Do GPU cards work fine for gaming after mining for 2 years?

[BkkCoins]

I have some Saphire 5830 cards I've mined on for two years. I haven't pushed them hard and have kept them at stable temperatures long term, running with no monitors on Linux..

I want to sell them to gamers locally here in Thailand where they have trouble getting the latest cards and all GPU cards are way over priced. But I don't want to scam anyone if they are having problems. I've heard of artifacts and such but don't know how to check that.

On Linux. What would be a good test to know if they are still working fine or having issues. I rarely play games so have no idea how to check this.

[philips]

Download a benchmark from Unigine and see.
For a 5830 I would go with Sanctuary: http://www.unigine.com/products/sanctuary/

[BkkCoins]

Will give it a try. Looks like I have to drag a monitor over and hook it up. Their site says it needs "latest stable drivers". I'm on some old version so wonder if that will work.

[glendall]

Generally, cards either run fine or don't run. When you degrade them or burnt them out, they generally stop working altogether, as opposed to just offering lower performance.

[tosku]

I have some Saphire 5830 cards I've mined on for two years. I haven't pushed them hard and have kept them at stable temperatures long term, running with no monitors on Linux..

I want to sell them to gamers locally here in Thailand where they have trouble getting the latest cards and all GPU cards are way over priced.

What's the going price for a 5830 or 5850 in Thailand? Funny how the cards are overpriced, since I think some of them were actually assembled in Thailand.

[BkkCoins]

I'm more worried about some reports of artifacts/glitchy display output rather than low performance. But I don't know if this is common or fairly rare.

If it's rare then I'd just offer my GPUs for sale. But if it's common then I'd feel I need to verify they're ok before selling them. I never ran them very hard while mining. I could have pushed them 20% higher but with loss of efficiency (electricity cost) it wasn't worth it anyway.

[CoinHoarder]

I'm more worried about some reports of artifacts/glitchy display output rather than low performance. But I don't know if this is common or fairly rare.

If it's rare then I'd just offer my GPUs for sale. But if it's common then I'd feel I need to verify they're ok before selling them. I never ran them very hard while mining. I could have pushed them 20% higher but with loss of efficiency (electricity cost) it wasn't worth it anyway.

It's a good idea to check your cards in-game before selling them, unless you specifically state you only tested it with mining.

I have had a lot of cards that hash fine, but artifact in gaming.

[BkkCoins]

I have some Saphire 5830 cards I've mined on for two years. I haven't pushed them hard and have kept them at stable temperatures long term, running with no monitors on Linux..

I want to sell them to gamers locally here in Thailand where they have trouble getting the latest cards and all GPU cards are way over priced.

What's the going price for a 5830 or 5850 in Thailand? Funny how the cards are overpriced, since I think some of them were actually assembled in Thailand.

It's just poor competition in the market here. Sellers tends to keep prices high and not undercut each other. Not that 5830 is high end now, but high end cards tend to be only affordable to the wealthy here so they don't get too fussy about price. So stores don't try to market based on price. For cheap products that everyone can afford they do compete and prices drop to rock bottom.

I haven't looked for a long time but when I was buying the 5830s I ordered from USA because they were hard to find here and the ones that I did see were double the price.

I was paying $109 from Newegg and locally they were over 5500 or 5900 baht ($185-200). The commonly available cards were around 2500-3000 baht and were low-end models. I don't recall which ones now.

[Littleshop]

I'm more worried about some reports of artifacts/glitchy display output rather than low performance. But I don't know if this is common or fairly rare.

If it's rare then I'd just offer my GPUs for sale. But if it's common then I'd feel I need to verify they're ok before selling them. I never ran them very hard while mining. I could have pushed them 20% higher but with loss of efficiency (electricity cost) it wasn't worth it anyway.

Cards that are overclocked, overheated or had dead fans are more likely to have problems gaming. 

[logicbomb666]

Call me paranoid, but I swear my 6950 has shown a very small but still noticeable decrease in gaming performance.  I have used the 6950 max overclocked to mine for only a couple months.

But honestly, I have no evidence to prove the decrease in performance was caused from the mining.  For all I know the little glitches I have experience could have been caused by my HDD or even network lag.

[ryantc]

I have some Saphire 5830 cards I've mined on for two years. I haven't pushed them hard and have kept them at stable temperatures long term, running with no monitors on Linux..

I want to sell them to gamers locally here in Thailand where they have trouble getting the latest cards and all GPU cards are way over priced.

What's the going price for a 5830 or 5850 in Thailand? Funny how the cards are overpriced, since I think some of them were actually assembled in Thailand.

Well, all 7900 cards I bought are made in China, and they are sold more expensive in China than in Canada, lol,

[NetcodePool]

Yes for sure

[ewitte]

If its glitchy gaming it should be glitchy mining. 

[joulesbeef]

you might have to replace the fan and re-thermal paste the cpu and mem but no there should be no noticeable degrade in performance, as long as the card wasnt damaged. If it was damaged though, it shouldnt mine well.. it should crash often and other symptoms.

Really the biggest problem with reselling mining cards is fan performance and life. If you dont replace it, most likely it is running slightly slower and keeping the card slightly less cool.

[Photon939]

One of my reference design Diamond 5870s has developed some artifacting problems at idle clocks. So sometimes in windows will get funny colored pixels and weird lines. As soon as the card ramps up to full clocks though, it works fine. Plays games great and still mines without a hiccup.

[bowen151]

If its glitchy gaming it should be glitchy mining. 

Not necessarily, artifacts can be present when game testing a card that was used perfectly well for mining. The best way to check if there will be any is to run a few games on it and see what it actually looks like.

If they are good to go then a quick replacing of some components such as thermal grease and VRM pads could be a good idea if they are being resold on to gamers.

[ewitte]

If its glitchy gaming it should be glitchy mining. 

Not necessarily, artifacts can be present when game testing a card that was used perfectly well for mining. The best way to check if there will be any is to run a few games on it and see what it actually looks like.

If they are good to go then a quick replacing of some components such as thermal grease and VRM pads could be a good idea if they are being resold on to gamers.

It depends if its really bad even if mining is stable there should be the occasional HW errors.

[GenTarkin]

From my experience ... nope. Ive had 100% of my 5970's go bad over time mining. I think my 5830 & a 5850 is still good for gaming. The other 2 5850's have their own issues that prevent them from mining.
Ive run all my GPU's at 75C or less, more often not over 70C
The VRM temps on my 5970's have always been 85C or lower.

I think its mostly cold solder issues that end up creeping up over the life of mining, 24x7.

Now that I have 7870's mining, will be interesting to see if can game on them after done mining with. Maybe theyve improved the quality of PCB assembly / soldering since the 5xxx who knows =P, but at least they have a warranty in case not.