The used graphics card market is overstocked, the reason being that there is a large volume coming from mining RIGS that have been decommissioned. Well, there is a test that is easy to detect and that demonstrates its origin. What has caused its sellers to decide to pull un hack on graphics cards used for miningwhich is in turn as simple as creeping.
Under normal conditions, what the graphics card does when it has to generate a scene that requires a lot of work is to temporarily increase the clock speed, which means an increase in consumption and temperature. The consequences of this are an increase in raw power, but a decrease in performance per watt. In the case of mining RIGS, what was done is to keep the GPU, the main chip of the graphics card, with the clock speed and voltage at the point that gives the most power with the lowest possible consumption. Rather the improvement came in the other key component.
The trap in graphics cards used for mining
And this is obviously the video memory, which was being clocked up, and here we have to start from the fact that memory chips, like many others, are tested under different clock speeds to see if they tolerate their consumption and temperatures. It is not usual in a graphics card to play that the memory goes up in turns. On the other hand, in mining it does and this causes wear on the memory chips that becomes palpable over time in the form of a yellowing of the chip.
The thing is, if the VRAM on your graphics card dies, then bye-bye graphics card, the consequences are things like less available memory for the GPU, lower bandwidth, and even image artifacts from a malfunction. Serious refurbishing companies have bought new memory chips to replace the old ones by reballing, soldering in the new chips. The problem is that this cannot be done by everyone, because they do not have the equipment or the knowledge.
So they have to make use of a much simpler technique and within the reach of their possibilities. which consists of repaint graphics card memory chips so that the effects of wear and heat are not seen. And not only in that part, but also in many others in order to make the graphics cards used for mining look like new. Keep in mind that we are not talking about reconditioned and tuned units by manufacturers and assemblers, but we must be very careful when the origin of what we buy is unknown.
A trick, unfortunately, difficult to detect,
Since the vast majority of graphics cards are sold today with the circuitry underneath large heat sinks and fans, it’s hard to tell if the repaint trick has been pulled. Think that it is one thing to buy refurbished hardware that has had maintenance, cleaning and replacement of parts and quite another is a second-hand graphics card, where the owner has put it up for sale and that’s it.
In any case, and to finish, repainting the VRAM is done to deceive and defraud others. That is to say, it is done on purpose to harm and it is a shame that these things happen, but unfortunately, people who do this kind of despicable things exist.
