Do you have a backup GPU?

[X-System]

I bought a RTX 3080 Ti recently. So now, I have a RTX 2080 Super as backup.

 

And I have other old GPU PCI Express : HD4870 X2, 9800 GTX, X1550 and GT 610.

[GamerDude]

I don't really have a backup GPU, I do have an old HD7970 in my storeroom somewhere. I have three rigs, each is more or less capable of gaming at decent framerate and image quality. Should the RX 6900 XT require an RMA, I can either transfer my VEGA 64 Red Devil to my main rig as a temp card, or simply game on my 2nd rig. Ain't a biggie....

[Tan3l6]

iGPU is the backup with 10600K

Will upgrade though, when prices normalize...

[Tech87]

17 hours ago, CT854 said:

I have a project rig I stuck an RTX 3060 into which I could raid in case, god forbid, my 3070 conks out and dies **knocks on wood**. This is a dual-Xeon build that I initially planned to just put a 750 Ti or something in, but when I was looking for a cheap graphics card my EVGA queue for a 3060 popped so I thought... eh what the hell.

 

If all else fails, I gave my old gaming rig (4690K/GTX 970) to my mom who lives downtown so I could just swing by and pop the 970 out in the interim... I don't like selling old cards, really. I know for a fact I had older cards (I had an HD 6850 whose fans just... died) I got rid of but I wanna just put on display all of my cards once I get a place with enough display room.

I've definitely held on to a bunch of old tech with the intention of displaying it on a shelf some day.

[m9x3mos]

14 minutes ago, Tech87 said:

I've definitely held on to a bunch of old tech with the intention of displaying it on a shelf some day.

I do that with old hard drive platters. As drives die I take them apart and line the back of my cube in the office with them. 

[Dovaogedy]

I have a Sapphire RX 570 4GB and an EVGA RTX 2060 6GB(paired with an I5 8400) in my 2nd PC. I upgraded to a Ryzen 7 5800x and RTX 3070 back in Feb

 

Im currently trying to land an RTX 3060 TI for my old rig or to sell it to a buddy of mine who is gonna upgrade soon from his 4690K/GTX 770 PC(new build). Its mostly to try for help him but if he doesnt want it ill keep it.

 

I actually got selected for a Newegg Shuffle, had a chance to buy a 3080TI and a mobo for $2100 but that wasnt worth it for me so i passed

[jaslion]

I have my trusty old hd 6450 test card that has been in hundreds of systems by now. I also have a hd 5870 that has been used as a spare far too often already. Genuinly suprised at how well it can still do things in this day and age. Was totally fine playing subnautica and such at 1080p when the r9 290x's fans all broke at once.

[hollyh88]

On 6/15/2021 at 10:20 PM, Tech87 said:

I have been thinking about getting myself a backup GPU, in the event I need it for troubleshooting or god forbid, my main card dies.

 

I need one that has triple monitor capability, and if it could do some light gaming, that would be a bonus.

 

I was thinking of something like a gt 1050 ti. Not sure, going to look around. Also not in a rush as my main rig is fine.

Just looking to be prepared.

 

Do any of you keep backup GPUs on hand?

yes and you should get one, but wait. when you buy a new gpu just keep your old one.

[Mister Woof]

I don't have any backups at present, but I do have an entire PC that I can pull in case my main PC takes a shit.

[CryingWimp]

If I've had a "backup" at times it is only because I had another PC for another purpose. A GPU that is working shouldn't just randomly fail, its quite rare. I definitely wouldn't go out and buy one purely just to have a spare, even in normal GPU markets.

 

Anything lower tier enough that I don't want to sell I usually give away to friends/family. Gave my brother a RX 580 just before everything went insane, at the current prices I'd have sold it.

 

The amount of people who hang on to old parts amazes me. Woah, didn't expect this. I've always sold my old system/parts to cover the cost of my upgrade. Its got to cost a fortune to never sell the old stuff. I'd rather sell my old stuff to budget faster tier new stuff, or just cover some of the cost.

 

Just upgraded my Ryzen 3600, I'll definitely be selling that for $200 CAD instead of sticking it in a box in my closest. My brother just sold his Ryzen 1400 + B350 + 8GB for $220 after upgrading, that paid a decent chunk of the upgrade cost.

[ramava]

I've tried to make a habit of never throwing away an old card until I know I'm never going to need it to test again (or I somehow have a pile of them from old computers I salvaged). Recently, I finally cleared out my old parts stash which still had some AGP & PCI (not PCIe) GPUs in it. So now, the oldest GPUs in my house are two GTX 750 Tis, and they're both currently installed in my computer. (My roommates have better cards now and these were their hand-me-downs.)

 

When I used to work on a lot of other people's computers, having spares (of everything) around for testing made things so much easier.

[Bobbysixjp]

Don’t see the point in a backup GPU - modern PC components are pretty reliable aren’t they? And there is always integrated graphics at least with most Intel chips if you have a sudden failure. 

[Garlic]

I have several, but I do enjoy building retro PCs and often pick up used cards on eBay if I see one that is interesting. One of my friends had his RX 5700 XT die on him recently, and he made it through the RMA period on a Radeon HD 7570 that I lent him. It does not handle modern games well, but it beats having no display output.

 

The spare that I am most likely to use myself is the Intel UHD 630 in my main tower.l

[Cris.py]

I have a group of friends which shares "backup hardware". When my main rig died (laptop) I was actually running buddies GTX 780 for about half a year. Then that one died, so I used an old Radeon HD 7850 for about half a year as I couldn't buy anything in current situation. It was a meme of a bottleneck build (5600x + HD 7850) but I did game in 1080p just fine and it was much better than having a paperweight. Backup card ftw.