Is a GPU easy to repair?

[Lairlair]

I guess the short answer is no, and probably it depends on which type of damage we're talking about.

 

BUT I have a rework station, good solder and flux, and I like troubleshooting. With the current GPU shortage I thought it could be worth a try, because I see some good items getting sold as broken, and I always wonder whether it's worth investing in that. Do any of you have any experience with this kind of repairs? Are there any kind of good practices, or ressources to get started?

[BartTheGamer00]

I think you answered your own question. It depends, I think LTT has a video on it in which they explain common problems and fixability. So I would start there and try it out on maybe lower end cards to avoid spending a ton of money learning on pricey hardware.

[Darknighterror]

LTT actually made a Video about buying broken gpus and trying to fix it:

 

[8tg]

Replacing components isn’t too hard with the right tools, it’s finding what’s broken that’s hard. There is a lengthy testing process to find which component or components had failed.

 

And then there’s always the gamble with it being the die or memory. 90% of the time it’s power delivery, some power delivery component bit the dust and getting a new part costs a dollar or so at most. 
Hard vbios flashing isn’t impossible if you have the tool to do it, it’s doable.

But video memory is extremely difficult to replace reliably, and finding vram modules can be hard if you don’t have a sacrificial card, especially newer stuff. If you need 512mb GDDR5 modules, just get some maxwell cards snd start stripping them, ez. But things like GDDR6 or HBM/HBM2 are not easy to come by.

And if it’s the die it’s game over, project failed because finding a die can be difficult, and it’s near impossible to replace even if you have the right equipment.

 

Its worth giving a shot if you have a dead card, because more often than not it’s some kind of fuse, inductor, mosfet or capacitor that’s gone bad, but don’t waste time trying to replace a die or memory.

[Alvin853]

You can safely assume, that for any recent card, when it's sold as broken, someone has already attempted to repair it in some form (and may have made the initial problem worse or deemed it unfixable). If you want to get started on GPU repairs, I would go with maybe GTX7xx/9xx or Radeon 4xx/5xx GPUs. Also VRAM is among the top reasons for failure, so you'd need to both find a way to source VRAM, and be comfortable enough to replace the modules.