Take a look at this great video by Buildzoid, hes an extreme overclocker/hardware expert/frequent ebay GPU buyer (and tends to ramble often lol)
The TLDR
Avoid:
Radeon VII
Vega56/64 or any other HBM Radeon as they tend to fail under normal use
3090/3080/ GDDR6X GPUs due to VRM issues on 3090s and higher memory temps. 3090ti is too new to worry.
Expected issues:
Dead Fans, easy fix
Dry thermal paste/pads, easy fix
AMD GPUs tend to run modded bios, Nvidia you really dont have to worry. If AMD be sure to flash the original/closest to original you can from the techpowerup bios library and avoid overclocked bios (more info in video on this).
Mining GPUs are fine to buy as long as you pay attention to the seller rating, the pictures of card condition, and in general know what to avoid/look for and expect. Ive owned a couple Mining GPUs, one a 1080ti (sold to a friend) and another that turned out to be a golden sample r7 270x with world record air overclocks thats still working 7yrs later. I buy tons of used hardware that all is fantastic(not so much lately xP). Just be cautious, dont get too excited, and do your homework.
Also you should avoid MSI / Gygabite brands that were mined (at least Nvidia 1000 - 3000) GPUs because they have very weak default…how they call it in english i forgot, insulation?
So if they were used by some miner who haven’t re-do that default boards insulation right away - it will be very bad idea to have this GPU.
Yeah most likely that’s what i remember, i know that it really messes the board if weren’t re-done pre-mine…so it’s a bit dangerous to second-hand buy
yeah there are a ffew models those generations with a hand full of issues, usually related to them not properly covering the memory chips with thermal pads or just some other VERY stupid laziness from MSI/GB.
Thats an issue for mining because mining doesnt stress the core much, mostly memory.
