Would you buy a used GPU if you knew it was used for mining? I'd feel like it was pushed too hard and could be ready to burn out. Makes me wonder if the secondhand market for video cards will tank for a while after mining stops.
The mining meta has changed. In 2013 it was about squeezing max perf out of cards at any cost. Now the focus is on efficiency. Most miners will undervolt and underclock cards.
In this scenario, cards used for mining see less heat cycle stress than the cold/hot workloads a typical gaming PC sees. The primary stress is on the fans. However, even those are rated for 5-10 years MTBF under constant use.
Cheaper GPUs for me then. I don't see a difference between buying used parts from someone that browsed the internet versus playing games. CPUs/GPUs don't just 'wear out' on a normal time scale before they are obsolete. We've got companies that have been running the same mainframes for 50 years.
I'm not sure that's an accurate statement... anything that's used hard will incur extra wear and tear. If you're running a GPU at 100% 24/7 for a year, the heat stress alone will reduce its lifespan. The reason the Xbox 360 had the RRoD problems isn't because it was bad from the factory, it's because it didn't dissipate enough heat so over time the components wore out quicker than expected.
I might buy the idea that miners don't stress their cards like the other person said, but I'm not convinced by your statement that running an electronic component hard for long periods of time won't increase the risk of failure. Especially in something as high tech and compact as a GPU.
It is in no one’s interest except the miners to promote used mining GPUs as a viable used part. If you simply continue the narrative that used mining gpus are bad, the prices will be pushed down as people refuse to buy them.
If you are looking to buy those used GPUs for cheap you should avoid any public language that tries to downplay the impact of 24/7 mining.
