I Saved 40% on Off-Brand GPUs… Am I a fool?

[JordB]

What’s going on with all these brands we don’t recognize showing up when we’re shopping for graphic’s cards online? The prices seem too good to be true! Are these GPUs a bargain or a scam?

 

Buy a CORN/Kinology GeForce GTX 1660 Super Graphics Card: https://lmg.gg/1iWU9

Buy a Mannajue GeForce GTX 1660 Graphics Card: https://lmg.gg/ItD7c

Buy a Mannajue GeForece GTX 1660 Super Graphics Card: https://lmg.gg/2I8uj

Buy a 51RISC GTX 1660 Graphics Card: https://lmg.gg/Dlhbg

Buy an ELSA GeForce GTX 1660 Super Graphics Card: https://lmg.gg/uqJLF

Buy a SRhonyra GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics Card: https://lmg.gg/TBwPE

Buy a MLSSE GeForce GTX 1660 Super Graphics Card: https://lmg.gg/ZkUZm

Buy a Yeston GeForce GTX 1660 Super Graphics Card: https://lmg.gg/g5q4K

Buy a MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Super Graphics Card: https://geni.us/jgBYMpL

Buy an ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1650 OC Graphics Card: https://geni.us/tG9kYM

[Levent]

Conclusion was a bit underwhelming.

[Alienityy]

Can you get any of these in Europe(Italy)?

Also... Prefer AMD.

Regards.

[LeapFrogMasterRace]

When does the Yeston 4090 drop

[sfh0525]

As a Chinese, and once planning to buy a Kinology 卡诺基. And searched for the refurbished GPU market.

Here's the actual situation of those brands in China.

First of all, Yeston 盈通 is a legit first party GPU manufacturer. Just not an AIC. It's an AIB partner (China region)

 

Except ELSA, which maybe just an old stock (mining) card.

The other brands are mostly 3rd party GPU refurbish brand. From completely replanting the GPU die, leaving the rest of the board new. To simply repost the stickers.

There are plenty of OEM GPU coolers and motherboards like from Dell. So most of refurbished cards may use those staff.

Kinology 卡诺基 has survived 3 waves of GPU mining. A true GPU mining card refurbish veteran. They still sell HD7000 series GPU from previous mining season.

They do keep running the brand. And will provide 2 year warranty.

But. At cost of frequent RMA. Or dead soon after passing warranty period.

Also much higher noise, and less frequency than advertised.

They even once refurbished RTX3090. They intentionally lower the TDP (in higher TDP cards, not GTX1660) thus reduce RMA possibility. But you only get 3080 level of performance.

 

Due to RTX3060TI G6X (A card which is released after the mining season, so 100% mining free.) is relatively cheap in China, it's much more compelling to buy a legit brand new RTX3060 TI G6X than most refurbished cards.

 

BTW, some refurbisher may even use tap water to clean the dust. Also, some GPU mining farm use cold water moisture to cool the cards. So... Really. It's a gamble.

[Needfuldoer]

Subvender?

 

[manikyath]

47 minutes ago, JordB said:

ELSA

ohboy.. that hits right at home, i have an ELSA card from the AGP sitting around somewhere.

[Needfuldoer]

Just now, manikyath said:

ohboy.. that hits right at home, i have an ELSA card from the AGP sitting around somewhere.

That thing's ancient, I'm sure you can let it go.

[sfh0525]

5 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Subvender?

 

I'm defining subvendor as company who can get first hand GPU cores from NV. (Including AIC of course)

Except Yeston and ELSA. All other brands are not using first hand GPU cores. They maybe selvage GPU cores, GPU plus motherboards from other existing cards. And refurbish or reassemble the rest of the card. Some higher tech brand like CORN, may only use the salvaged GPU cores, while the rest is new (There are plenty of reference design MB/coolders, which will make them looks the same.).

[tkitch]

1 minute ago, sfh0525 said:

I'm defining subvendor as company who can get first hand GPU cores from NV. (Including AIC of course)

Except Yeston and ELSA. All other brands are not using first hand GPU cores. They maybe selvage GPU cores, GPU plus motherboards from other existing cards. And refurbish or reassemble the rest of the card. Some higher tech brand like CORN, may only use the salvaged GPU cores, while the rest is new (There are plenty of reference design MB/coolders, which will make them looks the same.).

r/woooooosh

 

You totally missed the joke.

[AndreiArgeanu]

There's always questionable GPU's around. Generally as long as you can find the model on techpowerups GPU database, it's probably trustworthy enough.

 

[okkee]

Looking to maybe buy a gpu soon around ~$120. So the question is, is it better to buy a used card off ebay from a reputable brand or a refurbished one from SE Asia. Cause, at my price point all i'm looking for is the bare minimum - will it run games and will it not die on me.

[Chrysana]

I'm confused with the title -

 

Only 8 cards were purchased?

[WolframaticAlpha]

Guys, the midroll sponsor reads are annoying. I dropped my phone when Linus shouted the sponsor read/ltt store notification.

[rpgnoob]

4 hours ago, Levent said:

Conclusion was a bit underwhelming.

 

I am wondering about the economics of the "Why?"

 

Why are refurbished, China-branded, entry class/budget GPU from China being imported into the USA, to compete against established western brands purely on price (~$50 USD cheaper more or less)?

 

Is this a desperate move of these companies from China, due to lack of demand at home[1]? Get rid of them at any price than to have this inventory be a total write-off? Seems to be so.

 

--- 

 

[1] The economic news out of China is that their domestic post-COVID economy (domestic consumer demand) is not picking up due to several factors: debt overhang, drawn down savings from COVID, historic underinvestment when Trump started a trade 'war', among other things like ageing demographics - leading China in aggregate into the known middle income trap.

 

- recent Odd Lots Podcast: Richard Koo on China’s Risk of a Japan-Style Balance Sheet Recession Can China fight off its debt overhang?

- several recent articles from The Economist: China’s economy is on course for a “double dip”, Why China’s government might struggle to revive its economy

[Atlooos]

Wish we could get all the yeston cards in the EU without having to buy them overseas. They got some really cool looking cards.

[coonwhiz]

In the video Linus says they bought 8 GPUs, the graphs reflect that (with the exclusion of the ELSA card). Why is the video title "I Bought 10 Off-Brand GPUs…"

[SkyHound0202]

GPU die is the part that is least likely to fail on a graphic card. Fan fails over time, power delivery degrades after extensive use, solder joints break from stress, connectors break due to user error.

 

So if done correctly, finding used GPU dies elsewhere and remanufacturing them with new components on a new board is a good way to go. ("Kinology", etc.) Heck, even professionally refurbishing a used a card by giving it new paste and new fans plus a thorough check is a valid option. (rest of the tested)

 

Not only does it reduce e-waste, but it also bring the price down in general.

 

But the problem is that Nvidia and their partners doesn't want these, since someone buying one of these remanufactured, unlicensed cards means one less die Nvidia will sell to their partner and one less card their partners will sell to you. So they have been clamping on it pretty hard.

 

AMD on the other hand doesn't have such limitation. A remanufactured RX 6600M card (mobile Navi 23 die on PCIe card, mostly used for mining) functions as expected on desktop, while Nvidia mobile GPU require either extensive hacks or will be eventually blocked from newer driver updates.

[Gokul_P]

7 hours ago, Chrysana said:

I'm confused with the title -

 

Only 8 cards were purchased?

He imagined MSI and ASUS as Off brands bcz they weren't On during filming

[Gokul_P]

Paying 250 for a 4 year old entry level Gpu is not economical at all (said by the person that bought a 2 Year old entry level gpu at ~170$).