Buying Second hand

Benno · March 19, 2018

Good day

What should I look out for when buying a GPU second hand?

BlueChinchillaEatingDorito · March 19, 2018

15 minutes ago, Benno said:

Good day

What should I look out for when buying a GPU second hand?

It would be best if you're able to see in person the GPU running something like a game without any issues. Inspect it to see if it's been cared for or not. If it's clogged with dust so much so that the fan doesn't move, maybe pass on that one.

faziten · March 19, 2018

8 hours ago, Benno said:

Good day

What should I look out for when buying a GPU second hand?

PCB (VRM mostly), curvature, coloration near high current modules busted resistors, signs of dissasembly, corrosion, warranty stickers, etc.

Don't ever, EVER... EVER take a card with functional conditions such as "it works most of the time but sometimes it does -this weird thing that i don't know what is-". This cases end up being fake cards with custom flashed BIOSes to claim being another entirely different gpu. Any used GPU should work 100% as when it was out of the box for the first time.

Shitty sellers (aka scammers) will tell you they dont have any clue about weird behavior nor have any clue about what they are selling when they try to scam you, so you think you've got the upper hand and buy no questions asked.

Just use common sense, and keep contact data. (phone number, address, etc).

Froody129 · March 19, 2018

Unless it’s been choking on dust and sitting at 99C for years a GPU will almost always work until it’s no longer useful for your tasks. If it looks well cared for and is proven to work then it should be fine.

be VERY careful however for a new scam that’s come up. Sellers flash some random card with a different card’s BIOS and sell that card. It’s still a working card but it’s not what you bought