It is possible that you are thinking of buying a graphics card and you are considering a second-hand one. Without a doubt, it is an interesting option that allows us to save money, but there is a problem, knowing its origin. We are going to explain if the graphics card that you are going to buy second-hand has been used for Ethereum mining.
That a graphics card has been used in the mining of Ethereum or another cryptocurrency is not bad. If it has been well refrigerated and maintenance has been good, we should have no problems with it. It is also important to know the amount of time that it has been used for this process, since a use of six months is not the same as that of two years.
Why are they sold massively?
Without going into many technical details, Ethereum has changed its basic operation. To date all transactions and blocks were validated through a process called proof of work or PoW . Basically, they are complex mathematical processes that require a lot of computing power . In addition, this process has a kind of instruction book called DAG that is stored in the graphics memory.
Last September, Ethereum Merge took place, a process in which it passed proof of participation or PoS. This mechanism requires much less computing power to do the job, since certain fundamental aspects are modified. Now, the important thing is to have the 32 ETH that allows you to become a validator node. Although it requires a lot of power to perform the calculations , it has been reduced by 99%.
The graphics cards for this process are unnecessary totally or at least, in such a massive way. Yes, powerful systems are needed to perform the verifications, but not systems with a lot of graphics anymore.
Since the graphics cards are no longer needed, what do they do with them? About 45% of the power of the Ethereum network before the change has gone to other networks like Ravencoin , G RIN and others friendly to graphics cards. The remaining 55% has disappeared , which in other words is: the miners have been turned off and the hardware is sold.
Thus, we have a massive sale of graphics cards that come from mining. Now we need to know how to identify them, something that is really simpler than you might think.
So we can identify a graph from mining
We are now going to see what are the considerations or factors that can tell us if a graph has been used in mining. We will explain from the simplest and most obvious identification to different ways to detect it if we have doubts.
One vendor, many charts
The first thing we must always do is enter the seller’s profile on Wallapop , Segundamano and any other website that we visit for the purchase. It is important to see what items you have for sale and what you have already sold. If you have a lot of graphics cards for sale, they may have been used in Ethereum mining . Additionally, we can see if it sells high-power power supplies or specific motherboards for the mining process.
They don’t always have to come from mining, in this case. It can be a user who is engaged in the purchase and sale of second-hand hardware or some retail store . They could even be graphics cards that have been refurbished or have been repaired . It is important in these cases to make sure that they give us a guarantee of at least six months and thus verify the purchase.
Something that also usually gives them away is not showing images of the graph. It is usual for some to upload images taken directly from the internet , whether they are generic of the product or reviews of different websites. You always have to verify and request images of the product to see the state.
Specifications are very important.
First of all, you should know the complete specifications of the graphics card, especially the amount of VRAM memory. This may seem silly to you, but it has a technical explanation. The Ethereum DAG requires the graphics card to have at least 6 GB of VRAM . Said DAG file weighs more than 4 GB and of course, if the card has that amount of video memory or less, it would not be good for mining. It does not mean that it has not been used for mining, since there are other blockchain networks that have DAG of less than 4 GB, but it is not the most common.
We must also know if it has protection measures against mining. The NVIDIA RTX 30 Series mostly already include LHR (Low Hash Rate) this measure identifies if the GPU is used for mining and cuts performance in half. That measure has been broken countless times, so it’s not a guarantee either. We also have to know that AMD has never included anti-mining measures in its Radeon products.
It is important that you know the specific model to verify the working frequencies and other parameters such as the working voltages. Perhaps this last parameter is more complex to find, but if we search the internet, we can find it.
come with box
Maybe it seems absurd to you, but the fact that it does not have the box is an important indicator . If he was a small miner, he may have kept the boxes, but if he had a large mining farm, he may have thrown them away. You must think that the boxes take up an enormous amount of space and can be annoying elements. Normally they throw them away and when they sell them second hand, they sell them without a box and that sings.
As an example, we have a stall in Vietnam at street level. We see a person with a large number of graphics cards piled up on the floor and selling without further ado. It looks like a fast food stall, but here you get a graphics card used in mining at a very low price. At least curious.
Price difference
There are two common price ranges when it comes to graphics cards sold on the second-hand market that have been used for mining: sellers keep the price much higher than average, or they sell it at a much lower price.
In the first case, they claim that the GPU that they are going to sell you has been for personal use and that it has hardly been used, obviously it is false. This is a dishonest tactic and you should be very careful of sellers telling you this: just because it’s expensive doesn’t mean it’s in better condition.
In the second case, the sellers will explicitly tell you that the GPU has been used for mining and that their price is lower because of it, although some do not give any explanation about it. If a GPU is priced noticeably lower than average, you should be suspicious. The key in any case is to look at the average price of the second-hand market of the model you intend to buy.
Take a look at the GPU status
Right off the bat, the most obvious thing you might notice is discoloration on the PCB . If you detect visible defects, it is likely that the unit has suffered from heat damage due to intense loads for a long time, and precisely this problem is quite frequent in graphics that have been used for mining.
The next thing to look for are the video connection ports. GPUs that are specially designed or tuned for mining don’t have as many DVI, HDMI, or DP ports as the average. Another thing to watch out for is overclocking – while many miners don’t overclock their GPUs for mining, many others do, so look to see if the DRAM chips are visible and if they have any PCB discoloration around them or oily sheen. , a sign that something is not right.
The last thing you could look at externally is more complicated because it requires you to remove the heatsink , since that is the GPU’s thermal paste. If it is dry and solidified, it has probably had to withstand more heat than necessary, causing the same problems as the previous ones.
BIOS and tests
GPUs used for mining often have different or modified BIOS settings than the factory ones . So one thing you can do is ask the seller for a screenshot of GPU-Z and compare it to the original graphics that you can most likely easily find online. If the values are changed, that graphics card has probably been overclocked and used for mining.
Finally, another thing you can do is ask the seller to put the graphics card through a Furmark test and send you a screenshot of the operating temperatures. This will help you determine if the chart is working properly or if it is getting too hot.
