In brief: We've long been warned not to buy older, second-hand graphics cards from eBay that take been used for mining. It'southward assumed their connected use causes wear and tear that impacts gaming performance, and a YouTube aqueduct has investigated this merits past testing an RTX 2080 Ti that's been mining for eighteen months.

Testing Games (via Tom's Hardware) compared the 4K operation of several titles, pitting a make-new Turing consumer flagship confronting i that had been mining for around 18 months. Not too surprisingly, the newer card was the ameliorate performer, offering nigh x per centum more FPS in games such as Cyberpunk 2077, Battlefield V, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla. One exception was Forza Horizon 4, where the departure was slightly greater.

Buying an ex-mining card might not be as bad as you lot remember

As you tin can see in the video, the main reason behind the performance difference is the mining carte du jour running at a lower clock speed and with college temperatures. The older RTX 2080 Ti is often between 15C - 20C hotter than the new version, resulting in a lower boost frequency.

This doesn't necessarily mean you should avoid ex-mining cards like the plague. As noted in some of the video's comments, the slower RTX 2080 Ti's functioning could exist improved by replacing the thermal pads and applying a new layer of thermal paste, which can dry out later on periods of prolonged use. This should bring downwardly temperatures and button framerates dorsum up.

Users who might non be confident with tinkering inside their cards could do something as elementary as dusting and cleaning their components—dust and debris build-up can as well affect cooling functioning.

And so, buying an ex-mining carte du jour on eBay might non be a bad idea if you're willing to put in the work. The simply problem is finding one that isn't selling for style in a higher place the MSRP.