Question for people that know computers

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A Fiery Flying Roll

Hating Dungeons and Dragons before it was cool
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Looking to upgrade my new PC with a friend's help. Techies, how bad an idea is buying a refurbished graphics card? That seems to be the main expense.
 
I wouldn't do it unless they give the same warranty duration as a new one.

Which kind of uses is the PC going to see? The only reason to buy pricy high-end cards is if you plan to play latest generation video games at max quality settings. For a full HD resolution monitor at medium settings, any card in the 150-200 range should be fine.
 
I wouldn't do it unless they give the same warranty duration as a new one.

Which kind of uses is the PC going to see? The only reason to buy pricy high-end cards is if you plan to play latest generation video games at max quality settings. For a full HD resolution monitor at medium settings, any card in the 150-200 range should be fine.
I'm not a latest gen player. Essentially, my benchmark has been "would run Tropico 6 without problems", so I wasn't going for a massively expensive card. But coronavirus has fucked my income hard, so I'm working to a much tighter budget.
 
Look for previous generation AMD cards (the RX 570-580-590 series). They should be still available on the cheap and will give you more than enough power to run at full HD provided you don't insist on "ultra" settings.
Best case would be to buy a used one, but only from someone you can trust...
 
Looking to upgrade my new PC with a friend's help. Techies, how bad an idea is buying a refurbished graphics card? That seems to be the main expense.
It's a mixed bag. The card may have been thrashed by crypto mining, particularly on a high-end card, so its coolers may be a bit shagged. In some cases (ASUS Strix comes to mind) you can buy replacement cooling fans off Ebay. It should also be possible to pull the cooler off and replace the heatsink gunk, which sometimes dries out. To do this you will need a tube of silver-based heatsink gunk, a bottle of limonene-based cleaner (stinks really badly of oranges) and a credit card or similar to smear the gunge on.

If you go for a secondhand card, I suggest you stick to really mainstream brands - defined as ones you can find youtube videos on doing stuff like replacing heatsink goop for. Generally I would recommend against buying off-brand I.T. secondhand.
 
If it is factory refurbished, you are probably okay. if it is in house refurbished, I would give it a pass.
I tend to buy refurbished when I can due to costs as well and have never truly had a problem with it.
Like was said above... make sure they have a decent warranty to cover the chance of it being a lemon.
 
When I got my most recent gaming PC it was refurbished except for the graphics card. It has now lasted me more than 3-4 years.
 
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