Can a graphics card last forever?

Usually, the manufacturers themselves are fully aware of the useful life of their devices, and based on this they assign the warranty period. While most give their products the 2-year guarantee required by law, many others extend this period to 10-12 years in certain cases (for example, be quiet! offers its high-end fountains a guarantee 10 years). warranty), knowing that their product is really good and can work well for long periods of time.

Graphics card life is up to you

While it is true that most users use the graphics card of the PC mainly to play in our leisure time, the life of this component greatly depends on the type of use we give it, as well as on the maintenance. And it’s that a person who plays on the PC for, say, a few hours a day, is not the same as someone who forces the graphics card to max out for 8 hours a day every day. Not talking about those who are or have been using their graphs to mine cryptocurrency around the clock, of course.

Next, we’ll list the factors (and you’ll see that most of them are up to you) that affect the lifespan of a graphics card:

• He type of use that you give it (which we have already explained above).
• There temperature operation: a graphics card installed in a badly cooled box or which has a “normal” heatsink and which operates at 85°C is not the same as a well-cooled card which never exceeds 70°C for example.
• He interview and cleanliness: keeping the graphic in good cleaning conditions will prolong its life, since we will avoid short circuits due to the soot deposited on its electronic components, it will work at a better temperature, the fan will not have to do extra effort to move the dust deposited on it, etc.
• The bone Fans: even under ideal conditions, the fans in the graph have an expiration date, or rather a limited lifespan. They are moving components in which there is friction, and as such there is wear and tear too, so no matter how careful you are, there will come a time when they fail (now if things are done correctly, that moment could take several years from now). .
• There Power source: believe it or not, a good power supply with good protection systems and able to provide a constant and clean current also affects the useful life of the graphic, both by protecting it from possible electrical problems, and by the fact that by making it clean, constant power will also make the electrical circuits on the board less functional.
• heavy graphics placed horizontally: beware of this… graphics cards are getting bigger and heavier, and in the end your PCB can end up bending and even breaking at the PCIe connector if you are not careful . This will hardly happen to a vertical graphic, but there are methods to mitigate it, such as GPU brackets. Keep that in mind.

As you can see, all of these factors are going to affect the lifespan of the graphics card, and there’s a lot you can do yourself, such as cleaning the inside of your PC regularly, using a better quality power supply, or making sure the airflow of your box is good enough.

Ok but can they last forever or not?

“Forever” is an expression generally incompatible with electronic devices, because sooner or later they will fail. So, in summary, no, your graphic cannot last forever, but it is true that taking into account everything that we have explained to you in the previous section of the article, your graphic could last in good condition for a very long time. , long time. . .. long enough to survive you.

There is no specific date or period, but even taking into account that fans are components that, as we have explained, always end up failing, the period for this to happen is usually quite long. Fans typically have an MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) of over 200,000 hours, which is equivalent to running your graphics card for nearly 23 years without interruption.

You will understand with this that by being careful and taking the necessary measures and precautions, even if the graphics card will not last forever, we can say that it will last “a lifetime”.