Chinese Off-brand VGA Makers Repurpose Mining GPUs as Graphics Cards

[btarunr]

It seems like hoarders of GPU-based crypto-mining cards hoping for mining to return, have relented, causing a deluge of cards that need to be somehow sold. Chinese off-brand VGA vendors have netted volumes of such cards, and with a little bit of retrofitting, have repurposed them into usable gaming graphics cards. Mining cards tend to be "headless," in that they lack display connectors and SMDs needed to drive the display I/O. At least two examples of such cards surfaced, which include "RTX 3080 20 GB Blower AI" and "Radeon RX 580 16 GB." Repurposed mining cards are given a new display I/O if they're missing one, a new cooler (since the mining card's older cooler would've been worn out from the rigors of its past life), and made to look "new," with some PCB cleaning. Such cards are frequently popping up on Chinese marketplaces such as AliExpress.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Crackong]

According to TPU database
The mining specific GA102 CMP 90HX clocked at 1500MHz, not the 1440MHz shown on the picture.
1440MHz is a regular 3080.

And we all know why they are re-balled with double the VRAM and a blower cooler
- to be sold and install in an AI datacenter server

 

[ExcuseMeWtf]

To be honest, I'm okay with that, as long as they're transparent about GPU's history, which I'm afraid often won't be the case.

 

[Chaitanya]

I thought both AMD and nVidia had fused off display outputs from their GPUs repurposed as mining class.

 

[R0H1T]

Wonder what the 3080Ti lite could sell for, assuming someone will rip/repurpose it for AI(?)

 

[Jerry Newman]

You have a really cool website. I get all my news from here, and the forums are awesome. I read, try things out in practice, and it works! Thanks for your great work, guys

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

guess GPU shortages are somewhat being solved over there, for now... Your move to reduce prices, NoVideo.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Hope they are transparent about it....

 

[Jeager]

Hope they are transparent about it....

Yes hope ...

 

[pavle]

The good part of this situation is 20GB of VRAM, longevity of such parts is questionable; they're just tired (potentially).

 

[ViperXZ]

For once the tables are turned and gamers (possibly) get something back. Also finally the 3080 has a decent vram amount (lol).

 

[Outback Bronze]

I wonder what sort of warranty you get??

 

[mahirzukic2]

I wonder what sort of warranty you get??

Probably none as they are pre-used cards where the history of such cards will probably be obfuscated.

 

[damric]

I'm glad that at least there's some recycling going on there. E-waste is a huge problem as computer parts become obsolete fast.

 

[Sabotaged_Enigma]

Mining is to blame.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I mean, so long as they don't "infect" the supply chain of the big well known AIBs... oh well? Just assume any chinese brand you're getting this stuff off of on Aliexpress or whatever is less than pristine.

Better still if these are coming with a heavy discount off new or off their modern gen equivalents. I'd have absolutely no issue picking up a 3080 for $300 or a 3070Ti for $200 if they worked out of the box and lived for 3-5 years. Still a lot of gaming power there and for the right price they could be a great way into PC gaming without having to pay this Gen's usurious prices or having to turn to the fully used market.

 

[Post Nut Clairvoyance]

Adding the display output back might be the most they can do given the effort NVidia and AMD went to make sure these cards remain e-waste by the control on drivers, and I'm too well off to potentially run a DIY install script that runs some shady batch script in the background, just to install a driver that gets me banned from any anticheat games.
The effort to reduce e-waste is however commendable. I know younger me would have loved such GPU if prices are appropriately reflective of these products restrictions.

 

[Firedrops]

i find it pretty amusing that some mining guys diamond handed their GPUs so long that their value crashed and rose again... and also pretty sad that Nvidia and AMD ensured this scenario.

 

[R-T-B]

Mining is to blame.

For what now? Cheap cards?

I mean you can blame mining for plenty but if this remains transparent it's actually a good thing.

 

[Sabotaged_Enigma]

For what now?

Mining shouldn't have existed at all. This whole mess and worry about renewed mining cards in the market happened all thanks to mining.

 

[R-T-B]

Mining shouldn't have existed at all. This whole mess and worry about renewed mining cards in the market happened all thanks to mining.

This isn't a "mining good/bad" thread, that ship sailed long ago. This may be a way of gamers getting something out of all the greed of mining, and moaning at it is a silly look, is my point.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

no one's stopping you to find a used GPU, just that now you have to do a whole lot more of research and digging coz of how many more of these former mining cards are now popping up in the used market.

 

[Sabotaged_Enigma]

This isn't a "mining good/bad" thread, that ship sailed long ago. This may be a way of gamers getting something out of all the greed of mining, and moaning at it is a silly look, is my point.

Your point and my point don't conflict with each other. Anything related to mining I call it filth.
Although that ship has sailed, the aftermath stays.

 

[R-T-B]

Your point and my point don't conflict with each other. Anything related to mining I call it filth.
Although that ship has sailed, the aftermath stays.

It's just kind of offtopic here IMO. But you aren't wrong, no.