It’s never a good sign when a raft of graphics cards fail in quick succession. That was the case earlier this month when PC hardware repair service KrisFix-Germany stumbled upon 48 faulty Radeon RX 6800 or RX 6900 cards in a matter of weeks.
Following a video displaying cracked GPUs, the Internet naturally went into speculation overdrive, wondering what had caused the demise of these marvelous high-end parts. KrisFix asking customers to specify which drivers they were using only fanned the flames, with some YouTubers suggesting faulty software may have been disabling the GPU’s thermal limit.
Such theories appear to be well wide of the mark. In a follow-up, KrisFix has spent further time investigating and concluded that the dead GPUs exhibited signs of having been previously used for mining purposes before being stored in what seems to be high-humidity environments.
It isn’t outside the realms of possibilities that all of the cards in question were once part of the same mining operation, and if that isn’t punishing enough for GPUs, improper storage prior to reselling could certainly lead to a rapid wave of failures.
Unfortunately, there’s no fool-proof method to detect if a card has been used specifically for mining, but it is something to be wary of when purchasing used cards from online sellers. With cryptocurrency continuing to falter, cards previously deployed solely for crypto-mining have flooded the market, and reliability concerns are to be expected, irrespective of GeForce or Radeon.
Be mindful when buying from a less conventional source, and in the meantime all existing Radeon RX 6000 Series owners can breathe a sigh of relief; update your drivers without fear and game on.
