In context: It’s a debate that is been occurring for years: is it definitely worth the danger to purchase a second-hand graphics card that could possibly be broadly used for cryptocurrency mining? Probably probably the most well-known tech YouTube channel of all, Linus Tech Tips has lengthy acknowledged that earlier mining playing cards do not routinely endure from efficiency points, and are much more cost-effective than gaming-specific mining playing cards. Now, Linus could have confirmed that assertion.
Linus Sebastian of Tech Tips has lengthy been an energetic advocate for purchasing used graphics playing cards. It’s an particularly enticing prospect in an period when Nvidia is sometimes called a scalper. But the worry that the playing cards on the public sale ground could possibly be used for mining 24/7 has postpone many would-be consumers – there have been quite a few reviews of the playing cards being machined to loss of life. Manufacturer Palit beforehand suggested prospects to keep away from utilizing them, as its unbiased assessments proved that the efficiency of GPUs decreased by about 10% after nearly a 12 months of mining use.
To attempt to affirm the influence of mining on the playing cards, Linus purchased 19 used fashions final 12 months that had been sooner or later appropriate for mining and arduous to search out video games; a mixture of AMD Radeon 5700s and Nvidia RTX 3060s, 3070s and 3080s. These had been examined in opposition to a evenly used GPU from the channel’s personal inventory.
Of the 19 playing cards examined, solely two had any noticeable points: the Gigabyte Eagle RTX 3060 OC and the Sapphire Pulse RX 5700 XT. Due to reaching temperatures above 100 levels Celsius and thermal throttling, the clock velocity of the Nvidia card is decrease than regular. The Sapphire Pulse’s clock speeds on the Kombustor did not drop considerably, and neither temperatures (it is the best of all of the 5700 fashions) nor gaming efficiency had been affected, so the AMD card’s energy targets could solely be in MSI’s program.
Gaming assessments confirmed little distinction between the playing cards, all performing as anticipated. Interestingly, the 1% low is decrease for the management GPU than for the mining mannequin. Linus identified that the heating and cooling cycles and better clock speeds of gaming-only playing cards do extra injury to the GPU than mining-only playing cards.
The Eagle OC was additionally discovered to endure a big drop in VRAM efficiency, making it the one one in every of 19 playing cards that Linus steered returning for a refund or utilizing eBay’s purchaser safety coverage.
Linus did make some good factors and the outcomes had been eye-opening.The solely caveat to the take a look at is that 19 playing cards will not be a big pattern, though they’re Probably Was used for mining sooner or later, this isn’t 100% sure.
Of course, not all mining playing cards are protected. News broke final 12 months that Vietnamese cryptocurrency miners had been making ready to make use of high-powered nozzles to wash used graphics playing cards for resale. Recently there was a narrative of a miner making an attempt to trick prospects by portray the reminiscence of the playing cards earlier than reselling them to make them look much less worn.
Ultimately, the video ought to give players extra confidence when shopping for used playing cards. Those used for gaming extra usually than these used for mining appear to be extra more likely to be problematic, if no more.
