Buying ex mining cards for gaming

cavedog

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I actually bought a RX580 8GB version for R1700 still relatively new but ex mining card. Looking at getting another one and crossfire them. There are some impressive benchmarks on youtube when you crossfire them but they do eat a lot of power and obviously the game needs to be well optimized to take advantage of it and when they do you need to get them for a decent price.

Tons of cards for sale between R1500 - R2000 for the RX580.

What do you guys think about ex mining cards. Personally coming from my old trusty MSI GTX670 this has been a pretty decent upgrade and the fact that the classifieds are flooded with these cards for relatively cheap how likely are ex mining cards to fail?
 
Because they are run hard? I do not think any type of crypto mine has full access to a what a Graphics card can do.
 
I assume they are not used for gaming?
One of the 1080 cards went to my son and the rest I sold to friends for their gaming rigs. I haven't had one complaint with them playing games like Ark, Fortnite, Bullet storm etc.
 
Electronic components wear out with use.

Read up on electromigration. It's the gradual degradation on electronic IC's over time, or accelerated by heavy use;

Electromigration is the transport of material caused by the gradual movement of the ions in a conductor due to the momentum transfer between conducting electrons and diffusing metal atoms. The effect is important in applications where high direct current densities are used

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromigration

GPU's were never designed to mine 24/7 - unless the card is dirt cheap, the extra wear on the circuitry is simply not worth it.

 
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Been researching and most tests show no degraded performance at all.

 
The car analogy is correct, but It's not like you buy a GPU to last for 10 years.
 
I need to get me a cheap 1060 or equivalent.
What price range should I be looking at?
 
I used ex mining card months all good, I also selling a crazy amount them on FB and gumtree.

Only problems I get is fan problems and now and then need new thermal paste.
Supplier just swap them out if there is issues.
 
The car analogy is correct, but It's not like you buy a GPU to last for 10 years.
OP might want to keep the card for quite a while, having come from his "old trusty GTX670".

My main issue is the remaining lifespan after the card was used for mining, but if you can buy one with the remainder of a warranty in tact, it might add peace of mind.
 
I used ex mining card months all good, I also selling a crazy amount them on FB and gumtree.

Only problems I get is fan problems and now and then need new thermal paste.
Supplier just swap them out if there is issues.
So there are problems. Thanks for confirming it.
 
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