Buying mining GPU from China??

[Jimmysbc]

Saw news from Youtuber of miner in China selling mining GPU below MSRP due to their government clamp down on them. Don't mind getting one below MSRP as a test to try out. Search thru Taobao but cannot find. Anyone try before and can share how?

 

[m0n0n0ke]

Yup. ..Very cheap... But risky too
Better not

 

[NightRaven49]

not on taobao, have to look on xianyu (can use taobao account), basically carouhell for china. not sure how to pay the seller without verified alipay account though.

 

[Jimmysbc]

Going crazy with this pandemic ,just span half year finished redo my 3 home desktop so now hand itch again . Want to try my hand getting a mining RTX 3070 to test, re-paste and assembly. If it is below MSPR, than not so heart pain if any mishap. Not all mining gpu are bad, same as buying new one depend on luck.

 

[watzup_ken]

Going crazy with this pandemic ,just span half year finished redo my 3 home desktop so now hand itch again . Want to try my hand getting a mining RTX 3070 to test, re-paste and assembly. If it is below MSPR, than not so heart pain if any mishap. Not all mining gpu are bad, same as buying new one depend on luck.

Yes, but depending on where you buy a new GPU, you may actually have proper local warranty and can a faulty set fixed/ replaced. Assuming you buy a ex mining RTX 3070 at 500 bucks and it kicks the bucket after a short while, you likely have no recourse. A heavily used GPU, especially when used over a prolong period is very likely to run into some issues faster. Ultimately, the decision is yours. Just my personal opinion that you can consider.

 

[Jimmysbc]

not on taobao, have to look on xianyu (can use taobao account), basically carouhell for china. not sure how to pay the seller without verified alipay account though.

Had do some reading on Xianyu cannot buy using computer web, got to download mobile apps. But don't know why my Hp don't allow to download it. Will try later.

Yes, but depending on where you buy a new GPU, you may actually have proper local warranty and can a faulty set fixed/ replaced. Assuming you buy a ex mining RTX 3070 at 500 bucks and it kicks the bucket after a short while, you likely have no recourse. A heavily used GPU, especially when used over a prolong period is very likely to run into some issues faster. Ultimately, the decision is yours. Just my personal opinion that you can consider.

Thanks for the advice.
For $500 now can't even buy a rtx 2000 series gpu in Carousell, if have also don't know the condition and no warranty also. Even thought 24/7 and heavily use, RTX 3070 is less than a year old, the odd is better if can get below MSRP. Definitely will buy a new one when the price drop to MSRP, but may need to wait til year end.

 

[watzup_ken]

Thanks for the advice.
For $500 now can't even buy a rtx 2000 series gpu in Carousell, if have also don't know the condition and no warranty also. Even thought 24/7 and heavily use, RTX 3070 is less than a year old, the odd is better if can get below MSRP. Definitely will buy a new one when the price drop to MSRP, but may need to wait til year end.

It is less than 1 year for sure. But to give you a perspective of the utilization, assuming this card is 6 months old and used 24/7 for mining, assuming 30 days each month, the card would have been working for 4320 hours. Base on your usage for gaming, how many hours do you load the GPU each day on average? It doesn't mean that the card is guaranteed to die very soon, but because most of these cards are not built for 24/7 load, so eventually something on the card will fail earlier. It is almost like you buying a car to drive to work and back home each day, versus a taxi that is always on the go and for most of the day.

Again, ultimately it depends on you. Just calling out some points to consider.

 

[NightRaven49]

there is also the argument that because miners are more concerned about efficiency than raw performance in order to balance mining revenue and electricity costs, they would generally run them at reduced clockspeeds and voltages. i believe this is especially true for large scale miners, who would also employ dedicated cooling fans on their mining rigs so as to reduce the load on the gpu fans themselves. also, because the cards are under load 24/7 rather than frequently transitioning between idle and load states, the thermal shock the gpu experiences is less. it could be the case where mining gpus could be in a better condition than ones used by gamers in the same period of time. but then again, it can be difficult to ascertain the true nature of the conditions these gpus have been run under if dealing with a dishonest seller. on a side note, heres a video from tech yes city detailing his experience with mining cards:

 

[watzup_ken]

there is also the argument that because miners are more concerned about efficiency than raw performance in order to balance mining revenue and electricity costs, they would generally run them at reduced clockspeeds and voltages. i believe this is especially true for large scale miners, who would also employ dedicated cooling fans on their mining rigs so as to reduce the load on the gpu fans themselves. also, because the cards are under load 24/7 rather than frequently transitioning between idle and load states, the thermal shock the gpu experiences is less. it could be the case where mining gpus could be in a better condition than ones used by gamers in the same period of time. but then again, it can be difficult to ascertain the true nature of the conditions these gpus have been run under if dealing with a dishonest seller. on a side note, heres a video from tech yes city detailing his experience with mining cards:

That is true, but again, the components on a retail gaming card is generally not meant for prolong 24/7 usage. Even if you were to run it at half the speed, it doesn't mean that the part is going to last. If you don't push it to 100%, you can prolong the lifespan somewhat, but there will still be wear and tear everytime current passes through. I feel the VRAM is the one that take the brunt of the punishment in a mining load since it is generally pushed and worked the hardest.

And don't get me wrong because I purchased a mining GPU before. It was a GTX 1080 Ti where I believe the previous owner used it for a couple of months. Since then, I had no issues with it even at the point where I sold it off. But for my case, I got the GTX 1080 Ti because, (1) it is used for a short period of time, i.e. about 2 months based on the invoice date, and, (2) there is official local warranty. So in case it goes kaput, I am not left high and dry with a paper weight.

 

[ignies]

I wonder if these listings on xianyu are even legit though especially the ones with absurdly cheap prices.

From what I have been seeing, probably most of these gpus that are listed for very cheap are actually fake listings from gamers or something where they post fake listings to try and bring prices down and to make it harder for the miners to sell off their cards & get out easily.

Some are easy to spot, like they would put some really bs description in their listing, stating how they imported it from Syria or something (google translated as I do not know Chinese so maybe partially lost in translation).
Others are not so obvious so need to contact seller to verify if he legit selling a card or not.

In any case, buy at your own risk. Probably need an agent or something and it would also be way harder if you do not know Chinese. For me, I do not believe the low prices some listings are putting, most of them probably fake.

 

[Jimmysbc]

I wonder if these listings on xianyu are even legit though especially the ones with absurdly cheap prices.

From what I have been seeing, probably most of these gpus that are listed for very cheap are actually fake listings from gamers or something where they post fake listings to try and bring prices down and to make it harder for the miners to sell off their cards & get out easily.

Some are easy to spot, like they would put some really bs description in their listing, stating how they imported it from Syria or something (google translated as I do not know Chinese so maybe partially lost in translation).
Others are not so obvious so need to contact seller to verify if he legit selling a card or not.

In any case, buy at your own risk. Probably need an agent or something and it would also be way harder if you do not know Chinese. For me, I do not believe the low prices some listings are putting, most of them probably fake.

Thanks for the advice, I think will not give xianyu a try, too easy to be scam. Our Carousell at less can try chat and see prove. Over there in China any problem got to suck thumb.

there is also the argument that because miners are more concerned about efficiency than raw performance in order to balance mining revenue and electricity costs, they would generally run them at reduced clockspeeds and voltages. i believe this is especially true for large scale miners, who would also employ dedicated cooling fans on their mining rigs so as to reduce the load on the gpu fans themselves. also, because the cards are under load 24/7 rather than frequently transitioning between idle and load states, the thermal shock the gpu experiences is less. it could be the case where mining gpus could be in a better condition than ones used by gamers in the same period of time. but then again, it can be difficult to ascertain the true nature of the conditions these gpus have been run under if dealing with a dishonest seller. on a side note, heres a video from tech yes city detailing his experience with mining cards:

Thanks for the pointer, will wait awhile to see any of the mining gpu land in Singapore than get one to play. At the main time change itchy hand to eyeing new 27 inch monitor.

 

[SkyShroud]

Second hand device from oversea is a gamble, mainly because you can't inspect the device.

Is second mining card bad? Well, that is also depend on the seller and to what extend did the cards run in like aircon room or stuffy dirty room.

Personally, I got a mining card 1070 a few years ago and still using it. IIRC, the card had 1.5 years warranty. Seller claim only mined for 6 months then btc crashed. Got it for a cheap $200 sgd iirc, it was a great deal I remembered at that time.