A mined 2080TI for 2 months,or an old card 1080ti used for constant gaming?

[El-Presidente]

This thread is getting a bit old but here are some of my observations. Personally, I've done some mining and I've come across a lot of used hardware. The only reason I ever started mining to begin with was to pay for more hardware.

In 2nd hand and miner speak 2 months = 6 months or longer. The guy with the 2080ti most likely bought it from a 2nd hand source and who knows how the Original Purchaser of the card treated it. Maybe the seller is being honest, maybe he isn't.... it's hard to tell. It's not hard to make a Graphics card look brand new. Miners are known to buy their cards from wherever they can get them.

Yes, miners undervolt the GPU core, but this is with Mining algorithms that favor Memory speed and bandwidth. People who mined Eth, Eth classic, Ergo, etc will have overclocked the VRAM. GDDR5 didn't run hot and it was common to find cards like the MSI Armor or Asus Strix that used coldplates that didn't cover the VRAM modules well.

Otherwise, 2 months of mining is nothing. If this damages the card then there was something wrong with the card to begin with.

Micron released faulty GDDR6 RAM modules until the end of 2018. These work fine for a while then begin to fail. Most 2080ti cards in the wild probably won't have these modules, but some early release versions will. Check out 'northwestrepair' on youtube to find out more.

When the 2017-2018 mining boom ended, I bought several 1080ti's at a discount. A couple of these were used in Long Beach, California. These were the EVGA SC2 models. I noticed the aluminum heatsinks had corrosion on them, so I assume the original owners mining operation was not too far away from the ocean. There are strange environmental things you have to look into as well.

The two 2080ti's you listed aren't top of the line models anyway. These are more like entry level versions. KFA2 and Galax/Galaxy are owned by Palit.

The 1080ti? You might as well look around for a 10GB RX 6700 or save up a bit more for the 6700xt. My brother was using the 1080ti for gaming at 4k, which worked great for a while, but he bought a couple games that were so demanding that he had to upscale from a lower resolution. He ended up buying an RX 6900xt. Now that the 1080ti is five to six years old, failure rates will become more common for old cards like this. That Gaming X 1080ti you're looking at may last another four years or another two.

my card have SAMSUNG GDDR 6 module.I trust in Samsung company,at memory segment they are the best.Hynix are good too. !!!
Micron at memory segment is just a nightmare,i know.....that's why i avoid them....All card with Micron memory have problem with Space invaders artifact....

 

[lexluthermiester]

I clean the card.It was much cat hair inside and dust...OMG i hate cats and dogs.

I've seen worse. However...

Please clean and organize your cables lol.

..this!

Please help yourself out with some cable management and dusting out of your case!

Question: Is there a reason why you put the card in the lower PCIe slot? You're limiting some of your performance doing that.

 

[El-Presidente]

Question: Is there a reason why you put the card in the lower PCIe slot? You're limiting some of your performance doing that.

I already said it ,i can't install the card on the first PCi-E slot to benefit of x16 mode because i can't fit my tv tuner.This card occupy 3 slots...
I have only one PCi-e 1x slot on the motherboard and it is badly positioned,is between first PCI-e x16 and second PCI-e x8.This card is very wide ocuppy 3 slots.I must give up at tv tuner,and i don,t want

 

[lexluthermiester]

I already said it

Oops, sorry...

i can't install the card on the first PCi-E slot to benefit of x16 mode because i can't fit my tv tuner.This card occupy 3 slots...

Um, get a USB TV tuner? They're not expensive. You'll thank yourself later.

 

[El-Presidente]

I already had 2 USB tv-tuners in the past,and after 4 month of use,both died,believe me.USB tv-tuner it doesn't last that long like internal card.Internal tv-tuner card are much stronger and better than any USB tv-tuner
I have this pci-x1 tuner for 5 years and is still work without problem.That's why i don't like usb tv tuner,because i already had bad experience with them.

l.e. i had this model in the past and after 4 month of use...he died completely

 

[lexluthermiester]

I already had 2 USB tv-tuners in the past,and after 4 month of use,both died,believe me.USB tv-tuner it doesn't last that long like internal card.Internal tv-tuner card are much stronger and better than any USB tv-tuner
I have this pci-x1 tuner for 5 years and is still work without problem.That's why i don't like usb tv tuner,because i already had bad experience with them.

That's understandable. There are reliable models out there though. The quality models are a bit more expensive though.

EDIT for example, Hauppauge makes very good quality USB TV tuners:

https://www.amazon.com/Hauppauge-1657-WinTV-dualHD-Cordcutter-Windows/dp/B0787JFGWM

 

[Darkholm]

Hello. My first post here so I will try to be useful as much as I can.

I had this MSI RTX 2080Ti Gaming X Trio card for 3 years, solely for 1440P gaming (only singleplayer games since I do not play MPs), never been used as mining card. 3 years spent in well air-cooled Fractal Define R5 case with 5x Arctic P14 fans (2x front intake + 1x bottom intake for GPU + 1x rear exhaust + 1x top above cpu exhaust. Card was real beast but it had also some drawbacks which I will note here just to know what to deal with after some time. Case and GPU was de-dusted every 45-60 days with compressor so there were no dust anywhere near what @El-Presidente demonstrated

As said, GPU was used solely for gaming, no video editing or mining. The heaviest gaming load for me was Metro Exodus EE with Extreme settings and RayTracing enabled and set to max values without DLSS, for 1440P 60FPS, card was pulling 320W and GPU temp was 69-71°C with custom fan curve in MSI Afterburner and was undervolted to 0,950V. This is a must on this card if you would like to play in silence Other games like Far Cry 6 or F1 games were far easier on the GPU so there was even less heat and noise output. In most cases it was dead silent.

Card holder is a must because card is very heavy and prone to sagging. Mine was not sagged but I used THIS holder since the original one didn't offer wanted stability.

2080Ti made me skip entire Ampere and RDNA2 lineup since I tried 3080, 3080Ti, 3090, 6800XT and 6950XT so the card was really great for gaming, even with RT games.

But, after 3 years of gaming, quality of thermal pads was shown. In February, I disassemble my rig for NVMe change and I saw grease from thermal pads beneath GPU's backplate thru those cut outs and there was grease just above PCI-E part of the GPU. Few days later, I sold it and new owner immediately disassemble it and replaced pads and thermal paste. He has some experience with GPU re-pasting & re-padding and he said that quality of those pads and paste are very low and if I didn't undervolt it and kept it relatively cool in R5 case, this would happen a lot sooner.

So, if you are buying RTX 2080Ti, especially MSI Gaming X Trio, gamers or miners card, replacing pads and paste GPU with MX-2 paste is a MUST. HERE is a schematic which pads (dimensions) are used so it would be easy.

If you have any questions regarding this card, I would gladly give you answers cheers

 

[El-Presidente]

So, if you are buying RTX 2080Ti, especially MSI Gaming X Trio, gamers or miners card, replacing pads and paste GPU with MX-2 paste is a MUST. HERE is a schematic which pads (dimensions) are used so it would be easy.

If you have any questions regarding this card, I would gladly give you answers cheers

i heard Mx-2 paste is good,but if i choose Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut is better?I heard good things about this Thermal Grizzly company
Between Arctic Mx-6 and Thermal Grizzly Kryonuat....which paste is better for my RTX 2080TI ?

 

[Darkholm]

Between those pastes, we are talking 1-2°C difference so go with one which is easier to buy for you in terms of price, availability and shipping. You can't miss with neither.

 

[El-Presidente]

Between those pastes, we are talking 1-2°C difference so go with one which is easier to buy for you in terms of price, availability and shipping. You can't miss with neither.

another question.Which thermal PADS do u recommend for my card?
My version is this :

MSI RTX 2080 Ti GAMING TRIO Specs | TechPowerUp GPU Database

 

[Marcus L]

I clean the card.It was much cat hair inside and dust...OMG i hate cats and dogs.I install the card in my case,all seems to be fine,and the card is working properly.I want to say the card is Huge,have 320mm lenght.During the day with 50% FAN active, i have 29 degree in idle and 56-60 degree in full load,and night i have 25.8-27 degree in idle and 53-57 in full load.
The problem is this card tend to be HOT than my old R9 Fury X.
This card have idle fan stop,and on the default mode,Fan start only when card reach 50 or 60 degree...I don 't understand why FAN doesn't start at 30 or 40 degree by default...I set FAN ACTIVE in Msi Afterburner to run always at 50-60%.For me 50 or 60 degree in idle is very DANGEROUS.I want to say another thing.This card must have very good air flow and big space and case like mine or much bigger and better.The seller had bad and small case with bad airflow,and temp always was higher .I don't understand people with small case and high-end card....nevermind
I am aware of this rtx 2080ti card not to break the slot of the motherboard....is very HEAVY.Another inconvenience,i can't install the card on the first PCi-E slot to benefit of x16 mode because i can't fit my tv tuner.This card occupy 3 slots...so for the moment is work on x8 mode
OFF.....

Nice rats nest you got there sort your cables out, re-paste it if you haven't already and direct a 120/140mm fan towards it ffrom the front of your case, once you have done this look at your idle temps with your side panel on and most importantly what are the load temps? if needs be set a more aggressive fan curve for when it starts to hit 70c

 

[Darkholm]

another question.Which thermal PADS do u recommend for my card?
My version is this :

MSI RTX 2080 Ti GAMING TRIO Specs | TechPowerUp GPU Database

EC360 proven to be great quality (as per saying of that guy I sold RTX 2080Ti to). He uses them all of the time and those are now on my ex 2080Ti.

 

[El-Presidente]

Nice rats nest you got there sort your cables out, re-paste it if you haven't already and direct a 120/140mm fan towards it ffrom the front of your case, once you have done this look at your idle temps with your side panel on and most importantly what are the load temps? if needs be set a more aggressive fan curve for when it starts to hit 70c

i have 27 degree in idle mode with 57% fan speed,and i I haven't changed yet thermal paste !!The card is very silent,even at 60% active fan...it's deadly silent

 

[Ruru]

I've seen worse. However...

..this!

Please help yourself out with some cable management and dusting out of your case!

Question: Is there a reason why you put the card in the lower PCIe slot? You're limiting some of your performance doing that.

I remember when modern cases started to be the standard, managing cables became sooooo much easier. No more electrical tape or zipties for keeping the cables tidy

 

[Darkholm]

i have 27 degree in idle mode with 57% fan speed,and i I haven't changed yet thermal paste !!The card is very silent,even at 60% active fan...it's deadly silent

IIRC, at 70+% it begins to be loud.

 

[Marcus L]

i have 27 degree in idle mode with 57% fan speed,and i I haven't changed yet thermal paste !!The card is very silent,even at 60% active fan...it's deadly silent

You dont need 27c in idle with 57% fan speed, 40c idle is just fine, what are the load temps?

 

[El-Presidente]

guys,i'm shocked and a little sad and little confused.I open the card at PC services,and thermal PADS for memory was not present on the card,infact no thermal pads was present on the card...it was only thermal paste present.I think i'm start to cry right now.At service PC i complete thermal pads only for memory and i change thermal paste with Arctic MX-2
.It's enough,or i must complete thermal pads for LR22 too ? I don't know
I really don'y know what to do.The card is still working properly without problem....but i think pads for memory is not enough.Am i right?

 

[Marcus L]

guys,i'm shocked and a little sad and little confused.I open the card at PC services,and thermal PADS for memory was not present on the card,infact no thermal pads was present on the card...it was only thermal paste present.I think i'm start to cry right now.At service PC i complete thermal pads only for memory and i change thermal paste with Arctic MX-2
.It's enough,or i must complete thermal pads for LR22 too ? I don't know
I really don'y know what to do.The card is still working properly without problem....but i think pads for memory is not enough.Am i right?

See TPU's review specifically dissaembly of the card here:

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition 11 GB Review - Pictures & Disassembly | TechPowerUp

 

[Bomby569]

sorry to hear that, but everything has a fix, search for videos of that specific model, this for example

and try to replicate it, be mindful that thermal pads thickness matter and you can't just use any, try to search actual thickness for each thermal pad

it should not be running without thermal pads that's for sure. Is sending it back and getting your money not an option?

 

[El-Presidente]

I must complete with thermal pads here too right ?
Art service PC say me is enough only for memory

 

[Bomby569]

I must complete with thermal pads here too right ?
Art service PC say me is enough only for memory

i'd say so, that can get very hot. I'm actually not sure what can happen if you run without it, just bad performance and the card thermal throttle or something worst
You can see on the video where there were thermal pads from the factory

 

[Darkholm]

Grease all over it, just as I said it would be Thermal pads needs to be on RAM but even more on VRMs.

Here is MSI RTX 2080Ti Gaming X Trio teardown.

 

[El-Presidente]

sorry to hear that, but everything has a fix, search for videos of that specific model, this for example

and try to replicate it, be mindful that thermal pads thickness matter and you can't just use any, try to search actual thickness for each thermal pad

it should not be running without thermal pads that's for sure. Is sending it back and getting your money not an option?

i must go back to the service to complete thermal pads .I think i am started to cry right now

 

[Marcus L]

i must go back to the service to complete thermal pads .I think i am started to cry right now

If you bought this from eBay use buyer protection and return it and get a GPU that hasn't been abused to within an inch of it's life, frankly the more you uncover about it the worse it seems to get...
And I have bought many used GPU's over the years, my 6700 XT was used probably a year or more ago and it was clean and has had 0 issues, even repasted it myself a few days ago and pads were all intact and now it barely breaks 70c hotspot at load.

 

[Bomby569]

i must go back to the service to complete thermal pads .I think i am started to cry right now

DO NOT FORGET about thickness, and it varies inside the same card, you could end up with a similar or worst problem. That is very important. Don't just put some random ones.
Best of luck

edit: and idk how much you can trust that tech guy that says vrm doesn't need thermal pads. sorry