Secondhand graphics card

C

Conspirator

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Being a poor student with no major PC upgrade in sight, I figured I might buy a better second hand AGP card at a sweet price. (Currently I have a 9600SE). Since everyone is switching to PCI-E, there must surely be a pile of secondhand cards, right?

More importantly though, how do I check that it has not been over-clocked or otherwise messed with. Is there a way to check this?

Thnx
 
Tuff to check if it has been overclocked , unless you can actually see the physical burn marks. But then the card is usually quite fried and useless to start with :>>

Best bet is to put the card in, install the drivers. and run a few Benchmark applications on it. 3dmark2001SE , 3dmark2003, Aquamark (run them a few times, and feel free to restart your pc once every 5 benchmarks) *although Aquamark and 3dmark2003 are the older benchmarks, u must remember the AGP tech is same age technology. 3dmark2006 might not work on your AGP card*. Cards that has been overclocked alot will freeze very often, or will restart the pc during such a benchmark test.


Ways to Spot if a card has been Overclocked or is being run at overclocked rates :

While the 3dmark or Aquamark is running, or if u wish to test it on a game for example Quake4 or other game.. Look out for Artifacts. (little white triangles or white spots, or even weird lines forming)

If a card is overclocked too much, it starts to overheat and cannot process the graphics 100% so it creates weird white spots or white little triangles at random places all over the screen. If a card has been running overclocked for long periods and the card has been damaged little it will start do this even after the clock rates have been set back to normal, since the damage has been done although the card is still working kinda...
 
Cool. Thanks for the comprehensive answer. So I'll have to insist on a demonstration with 3dmark, check for artifacts and then hope for the best.

I'll buy a junkmail and see whats floating around at the moment.
 
Conspirator said:
Cool. Thanks for the comprehensive answer. So I'll have to insist on a demonstration with 3dmark, check for artifacts and then hope for the best.

I'll buy a junkmail and see whats floating around at the moment.
Click to expand...

How much do you want to spend on a card, because people don't sell them that much cheaper ...
For example I can get you a new 6800XT 512MB 256Bit for R1000 .. which is a really good AGP card ... but search around, you might find a killer deal.

When you buy that card, ask the guy what games he's played with it, what his current system is, ask him what he has overclocked his new gfx card to (Don't ask him if he did do it, but rather assume he did it ... and say what have you clocked your current card to).

Chances are if he is a big gamer, and spends a lot of time on his pc ... he has overclocked the card.

Be like a lawyer, if one question doesn't give you an answer, ask it differently.
 
remember one thing, just because a card has been overclocked does not mean its no good man

its nearly impossible to break anything in computers by running a simple software overclock, if they mess with the bios its a totally different story, but overclocking does not ruin hardware
 
Have a look on bidorby.co.za - there are quite a few people who sell new and used PC components, and you may also get a good deal...
 
Juggy
Click to expand...

I agree that it is later technology ... but isn't the 6800XT 512mb more powerful ... it was a great card in its time ... and also runs at 256bit ... although I think the pixel shader model is older ... I would appreciate someones opinion as to whether the 6800XT 512MB 256bit will perform better or the 7600GS 256mb 128bit.

howardb said:
Have a look on bidorby.co.za - there are quite a few people who sell new and used PC components, and you may also get a good deal...
Click to expand...

Bid or buy has become a waste of time ... its basically turned into an online shop ... ya they do have nice deals every now and then, but most of the time they don't ... and I have only ever seen 1 good deal for a GFX card which I bought and then sold at a profit :).

Also becareful of scammers in bid or buy or classifieds ... refer to the Goods for Africa deal for example ... the guy made off with 10's of thousands just last week.
If you can, rather pay cash.
 
Thanks for all the replies. R1000 is a bit above my budget at the moment since I'm just trying to coast a bit longer with my current gear. I figured I can get quite and upgrade from a 9600SE without spending that much.

I guess one gets what one pays for.

eitai2001: Your post count is shooting up at quite a rate. Respect.
 
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