How to make sure a preowned GPU will last? (RX 580)

[JayRuth]

Hi,


I hope this is the correct forum to ask this kind of thing. Years ago I bought a custom PC which did very well but had been showing its age so I decided to buy an ex mining Sapphire Nitro+ 580 8GB from Ebay and put it into my computer. I want to make sure everything is ok before I leave feedback and before the return/refund windows closes, but I'm not certain how to do it or what I'm looking for.

I have done some gaming on it, mainly Hitman 2 which runs at around 60fps on high and Vermintide 2 which can range anywhere from 40-60fps and causes the GPU usage to constantly jump from 0-100% according to MSI afterburner, I'm not sure if this is an issue.

But in regards to actually checking if this level of performance is correct or how to check that the card is working properly I'm fairly clueless, I'm hoping you guys could tell me what to look for and then just double check that everything is working fine? The rest of my computer is:

i5 6500 3.2GHz
2x8GB DDR4 RAM
Gigabyte H110M S2H
Coolermaster B600 (I think)
1TB HDD
120GB SSD
1920x1080

 

[EsaT]

There's simply very little ways to find out how much voltage regulators have taken wear from that 24/7 use.
Running some GPU heavy stress tests etc.

For gaming your CPU is below mid level, so that can cause bottlenecking in games especially if display resolution is low.
Problems from cheap PSU should show in other ways than framerate drops.

 

[agw_01]

You could run 3DMark and compare your score online to gauge how the card is performing.

There's also a stress test like FurMark to make sure the card doesn't artifact under load. I know there have been reports of FurMark killing cards but adjust the fan profile to keep the card cool and you'll have no problems. Running it for a couple of hours should show you whether the card has any issues.

You might also find you can undervolt the card a bit to keep it cooler and lower stresses on the VRMs. I can undervolt my Sapphire RX480 by 70mV at stock clocks.

 

[JayRuth]

Thanks for the replies.

I ran 3DMark TimeSpy(?) and I think my results are as expected, but held back slightly by the CPU.

https://imgur.com/a/go14Nz3

I ran a very short 10min test in Furmark and it didn't crash and I didn't see anything odd and I ran the Heaven benchmark a few times and again it seemed fine. Sapphire have their own "Fan Test" which comes with the Sapphire Trixx software which seemed to be working fine too. So I guess everything appears to be normal for now? MSI still reports some games as jumping from 0-100% but I'm not receiving any errors or framerate drops in games so I'm assuming that's expected.

As for the CPU I've read that enabling AA at a low resolution will put more stress on the GPU so that things balance out, is this true? I'm not sure the card can run very well at a higher resolution. When I bought the GPU I did think about replacing the CPU also but I think my motherboard only support Generation 6 & 7 which would probably be a waste of money in regards to performance upgrade and futureproofing

 

[EsaT]

As for the CPU I've read that enabling AA at a low resolution will put more stress on the GPU so that things balance out, is this true? I'm not sure the card can run very well at a higher resolution. When I bought the GPU I did think about replacing the CPU also but I think my motherboard only support Generation 6 & 7 which would probably be a waste of money in regards to performance upgrade and futureproofing

AA or anything like such doesn't lower CPU power need.
Unless graphics card runs out of "horse power" and lowers frame rate even below that what CPU can push.

Hypertreading and those four extra threads would give some help especially for handling all that background stuff with less frame rates drops.
Some monitoring software recording both CPU and GPU load could give hints, if CPU getting clogged by that background junk is reason for for that jumping in GPU utilization.

But paying anything near new price just doesn't make sense.
I mean in spring eight cores might become basic level and 12 cores new enthusiast norm.