Ex mining GTX 1080, too risky a purchase?

[rhythmeister]

Afternoon folks, I'm just wondering what the general consensus would be on purchasing a Zotac GTX 1080 that's been mining at 70% power in a rig for 7 months in a cool room. Would it be too great a risk or are they sturdy enough cards and worth a punt?

 

[blobster21]

What guarantee do you have that this card has been mining under these "advertised" conditions ? What if the card has been overclocked and abused to death 24/7 for a year, all this at room temp ?

Any Return policy in case you're not satisfied with it ?

 

[trog100]

i mined 10 x 1070 cards 24/7 for a year.. they all ran at stock core with a maximum (reliable) memory overclock and at 80% power.. the average temps were around 70 C..

every single one of them still runs perfectly and performs as new..

trog

 

[Zyll Goliat]

It´s all about the temps...IF the card was working under the good conditions it will perform perfectly fine.......

 

[R-T-B]

i mined 10 x 1070 cards 24/7 for a year.. they all ran at stock core with a maximum (reliable) memory overclock and at 80% power.. the average temps were around 70 C..

every single one of them still runs perfectly and performs as new..

trog

This. The pascals are hardy. I am gaming on one of my mining cards right now. Would not hesitate to buy another if needed.

 

[hat]

I'd take the risk if the price is right and the seller doesn't seem like a scam artist. For what it's worth, I've been mining on two 1070s without issue (well, with the GPUs anyway) for over a year now and they're just fine. No sane miner would run their stuff in a way that poses a risk of damaging their investment, so most ex mining hardware probably is actually okay...

 

[micropage7]

I'd take the risk if the price is right and the seller doesn't seem like a scam artist. For what it's worth, I've been mining on two 1070s without issue (well, with the GPUs anyway) for over a year now and they're just fine. No sane miner would run their stuff in a way that poses a risk of damaging their investment, so most ex mining hardware probably is actually okay...

Agree, sometimes trust your feeling if you feel it's right then buy it
Just check and recheck everything, if you could chat the seller and ask about the card so you can have more info before step further then if you feel right buy it
There's some risk but the right seller would info that

 

[cucker tarlson]

I bought my 1080Ti from a miner, was 10 months old at the time of purchase too and it works perfectly. Though my 1080Ti trio is built like a tank and the card runs cooler than any GPU I've ever had.
If I was to buy some flimsy,cheapest of the line card from a miner I'd think twice. If the card has long warranty left I say take it.

 

[hat]

Also worth mentioning is you can't just flash Pascal cards with a "mining BIOS" all willy nilly like you can with AMD hardware... so at least you shouldn't have that problem. It seems like there's many RX580, Vega, 480 etc floating around with modified BIOS tailored for mining performance... but might not work well for gaming, or any other application.

 

[cucker tarlson]

Also worth mentioning is you can't just flash Pascal cards with a "mining BIOS" all willy nilly like you can with AMD hardware... so at least you shouldn't have that problem. It seems like there's many RX580, Vega, 480 etc floating around with modified BIOS tailored for mining performance... but might not work well for gaming, or any other application.

every day on tpu there's a few threads touching this problem, someone buys a card with altered mining bios. Advanced Mining Devices should've dealt with it the way nvidia did.

 

[Voluman]

If there is a normal bios, not a specific mining one, there should be no more risk than any used hardware.

 

[gamerman]

you MUST kidding!

only risk is there if you buy any amd gpu.

if you even find gtx 1080 gpu,speically example msi x model,buy it!
.its still 4th fastest gpu in the world,godo quality,silent and fast. and keep value long time.


you cant go wrong.

 

[Vario]

I wouldn't bother buying it. Just look for a good sale. These things come up all the time at good prices on https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/, just lurk that and wait for a good deal on a new one.

 

[R-T-B]

If there is a normal bios, not a specific mining one, there should be no more risk than any used hardware.

You can't flash a "mining bios" on nvidia hardware, at least not easily. The most you can do is crossflash.

 

[eidairaman1]

It´s all about the temps...IF the card was working under the good conditions it will perform perfectly fine.......

Which most miners dont give a flying you know what about operating conditions, just like child sweatshops...

you MUST kidding!

only risk is there if you buy any amd gpu.

if you even find gtx 1080 gpu,speically example msi x model,buy it!
.its still 4th fastest gpu in the world,godo quality,silent and fast. and keep value long time.


you cant go wrong.

Dont be stupid

Also worth mentioning is you can't just flash Pascal cards with a "mining BIOS" all willy nilly like you can with AMD hardware... so at least you shouldn't have that problem. It seems like there's many RX580, Vega, 480 etc floating around with modified BIOS tailored for mining performance... but might not work well for gaming, or any other application.

Vega You cannot flash.

 

[hat]

Which most miners dont give a flying you know what about operating conditions, just like child sweatshops...

I'd have to disagree. I know you're not a miner/don't like mining, but, would you make an investment, then run it into the ground? I dunno, you may be right, but I'd hope most miners would be smart enough to not burn their cards up.

 

[eidairaman1]

I'd have to disagree. I know you're not a miner/don't like mining, but, would you make an investment, then run it into the ground? I dunno, you may be right, but I'd hope most miners would be smart enough to not burn their cards up.

For the amount of mining cards I turn around back to gaming cards, says differently.

The only one I know of that knew what he was doing with mining is chris @cdawall

 

[Vario]

I'd have to disagree. I know you're not a miner/don't like mining, but, would you make an investment, then run it into the ground? I dunno, you may be right, but I'd hope most miners would be smart enough to not burn their cards up.

It just has to run well enough that they can sell it. Thats all. I've seen enough photos of a pile of videocards in a jumbled tightly packed mess with risers coming out and a box fan thrown on top to question that miners baby these things. I bought an ex miner card once and it was unstable at stock clocks worthless piece of junk. Maybe some cards are run at low temperatures. Driven sunday only, by a little old lady going to church. Its a gamble. These consumer gaming cards are not meant to be driven 24/7. Mining drives them 24/7. Playing games on the card 2 hours a day does not put nearly the same stress as running them 24/7 for a year. Lastly, I don't personally want to provide an investment exit strategy for a miner.

 

[eidairaman1]

It just has to run well enough that they can sell it. Thats all. I've seen enough photos of a pile of videocards in a jumbled tightly packed mess with risers coming out and a box fan thrown on top to question that miners baby these things. I bought an ex miner card once and it was unstable at stock clocks worthless piece of junk. Maybe some cards are run at low temperatures. Driven sunday only, by a little old lady going to church.

I bet anything the core and ram voltages had to be increased along with thermal compound and pads being replaced. I've seen many cards this year needing the stock bios and most have been pretty successful on restoring 100% functionality. Also they get so full of dirt that it is best to take the hsf off, remove the shroud to get to the fins and brush them out with a soft tooth brush, air duster and jet spray them with contact cleaner, same with the fans.

 

[Deleted member 158293]

VRMs & power delivery circuitry are important in mining card's expected operational life. Nvidia have not traditionally done very well in that area. And one of the main reasons AMD have over designed theirs now, after the mess they & their AIBs were in in the original mining wave many years back...

 

[eidairaman1]

VRMs & power delivery circuitry are important in mining card's expected operational life. Nvidia have not traditionally done very well in that area. And one of the main reasons AMD have over designed theirs now, after the mess they & their AIBs were in in the original mining wave many years back...

Only cards I saw an err with are EVGA and Gigabyte, other contenders seem to survive better.

So in retrospect to OP,

Buy the card but make sure you clean the heatsink and fans thoroughly, replace thermal compound on the die, replace thermalpads if missing or fell apart. You can even spray the pcb down with electronic grade contact cleaner then let dry for an hour.

With the heatsink off I would get a clear close up picture of a ram chip and post it here

I would share the white sticker info off the back of the card here too just incase someone managed to modify or replace the bios, so that we may restore the card to proper functionality...

 

[Vario]

Only cards I saw an err with are EVGA and Gigabyte, other contenders seem to survive better.

So in retrospect to OP,

Buy the card but make sure you clean the heatsink and fans thoroughly, replace thermal compound on the die, replace thermalpads if missing or fell apart. You can even spray the pcb down with electronic grade contact cleaner then let dry for an hour.

With the heatsink off I would get a clear close up picture of a ram chip and post it here

I would share the white sticker info off the back of the card here too just incase someone managed to modify or replace the bios, so that we may restore the card to proper functionality...

Whats the price though?

 

[eidairaman1]

Whats the price though?

Right,

Pricing here is still atrocious for any of them

https://www.google.com/search?q=Zot...hXuRt8KHSYTDDoQ_AUoAXoECA0QAQ&biw=360&bih=559

 

[cdawall]

I had quite a few 1080's go from mining to gaming and not a one has had an issue. One is in my current htpc which sees higher Temps and higher core loads than it ever did as a mining card.

What guarantee do you have that this card has been mining under these "advertised" conditions ? What if the card has been overclocked and abused to death 24/7 for a year, all this at room temp ?

Any Return policy in case you're not satisfied with it ?

That sounds a lot more like a gaming card than a mining card.

 

[moproblems99]

every day on tpu there's a few threads touching this problem, someone buys a card with altered mining bios. Advanced Mining Devices should've dealt with it the way nvidia did.

No they shouldn't. I like being able to modify my stuff. People need to do due diligence when buying anything new whether it be a car, tv, or gpu.

Edit: used.