Is a dead card worth buying?

[AstroNoot]

Hey guys!

Two months ago I had to sell my Sapphire Nitro RX580 8GB to pay for some medication for a loved one. Like all the people in my area, I sold my GPU for like, 300$. I dont regret it, since that person now feels better than ever.

Now, after realising how essential for my mental health gaming with friends is, during these times. I decided to buy a GPU so I can finally get back to gaming.
The current GPU shortage just made the prices go even higher, and looking on insert romanian craigslist equivalent here i found a "presumably" dead RX580 4GB for sale, for 100$

The seller said he buys them in batch, either from mining rigs or , so he doesnt really bother testing them too much. It's interesting that he said the "GPU won't post on an intel system" but "might work on AMD systems or older DDR3 based intel systems"
 

I have minor troubleshooting skills in terms of hardware, so I'm not sure how confident would I be buying this card and trying to fix it.

Even if it sounds stereotypical, the dude on the phone sounds pretty old. The "I think the HDMI port from the motherboard will do just fine" kind of old.


Would you buy the card if you were me?
Is any card "forever" dead?

EDIT:
Seller says RGB and the fans turn on.

Edited May 18, 2021 by AstroNoot

[Stahlmann]

I just wouldn't buy it. The person doesn't sound trustworthy if he has no clue what he's talking about. And buying a possibly dead GPU in the first place is a bad decision alltogether.

[mariushm]

AMD RX series cards don't work on some older motherboards, because they need BIOSes that support UEFI, or a UEFI BIOS. The BIOS must have some UEFI extensions for the video card to work. 

 

Modern nVidia cards are the same, but I think  up to GTX 1060 the cards still work with BIOSes without UEFI support.

 

A lot of Dell and HP systems with i3/i5 3xxx and  i3/i5 4xxx processors  had basic bioses without UEFI stuff needed for the RX cards to work.

Same with A LOT of original Intel motherboards... they lacked UEFI support, so modern video cards have problems running on them - on some, you only get image once you're in Windows, and not before... on others, the card won't work at all.

 

So the "gpu won't post on intel bla bla" may not be a hardware fault. 

 

Anyway... yeah ... If you have transportation I'd go with a computer to his place and ask the guy to let you test the video card, and if it works, it works.

 

[DoctorNick]

4 minutes ago, mariushm said:

 

 

Anyway... yeah ... If you have transportation I'd go with a computer to his place and ask the guy to let you test the video card, and if it works, it works.

 

This, and if it dosen't work. Test with iGPU. Check device manager. if it shows error 43. Then you could flash a new BIOS to the card

[Freakwise]

27 minutes ago, AstroNoot said:

Hey guys!

Two months ago I had to sell my Sapphire Nitro RX580 8GB to pay for some medication for a loved one. Like all the people in my area, I sold my GPU for like, 300$. I dont regret it, since that person now feels better than ever.

Now, after realising how essential for my mental health gaming with friends is, during these times. I decided to buy a GPU so I can finally get back to gaming.
The current GPU shortage just made the prices go even higher, and looking on insert romanian craigslist equivalent here i found a "presumably" dead RX580 4GB for sale, for 100$

The seller said he buys them in batch, either from mining rigs or , so he doesnt really bother testing them too much. It's interesting that he said the "GPU won't post on an intel system" but "might work on AMD systems or older DDR3 based intel systems"
 

I have minor troubleshooting skills in terms of hardware, so I'm not sure how confident would I be buying this card and trying to fix it.

Even if it sounds stereotypical, the dude on the phone sounds pretty old. The "I think the HDMI port from the motherboard will do just fine" kind of old.


Would you buy the card if you were me?
Is any card "forever" dead?

EDIT:
Seller says RGB and the fans turn on.

I wouldn't buy it tbh my reason, unless of course i can met the person irl and test the gpu, 

[FlpDaMattress]

"Untested/as is" is almost universal for "Tested and broken, but selling as is to shed liability". I wouldn't pick up on someone elses project unless:

1) you know exactly what you're doing.

2) it's for parts.

3) just for ascetics (like me )

[Deuxez]

Just now, FlpDaMattress said:

"Untested/as is" is almost universal for "Tested and broken, but selling as is to shed liability". I wouldn't pick up on someone elses project unless you know exactly what you're doing, it's for parts, or just for ascetics (like me)

A little Off-topic, but WHAT gpu is the second one? that die is HUGE. Must be some old titan/quadro right?

[FlpDaMattress]

14 minutes ago, DankDeuxez said:

A little Off-topic, but WHAT gpu is the second one? that die is HUGE. Must be some old titan/quadro right?

Yep! Quadro FX5600. I won a bid for a lot of broken GPU's on ebay for $15 a few years ago and thought it was just too impressive to leave in a box.

Actually have no idea if it works, never bothered to test them either. But seriously it's like over a foot long lmao.

[whispous]

Anyone selling "untested" has tested it and found it not to work.

[porina]

I part agree and disagree with the "untested = tested but faulty" assumption. It is very possible that is the case, but it is also possible the seller really hasn't the means to test. Specifically on GPUs, given their higher value currently it would be surprising if they weren't tested as they would sell for so much more than untested. There is quite a market for dead cards anyway as those with the skills and capability to do so can repair them or use them as spares for others. If I want a working card, I'd buy a working card and pass on these "untested" ones.

 

I'm about to sell some old bits off forum, and a fair chunk of it will be listed as untested simply because they're old parts I have no way to test any more, like PCI expansion cards that might be interesting for a retro system, and DDR3 SODIMMs pulled from old laptops that are probably ok and still useful for someone to upgrade an older laptop with.

[AstroNoot]

40 minutes ago, whispous said:

Anyone selling "untested" has tested it and found it not to work.

By untested he meant that he didnt test it on a newer AMD system. He said he has an i5-3750K.

[whispous]

11 minutes ago, AstroNoot said:

By untested he meant that he didnt test it on a newer AMD system. He said he has an i5-3750K.

Test and working cards go for a LOT more money. Please think critically about this!

[jaslion]

51 minutes ago, AstroNoot said:

By untested he meant that he didnt test it on a newer AMD system. He said he has an i5-3750K.

And they can easily be lying too. As in they tested it and it was obviously broken thus selling as "untested" and acting like it just didn't boot up instead of mentioning the obvious issue.

 

As a rule I NEVER buy a broken thing if I cannot take the monetary hit or it would mean I can't buy something I need new. If it's for fun and it's cheap (this is a REALLY high price for what is essentially trash right now) I don't care and might get something.

[AstroNoot]

Guys, I bit the bullet and got it. Not for money. I gave the dude an R7 370 2GB in exchange.
Im super happy

The card had both VBIOSes effed up, managed to borrow a friend's CPU to reflash it and voila, it works! Got a good FurMark score, let it run for an hour, no crashes.
Time for a proper game night! I hope it won't dissapoint me.

P.S: For all the other people here that might consider the same thing I did, just don't. I took a gamble and i won. You might end up with a truly dead card.

[Smackaroy]

if you have the know how to potently fix it then maybe