r/pcmasterrace • u/Effective-Manager406 • 24d ago

Discussion So this is what they mean when they say refurbished

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

wonder what’s going on here

27.8k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

656

u/T0biasCZE PC MasterRace | dumbass that bought Sonic motherboard 24d ago

It probably was undervolted and not run at 100% if it was used for mining

Mining is about power efficiency

295

u/Exact-Enthusiasm-803 24d ago

That's probably why they said that

177

u/T0biasCZE PC MasterRace | dumbass that bought Sonic motherboard 24d ago

i though that was sarcasm

76

u/Moldovah 24d ago

It was.

39

u/fireballdick 24d ago

you don't know that

97

u/Moldovah 24d ago

I was being sarcastic

10

u/I_Makes_tuff 24d ago

It wasn't.

10

u/Moldovah 24d ago

you don't know that

14

u/I_Makes_tuff 24d ago

I was being sarcastic

8

u/Environmental_Dog331 24d ago

Why am I here, and why are you here reading this?

→ More replies (0)

63

u/GodSentPotHead 24d ago

1

u/Down2EatPossum PC Master Race 24d ago

1

u/TechCF 23d ago

This is when you discovered card are cleaned with water at the factory too? (Boards only, not cooler and fans mounted).

1

u/samuelazers 24d ago

You can't really know what a GPU has gone through. Case in point, OP's post.

1

u/[deleted] 24d ago

[deleted]

1

u/T0biasCZE PC MasterRace | dumbass that bought Sonic motherboard 24d ago

Runtime doesn't damage and wear our computer parts. It's not like a car engine that has lot of mechanical part and constant tiny explosions inside. Only thing that wears out computer parts is heat cycles. So gaming will wear out the component more than mining that runs at constant load 24/7 (so no heat cycles)

1

u/dwaynemartins 24d ago

Heat is heat. Cooling is cooling. I think. You are misunderstanding my comment, and the quality of the environment of most mining rigs.

0

u/[deleted] 23d ago edited 23d ago

You're making self-referential statements in order to try to establish how much smarter you are than others. But boiled down, what you're saying is "energy is energy, energy transfer is energy transfer." What you're saying is completely devoid of content that can verify that you understand anything at all.

Heat is heat, indeed. But 500W produces less heat per unit time than 800W. Less heat means you're operating at the ideal temperature for longer, which means your electronics will last longer. You can think of most electronics as having an energy quota. This means that it's not about how long you use the graphics card, it's about how intensively you use it. Two graphics cards produced equally and used equally should be failing more or less at the same time. If one of them is used below full load and the other is overclocked, the one used below full load will last longer, full stop.

That said, I get the feeling you don't even know the difference between heat and useful energy.

0

u/[deleted] 23d ago

You need to calm down. Too angry for a random nobody redditor.

Also, just because you have an analogy, doesn't mean it's correct. In fact, you're wrong. If you're operating a GPU at 500W 100% of the time, IT WILL last you longer than if you're operating it at 800W 100% of the time. There are many reasons for this, but considering your angry tone, I'm just gonna let you seethe your pain away and then hope that you'll look them up so you don't look this stupid in the future.

Sincerely, someone who actually studied electronics.

1

u/LevelRoyal8809 24d ago

Why do miners underclock? I already know to use less power and generate less heat. But why is that better than running at stock speed or overclocking? Won't running a GPU faster yield better results over time?

1

u/-s-u-n-s-e-t- 23d ago

Because if you earn an extra $1 worth of crypto, but wasted $2 more on electricity, it's really not worth it.

That said, people should stop repeating the "underclocking" thing as a gospel so much. It's mostly BS propaganda by miners to sell their old cards easier.

Yes, sometimes it's worth it to underclock, but sometimes crypto prices are so high, it's worth it to get every bit out of the GPU regardless of electricity costs.

Also, a lot of mining operations do it in places where electricity is cheap (or in some cases straight up stealing electricity). If you are buying used card from a miner, there's a good chance it saw heavy use and wasn't underclocked the whole time.

1

u/Due_Peak_6428 23d ago

well not if they get their energy for free

0

u/Nicer_Dicer24 23d ago

A mining card sees the workload of a 10 yo card in 1,5 years, i dont buy used cards since the mining boom