The massive use of gaming graphics cards for mining did not affect the health of the main chip, i.e. the GPU, but rather the various video memory chips that were also on the same card. Since cryptocurrency mining is an application highly dependent on VRAM bandwidth and increases its performance the higher it is. Unfortunately, the chips weren’t designed to endure that much 24/7 wear and tear.
RTX 20 graphics cards on AliExpress are “fake”
So once what was given ended, a large number of graphics cards ended up on the second-hand market with a good part of the video memories broken. The only solution? Take the parts that were still working from some to replace the already broken ones so you can salvage entire units and scrap the rest. All this at a time when, due to the side effects of the pandemic, it has become almost impossible to buy replacement memory chips.
Well, some of the said defective or partially defective hardware went to the biggest Asian distributor and it can be said that “fake” graphics cards are sold on AliExpress, and we are not talking about these GPU-based models for laptops without the LHR that assemblers were selling to big miners, but units matching the NVIDIA RTX 20 i.e. RTX 2060, 2070, 2080 (Ti) and SUPER versions of some of them. Which models exactly? GOOD those who bring with them Micron-branded GDDR6 memory.
The problem with these units is that although they are functional, their video memory is worn down enough to be a ticking time bomb and fail at any moment. And we already know what happens when the video memory fails, the graphics card simply stops working completely and is not an easily replaceable part.
Again the trick of painted memories
Apparently, The affected Micron GDDR6 memories are those whose serial number begins with an 8, which corresponds to the batch number. The trap is that those who have decided to sell these models know of said defect and hI repainted said value with a 9 to pass it off as a higher quality souvenir bundle and that, therefore, it is not a problem that is the fault of AliExpress, since they only provide the sales and distribution platform.
In any case, at this time we do not recommend buying an RTX 20, as any model of the RTX 30 or AMD’s RX 6000 is a much better option and will give you much more performance. for your money. .