Are used graphics cards worth the risk? | Ask an expert

Q: I know that buying a used graphics card comes with risk. What makes the gamble acceptable?A: The answer depends. While this purchasing strategy can save a lot of money, we generally advise against used desktop graphics cards. That’s especially so during times like these, when the risk of getting a GPU battered by crypto-mining use is much higher. As my colleague Brad Chacos, our resident GPU guru, likes to point out, discrete graphics cards have a lot of moving parts, and they’re easy to overclock. Those two things combined make them a much more dangerous wager to stake cold hard cash on—put enough stress on a GPU, and it’ll have a higher likelihood of succumbing to an earlier-than-expected death. Add on the brutality of regular mining workloads, and that card could go toes-up even faster. You don’t want to be the one stuck with it then.To read this article in full, please click here https://www.pcworld.com/article/3621019/are-used-graphics-cards-worth-the-risk-ask-an-expert.html#tk.rss_all