Buying a Used GPU

[beefer]

I'm seeing a lot of Used GPUs being bought on eBay, is it often for a particular use case or pretty universal? Do you have any experience with used or refurbished cards?

[Hinjima]

1 minute ago, beefer said:

I'm seeing a lot of Used GPUs being bought on eBay, is it often for a particular use case or pretty universal? Do you have any experience with used or refurbished cards?

I would say most buyers are gamers looking for a good deal.

I have never bought a used GPU but I always sell my hardware when I upgrade so I have a lot of experience with selling them.

[beefer]

Thanks, I'm not a gamer so I'm wondering - don't gamers typically want the latest GPU models, so they can run the latest games perfectly? and by the time sellers would sell a used one, those models might become outdated, so isn't there some contradiction?

[Hinjima]

19 minutes ago, beefer said:

Thanks, I'm not a gamer so I'm wondering - don't gamers typically want the latest GPU models, so they can run the latest games perfectly? and by the time sellers would sell a used one, those models might become outdated, so isn't there some contradiction?

Ideally yes!  But not everyone has the money for a 2000 dollar GPU.

 

You would be surprised about how many gamers are on a budget and are perfectly happy with 1-2 generation old hardware or the lower end cards for the newest generation.

Multiple people a week come to this Forum asking for help to put together a decent PC, I would say the average budget I have seen over the years I have been here is around 1000-1500 USD for a full system.

The most popular dedicated graphics card on steam hardware survey is still the low end RTX 3060..

This GPU released in February of 2021... So an upgrade to a used 4070 Super is fantastic if you can find a good used deal. Its twice the performance!

We are on the 5000 series now for Nvidia GPU's.

 

Sure, older GPU's might lack some features but the 1-2 generation old GPU's will still play video games really well.  I upgrade because I am an enthusiast, not because I need it.

 

Oh, and welcome to the Forum! Glad to have you with us.

[beefer]

Thanks, interesting insights

[Blue4130]

25 minutes ago, beefer said:

Thanks, I'm not a gamer so I'm wondering - don't gamers typically want the latest GPU models, so they can run the latest games perfectly? and by the time sellers would sell a used one, those models might become outdated, so isn't there some contradiction?

Plenty of gamers upgrade to the fastest card each generation and sell the previous top tier card on the used market.  (going from a 4090 to a 5090)

 

A 4090 is still an amazing card and well above what most gamers use. So if the price is right, many people would be very happy to have a "inferior" last gen card.

 

(when I say inferior, I am being facetious - a 4090 would be a great card in 2025)

[Hinjima]

1 minute ago, Blue4130 said:

Plenty of gamers upgrade to the fastest card each generation and sell the previous top tier card on the used market.  (going from a 4090 to a 5090)

 

A 4090 is still an amazing card and well above what most gamers use. So if the price is right, many people would be very happy to have a "inferior" last gen card.

 

(when I say inferior, I am being facetious - a 4090 would be a great card in 2025)

The amount of people that have a 4090 or 5090 is insanely low compared to midrange or lower end cards though.

[Blue4130]

5 minutes ago, Hinjima said:

The amount of people that have a 4090 or 5090 is insanely low compared to midrange or lower end cards though.

So swap tiers, the same still holds true. someone who was on a 4070 upgrades to a 5070 and sells the old card. Plenty of games would be happy to buy a used 4070 to game on. The tier isn't the important part of my post, it is more about people who buy into every generation and sell the old cards vs people who are OK with getting a used card.

[BitGhost]

Check for a 1080ti. Yes it was launched 2017. It also still benchmarks better than a 4060 https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/directCompute.html
It was also produced in high volume so you can still find plenty for cheap, like sub $200. 
It's got that old man strength.

[U2ername]

You can possibly find RX 6800 non XT's near 250.