Signs for you to recognize and avoid buying the wrong video card that has passed the “mining” life

Buying the wrong “buffalo plow” is very bitter, bro!

For us gamers, there is certainly nothing happier than going to the store and loudly shouting: “Build yourself a fully configurable rig to fight every game”. However, not everyone has good economic conditions to buy a brand new system, but many people choose to cut costs by buying old components retail. Among them, VGA is an extremely important part that you must pay attention to, especially in the current market “dark twilight”.

In the midst of the virtual money fever, the house collecting cards to dig coins like the present, gamers who buy old VGA will easily encounter “buffalo cards, industry cards” released by farmers into the market. Most of them were of poor quality, quickly getting hot and broken, but still screaming at sky-high prices, making the big brothers “lost their money”.

This article from Gearvn will show signs to recognize “coin cards”, helping you avoid being tricked into buying high-priced buffalo cards. At the same time, there are some useful tips for you to build a machine for the first time or go to the second-hand market.

The first and easiest way to identify: “ID card” of the card

For “general users”, there is no reason why they should throw away the paper of the card, because this is a pretty big investment. Everyone wants their card when something happens to be warranted by the shop. Old cards with purchase and sale documents, warranties, full boxes… are a huge advantage. And you can be completely assured of its origin.

Most gamers will not have the need to “love science” to the point of removing all the components of the card. So we can check if the sticker on the screw on the back of the card is punched or not. If so, first, the company and shops will refuse to provide warranty for this VGA, secondly, this is a sign of dismantling the card to replace components or replace thermal paste because of plowing too much.

In conclusion, there are 3 ways for us to identify through the card’s papers as follows:

Check purchase and sale documents, invoices, warranty cards, boxes. Check the stamp on the screw on the back of the card. If undocumented, check that the card’s serial number matches the product on the company’s homepage.

Next way: Recognizing through Card’s appearance

The VGAs used to mine coins are often used non-stop for 24 hours. They therefore need a large industrial heatsink that blows directly onto the running card. This will bring air humidity and cause the card to oxidize very quickly. Causes rust in the screws, the inside of the connection ports, the solder joints of the capacitors…

Particularly about the shielding of the connection ports. The construction material of this area will not be of high quality metal inside, so it is possible that they will rust even with normal operation. However, if you find that the metal shield is too new compared to the screws, heatsinks, copper pipes inside … then it must have been replaced. And of course, if it’s just a normal user, no one would change this part of the shield.

Because of continuous operation, if the heat dissipation is just a little bit bad, the capacitors will get hot, swollen and distorted very quickly, and the circuit board behind the card will also be yellowed.

For the cooling fan, we can put our hands in and try to rotate it. Always running at full capacity to cool makes the fan not spinning because of dry oil, can make a loud noise when running, shake or rotate unevenly. If used for a long time, it may break the wings and fall off the fan.

The connection port area shield is not screwed. Usually, the card used to plow will not be attached to the main but will hang on the metal frame. So if you see that the hole in the card’s shield has no signs of being screwed, this is definitely a genuine “coin card”.

Another point, if the card is sold by the company or distributor to professional farmers, the warranty stamp will usually be limited to 1 year. If it is for gamers, the warranty period will be longer.

A certain part of the card is suddenly too new, too perfect compared to the general condition of the VGA, it has certainly been replaced during use. Caused by damage when plowing excessively, or some other reason.

So in summary, the signs to recognize through appearance include:

– Card parts are oxidized, rusted.

– Some parts are too new compared to others, especially the connector shield.

– Fan is weak, difficult to rotate, can make loud noises, vibrate.

– The capacitors are hot, deformed.

– The shield is not screwed.

– Warranty stamp is limited to 1 year.

The last way: Identify by software

– Mining cards are often mod BIOS to increase productivity. You can use GPU-Z to see if the parameters, clocks, etc. are the same as the manufacturer’s original specifications. If the clock is reduced, it can be confirmed that the card has been modified to mine coins.

– Use 3D Furmark within 30 minutes, if your card is still at a temperature of 85 degrees Celsius or below, that is normal. If the temperature is too high (more than 90 degrees Celsius), the VGA may have dried thermal paste or the cooling fan is not running efficiently. The reason for this is usually because the card has been overworked by mining. However, this test is not recommended, because the software works by forcing the card to run overtime, max capacity … and this is very harmful to the card, regardless of whether your card is 100% new.

The ways to recognize VGA buffalo through appearance and software mentioned above only help you make the most preliminary and general assessment, but cannot confirm it for sure. Because at present, professional mining facilities often have modern equipment to optimize the work of “gold mining”. The buffalo rigs will all be plowed in cool air conditioning, meeting temperature and humidity standards, the room is sealed without a speck of dust… making them always in almost perfect condition. At the same time, the facility owners also keep the box to easily push the VGA away when they are out of date but can still loudly say “99% new, install the player 2 times and then remove it, full box.”

So to avoid buying “industry cards”, what should we pay attention to?

– Choose to buy an old VGA with a VRAM capacity of less than 4GB, the lower the better based on your usage needs. Cards with VRAM below 4GB will often be less popular for mining, and AMD’s RX codes, with 8GB VRAM, are definitely always a “hot pick” for this “plowing” industry.

– Choose VGA with single fan: With normal heat dissipation performance, these types will avoid the eyes of gamers.

– If possible, ask the seller to let you check and guarantee the return in a few days, then plug in and test the performance of the card. Because checking the appearance is not enough with the sophisticated refurbishment and renewal of some professional miners.

– A reputable exchange and trading place will help you get reference and guidance from the community. You will know if the person selling your card is a trader, coin player, or gamer through their Facebook profile and the posts they have posted in the group. At the same time, if something goes wrong, you can still ask for the help of a large community in the technology village to “claim justice”.

Through the last article, I hope that those who are looking to buy old VGA will avoid the “buffalo card, industry card”, and soon complete their desired PC.

According to Gearvn