Second Hand GPUs: What's the Caveat?

Desperate? Willing to shed any last buck on the best performance possible? Thirsty for that great, good, powerful gaming juice? (Ok, wait. That sounds weird, nevermind) 

Well you might have found the right place. If you are not up to date with why the GPU market at the moment is so bloated, and just all over the place, do check out my previous blog that explains everything. If you find yourself in this situation, more times than you can think of, possible alternatives include buying lower-generation GPUs, or buying a 2nd hand GPU from various sites, like Craigslist or Ebay. Personally, I'd advise you to get a 2nd hand GPU, to avoid the host of compatibility issues that come around with older cards. Don't expect to play games like Cyberpunk, or Red Dead Redemption 2 with a Nvidia GTX 760 on at least 30 FPS - because bottom line, you can't. However if you are into retrogaming, and play games that are much less demanding in terms of the graphics aspect - than yeah, its best to pour some of your cash into buying a decent older-generation GPUs.

Its worth buying a GT 1030

But, if you are more power hungry and want those triple figure FPS counts, (Or at least a steady 60 FPS) then your only option is getting a 2nd hand card from somebody else. As I previously mentioned, newer generation cards, like Nvidia's 3000 series, were initially released at lower MSRPs at around $300 - $400, but now they've skyrocketed to nearly $700, or even up to $1000. So it definitely isn't economical to purchase one of these behemoths of a card. Although, there are plenty of people out there, who are willing to sell these GPUs for a slightly less price (Most of the time). But don't expect to pick up a used RTX 3090's for like $200, or even an mined-on GPU (Do not buy those things!) And to add to this, if you find a AMD Radeon RX 580 for lower than its MSRP, get it! Look over its creditability of course, but keep it on mind. There tends to be more higher-gen AMD cards, and lower-gen Nvidia cards on the used market - so take advantage of that. The RX 580 is a beauty I have to say, nearly missed a change to get one myself. 

Check out this page by Extreme Tech:

The catch when it comes to purchasing 2nd hand parts, is that it mostly depends on where you live. If your reside in the US, or within the European Union - give or take, it would be much easier to acquire parts. However, I found it slightly hard to obtain certain, good quality GPUs around where I reside, and I'm sure that's the case with most other countries. With this aside, I'd recommend looking through sites like Craigslist, or Ebay - but always remember, and do extensive research on this, is what you are getting, the actual product or just a cheap knockoff. Most of the time, people rather sell knockoff GPUs under the umbrella of being 2nd hand, but be weary of them. Usually what you can do is check if the specifications mentioned on whatever website you are buying from, matches the verified specs from the original retailer - and most of the time, this is the preferred method.

Secondly, I'd rather frown on purchasing GPUs if its from a company seller, especially if its from China. This comes with an advantage. There is a higher chance of you being able to communicate more with the dealer, if it was just him, rather than when you deal with a company - in which due to increased bureaucracy. With more flexible communication, you can ask more detailed questions, and get to know the product a little bit more. 

Lastly, make sure the GPUs are the actual configurations. You don't want a GPU that is not compatible with your motherboard. Usually with 2nd hand dealers, most of them don't actually mention the specific model of the GPU - and this is often overlooked by purchasers. I'd recommend you actually going to the dealer's place with a rig of your own to check on the spot, whether this product is for you or not. Most of the time, some dealers would have demo videos, or pictures - but make sure you check out the model on the GPU itself rather than through the interface, as that can be modded. 

This can also be easily faked, but use common sense when it comes to sniffing out fake tags.

With that, I think you are more than equipped to purchase a 2nd hand GPU in this day and age. One crucial fact is that you have to do as much research as possible to get your desired parts, otherwise you'd end up with parts that are fake, or just straight up broken. But don't let that drive you away, buying 2nd hand GPUs comes with the risk, but the payoffs are extraordinary. 

Personally, I'm currently in the search for 2nd hand GPUs to replace my GT 1030 2GB which runs like a potato now in the face of newer games, but its mostly the increased VRAM that I need. I did in fact manage to find and locate a decent GTX 1060 3GB card (VRAM is a little smaller than needed, but the outright performance of this card is really good) however it is slightly overpriced, and although compatible with my motherboard - it will get severely bottlenecked by my Core i7 870 processor. 

That's all you'll be hearing from me for now. Any comments or suggestions please link them down below as it would be so helpful. Also, I did state that I'd release at least 2 blogs per week, but since I'm in full gears now - you'd be seeing me post blogs daily actually (For a while though, so don't get your hopes up too high) Thanks for reading this, and please comment below!

Cheers!
- Vascal

PS: We've reached 350+ views within 3 days of this blog existing, thanks alot? (Them pesky page refreshers out there, I see you)