definitely fine, just leave it. I tore apart a couple of GTX295s the other day for a "retro Crysis tier" water cooled build I'm planning (yes, I managed to track down a couple of water blocks for them) and the paste was still pastey. Not in the case of my GTX 650 Ti Boosts - it was not pasty at all - the cooler separated very easily and the thermal paste was in flakes. I repasted them. And then forgot to reconnect the fan so I was confused why I had idle temps of 50-60C, sometimes even 70C. Fixed that two days ago elephants Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted December 20, 2020 28 minutes ago, Senzelian said: Yeah, lots of little pieces of sh*t on eBay. I now will only sell stuff like that to people that come to pick it up so I can show them, that it works. yeah but is that really the people or shit ebay policies? Personally I neither buy nor sell on eBay... the only sane option imo. The direction tells you... the direction. -Scott Manley, 2021 Softwares used: Corsair Link (Anime Edition) MSI Afterburner OpenRGB Lively Wallpaper OBS Studio Shutter Encoder Avidemux FSResizer Audacity VLC WMP GIMP HWiNFO64 Paint 3D Paint GitHub Desktop Superposition Prime95 Aida64 GPUZ CPUZ Generic Logviewer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted December 20, 2020 2 hours ago, Mark Kaine said: yeah but is that really the people or shit ebay policies? Personally I neither buy nor sell on eBay... the only sane option imo. Ebay is also created by people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted December 21, 2020 That's gross. Grab some 99% isopropyl alcohol and just douse the entire board in a vat of that, have it cleaned off fresh as new, then re-pad and repaste it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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