I bought a used mining GPU expecting junk, and it's been flawless since 2022
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A personal account of buying a used RTX 3080 that had been used for cryptocurrency mining, challenging the common wisdom that mining GPUs are worn-out junk. Key points: thermal cycling from gaming is actually harder on hardware than the steady-state load of mining; GPU silicon doesn't degrade meaningfully at normal voltages; miners typically undervolt cards for efficiency, reducing stress on the core. The main caveat is Ethereum mining, which pushed memory clocks hard and could cause memory overheating on cards with poor cooling. The author acknowledges the 'black box' problem of not being able to verify a seller's claims, but argues mining is just one risk profile among several and not inherently the worst one.
