Would you buy a USED or Refurbished video card?

[Remobz]

Hey all,

I never bought anything from Amazon unless it was in New condition. I noticed that there are cheaper versions of an AMD R280x 3GB for around $200 or a little less.

Should I buy used or refurbished? Anyone have experience with either or both types of video cards in such conditions?

 

[n0x1ous]

typically cards either work or they don't. I have bough plenty of used cards from ebay and never had an issue......

 

[AznAnarchy99]

I bought an open box GTX770 for $230 back when they were retailing around $400. It runs fine but I'm having some issues with WoW. I don't think it's the card though. I can FurMark it for hours without issues...

 

[GodisanAtheist]

If the price is right... Just picked up a power color 7870 myst (7930) for $85 bucks shipped off of eBay. Works great and absolutely crushes anything else at that price point. My wife can now play Sims 3 maxed out

To make a point: she upgraded from an 8800gts 320 that I paid 40 bucks for 6... Years ago?

 

[Remobz]

If the price is right... Just picked up a power color 7870 myst (7930) for $85 bucks shipped off of eBay. Works great and absolutely crushes anything else at that price point. My wife can now play Sims 3 maxed out

To make a point: she upgraded from an 8800gts 320 that I paid 40 bucks for 6... Years ago?

Good deal. I don't deal with ebay. Usually, Amazon.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

My last 4 cards I bought used, all still work afaik.

 

[Remobz]

My last 4 cards I bought used, all still work afaik.

I think used might be safer?

Refurbished to me implies that there was a technical issue that had to be fixed first and then resold.

 

[unrlmth]

I buy pretty much everything used and have been very successful. Even with a few issues over the years, I have still come out well ahead.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

I think used might be safer?

Refurbished to me implies that there was a technical issue that had to be fixed first and then resold.

Hell I think used is the safest. You know that it's worked before (unless they did some stupid overclocking)

I used to work for a computer company that did custom built computers. You'd be amazed to see what the failure rate on these video cards are.

 

[DaveSimmons]

It's probably safer now than it used to be, since the GPUs throttle themselves and the BIOS tries to keep you from frying the card.

5-10 years ago you'd have no idea how much the card was overclocked, possibly cooking it.

I prefer shiny new though, and am willing to pay for it.

 

[Remobz]

It's probably safer now than it used to be, since the GPUs throttle themselves and the BIOS tries to keep you from frying the card.

5-10 years ago you'd have no idea how much the card was overclocked, possibly cooking it.

I prefer shiny new though, and am willing to pay for it.

I do too. My wallet is feeling the crunch this Christmas

I already bought a budget "gaming" laptop last week.

Intel Core i5-4210U 1.7 GHz Processor (3MB Cache)
8 GB DDR3L SDRAM
500 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
15.6-Inch Screen, NVIDIA GeForce 840M

Nothing fancy but I can play some older games at medium settings.

Might have to hold off until next year to build a budget gaming system.

 

[toyota]

too many stupid people that do too many stupid things with their hardware. I will NEVER buy refurbished anything. if it was sent back it was sent back for a reason. and you also usually have a worse warranty and lose any promos or incentives. I will also never buy anything used unless I know the person.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

As my primary cards I like to buy new, mostly because you dont know what OCing they've been put through and how its affected their lifespan.

After something like 17 years of buying brand new I actually broke my rule a year or so ago when I added a 2nd 580 for SLI, went to ebay and it's been fine so far.

 

[amenx]

I would have to know or trust the person and how the card has been in use. Would not buy a card thats been folding or mining 24/7 for months on end. The caps or other components have been stressed and subjected to constant heat/stress and are more likely to fail down the road than under normal conditions.

 

[Aikouka]

I've purchased used cards before, but it's not terribly common. I have also sold used cards on eBay. I treat the auctions just like my other ones by following a simple rule: do what you can to build buyer confidence in your product. If someone's going to be spending $200+ on your item, you better have more than a silly stock photo and a few lines of text. I'm going to be selling my old VG278H monitor soon, and I've got about 12 photos showing all the stuff that it comes with and the monitor working fine (display and 3D function).

As for refurbished, I've bought a few refurb products, but I don't think any of them were video cards. My biggest issue is that I would absolutely require a decent warranty. I assume that the card would probably fail sooner rather than later if it still had issues, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

 

[papapapapapapapababy]

never ever gonna

 

[Craig234]

They have a sale today on a new card like that.

 

[tweakboy]

Dont buy used or refurbised comp hardware.

best prices and best site is www.amazon.com .......... enjoy your purchases. gl

 

[Charlie98]

I bought my last GPU out of the FS/FT thread here, it was a fair deal and turned out to be a decent card.

I've never really been keen on buying used electronics, though, you just never know how they were treated.

 

[KaRLiToS]

REFURBISHED: Never

USED: Only from forum members with good reputation or people I know. Maybe Craiglist if I can personnally test the card.

 

[alkemyst]

Refurbished are 9 times out of 10 customer returns that worked fine, but they either bought somewhere else cheaper or had buyer's remorse.

They usually go back to the manufacturer and are tested fully and re-packaged.

Sometimes vendors just put them back in the box and never test nor inspect. That's why almost always you see no guarantees on included accessories.

 

[Ajay]

REFURBISHED: Never

USED: Only from forum members with good reputation or people I know.

This. Used from a trusted seller can save one some serious dollars on a secondary machine like a dedicated DC box.

 

[Shmee]

I bought 2x Sapphire 290 Tri-X's off ebay, good deals both work fine.

 

[III-V]

I've never bought used hardware... too many psychological barriers to overcome...

But yet somehow I am perfectly okay with installing used parts in machines I repair. Hmm. Maybe I should rethink the whole not-buying-used thing.

 

[Keysplayr]

YMMV. You may eventually come across a refurb that does not work. Just make sure you buy a refurb that is returnable.