The era of mining with a graphics card is now over for many different reasons. GPU prices are also back to normal now, but the cunning of the miners is unending. A study by YouTuber Iskandar Souza and computer technician Paulo Gomes showed that graphics card vendors on Chinese retail platforms are not very honest.
Actually, this is not a new issue. Miners can try to sell used graphics cards by labeling them as “new”. Paulo shared his experiences in detecting a used video card. The first place to look is screws worn by a screwdriver and missing labels on the graphics card. However, some graphics cards can be used even if everything looks perfect.
Another thing that is easy to spot is the yellowish tint on the memory and GPU. It seems that the scammers are doing some processing on the memory chips to make it look like new to people. Thus, the chip looks brighter.
Yellow tint on memory and GPU can be caused by miners soldering components to newer boards or overheating during extended use. Whatever the reason, the yellow tint is conclusive proof that the card is not new. Paulo showed many examples of the appearance of a GPU being mined. The graphics memory may also show some signs of wear.
A similar study by TecLab addressed the issue of used mining cards sold by one of the companies in Brazil. The graphics cards sold had a different epoxy color than the new cards. These cards were unlocked during the live broadcast to confirm that there was no crime or cheating. Thus, it was confirmed that the cards used in mining were sold as “new”.
It may not be right to draw conclusions immediately after seeing a yellow tint on the video card components, but this is generally the case. Since the mining era has come to an end, many second-hand graphics cards have been released to the market around the world.
How to Understand the Mining Graphics Card?
Unfortunately, it is not possible to disassemble the graphics card when shopping second hand. At this point, there may be many advertisements stating that the product is “not used for mining”. Some sellers may openly state that the card is used for mining. However, even in this case, we cannot know how long the card works or how hard it is. Even if they were not used in mining, the cards could have been heavily overclocked, potentially pushing them beyond safe limits.
With continuous workloads, thermal pads and thermal paste degrade over time. On the other hand, dust can accumulate on the fan blades and heat sink fins. As a result, product performance is adversely affected. Some users can open the graphics cards for cleaning and maintenance.
When you meet with the seller while buying a graphics card, you can examine the product for a while. Take an overall look at the card to see dusting. You can check if the screws holding the card together are worn out or if they have been removed before.
