Buying a GPU previously used for mining- Can I trust it?

[WYP]

Hi guys, I'm currently in a big upgrade/modding mood and I am currently searching for cheap hardware upgrades. (sell my current hardware and upgrade at minimum cost, hopefully)

I have a friend who has a friend who is selling a Sapphire R9 290 (picture of the gpu below) for £275, but the card has been used for mining for just under a month.

My question is, can i trust a GPU that has been used for mining? I know a month isn't that long and the Sapphire R9 290 card is considered to be one of the coolest running cards on the market, but I want a second opinion.

 

[Davva2004]

If it was run at stock speeds then I reckon it'll be a safe bet. But if it's spent a month running flat out overclocked to the maximum, I'm not so sure.

Do you get the balance of the manufacturers warranty?

 

[WYP]

If it was run at stock speeds then I reckon it'll be a safe bet. But if it's spent a month running flat out overclocked to the maximum, I'm not so sure.

Do you get the balance of the manufacturers warranty?

Yeah, he says it was ran at stock speed and sometimes lower.

I'll also get a copy of the original receipt, so that should cover the warranty issue.

 

[barnsley]

Yeah, he says it was ran at stock speed and sometimes lower.

I'll also get a copy of the original receipt, so that should cover the warranty issue.

If the fans were ran at 100% when mining the warranty would be valid still otherwise its not.

The cooler on that card would easily keep it cool when mining. I'd personally not be worried if, as your friend says, it was used at stock clocks only. If so you've got a fantastic deal, this is by far the best 290 for the money.

 

[SieB]

If it was at stock I wouldn't worry, running things constantly is actually better for hardware than constantly stopping and starting them.

As long as you have the receipt though you can get it replaced, there is no way of telling what it has been used for on Sapphire's end. All they will know is that it is faulty and they need replace it if it comes to having to return it.

 

[WYP]

If the fans were ran at 100% when mining the warranty would be valid still otherwise its not.

The cooler on that card would easily keep it cool when mining. I'd personally not be worried if, as your friend says, it was used at stock clocks only. If so you've got a fantastic deal, this is by far the best 290 for the money.

Yeah, I'm going to go for it.

While my dual hd 7870 Tahiti/XT cards are great, games that do not use crossfire sometimes suffer a little at 1440p. Should be able to sell them for a reasonable amount too.

Cheers for the advice guys, reliable as always.

 

[barnsley]

Enjoy ^_^. You should get a decent deal for your 7870s.

 

[Permafrost]

Yeah, I'm going to go for it.

While my dual hd 7870 Tahiti/XT cards are great, games that do not use crossfire sometimes suffer a little at 1440p. Should be able to sell them for a reasonable amount too.

Cheers for the advice guys, reliable as always.

when i had two of the same cards the noise and heat was unreal, then i got two MSI GTX 780 gaming oc's made a world of difference, but i didn't have the power for two, so i sold one, one of the cards is still over kill at 1080p so at 1440P it's going to be awesome!

 

[WYP]

when i had two of the same cards the noise and heat was unreal, then i got two MSI GTX 780 gaming oc's made a world of difference, but i didn't have the power for two, so i sold one, one of the cards is still over kill at 1080p so at 1440P it's going to be awesome!

Mine are watercooled so noise is not an issue , was just a little annoyed with crossfire profiles for some games (Assassin's creed 4 mainly).

the sapphire card will be nice, no bad crossfire profiles and the extra memory bandwidth will be nice.

 

[Permafrost]

Mine are watercooled so noise is not an issue , was just a little annoyed with crossfire profiles for some games (Assassin's creed 4 mainly).

the sapphire card will be nice, no bad crossfire profiles and the extra memory bandwidth will be nice.

oh yeah i remember you did a review on that, that's why i got a 2nd one.

i look forward to seeing what you do with this card....

 

[WYP]

oh yeah i remember you did a review on that, that's why i got a 2nd one.

i look forward to seeing what you do with this card....

You can expect a few things man, plan a big change up in my rig, just need to see how much i can afford to spend on modding etc. I'm a student so don't expect anything expensive.

I'd also like to do a AMD mantle review in the review section, mantle crossfire was not working too great in recent titles (at least at launch), so i look forward to seeing how that goes.

 

[Permafrost]

looks like we are both are changing our rigs...

 

[barnsley]

I've been trying to source two 290s for my new project and all the ones on ebay are suspiciously cheap. I imagine they are ex folders as well, albeit they are the stock cooled ones.

 

[WYP]

I've been trying to source two 290s for my new project and all the ones on ebay are suspiciously cheap. I imagine they are ex folders as well, albeit they are the stock cooled ones.

yeah, a lot of them are hence the thread, I don't trust the stock cooled cards if they come from folders, the fact that they run under such a stressful scenario with inadequate cooling just isn't worth the risk to me (hence the sapphire).

I imagine the second hand market will continue to be filled with heavily used AMD GPUs which have had a hard life folding.

 

[NeverBackDown]

If people are really trying to sell them then i would expect that the mine phase is ending and prices will start to go back to normal. Which means you could wait and get a new GPU for a little more.

 

[barnsley]

If people are really trying to sell them then i would expect that the mine phase is ending and prices will start to go back to normal. Which means you could wait and get a new GPU for a little more.

Just in time for the 295x2