A player receives a used GTX 1070 as a gift. Although the model offers more performance than his younger graphics card, he still wonders whether the upgrade makes sense.
An upgrade for your own gaming PC can vary depending on the hardware component. In addition, there are costs that can quickly blow up the upgrade budget and can easily be overlooked even by beginners when assembling a PC.
A player was now very lucky to receive a GTX 1070 as a gift. Although the graphics card would provide more performance in his computer, the player is unsure whether he should actually use it due to the hardware’s crypto mining history.
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Used mining graphics card as a sensible upgrade?
What kind of graphics card is this? The player GmVik3 reports on Reddit about a gift from his uncle. He gave him a used GameRock GeForce GTX 1070 with 8 GB of video memory. According to him, the Nvidia graphics card was used for crypto mining.
Since his gaming PC has a weaker GTX 1650 Super, he asks the community whether the upgrade is really worth it, even though the GTX 1070 is already 8 years old and was used for mining. However, he does not have to worry about a space problem during installation, as another user experienced.
“My uncle gave me his old used mining GTX 1070 8 GB. Should I replace my GTX 1650 Super with them?”
GmVik3 on Reddit
Other users point out to GmVik3 that despite its age, the GTX 1070 has 8 GB of video memory and therefore offers twice as much memory as the 1650 Super with only 4 GB. This gives the GTX 1070 an advantage in modern games with high-resolution textures.
To the player’s question, bmyvalntine answers clearly in his comment:
How strong would the upgrade be? Thanks to its higher raw performance and twice the memory, the older model from June 2016 beats its predecessor from November 2019 in a direct performance comparison, provided you don’t connect the graphics card incorrectly and get much lower FPS than expected.
There is a ranking list on techpowerup.com that includes both models and thus enables a precise comparison. Among other things, the colleagues checked the average FPS that the cards achieved in different resolutions.
1920×1080 (Full HD)
2560×1440 (WQHD)
3840×2160 (4K Ultra HD)
Regardless of the resolution chosen, the GTX 1070 always calculates faster than its successor. In Full HD it is over 26%, in WQHD more than 28% and in 4K Ultra HD even 38% more FPS.
While both cards deliver enough performance in Full HD for a smooth gaming experience, only the 1070 reaches the magical 60 FPS limit in WQHD. In 4K Ultra HD it is still a reasonable 32.2 FPS. With 46.8 or 23.3 FPS, the 1650 Super has to admit defeat.
What speaks against the exchange? In terms of performance, there is nothing that speaks against installing the GTX 1070. The question remains whether the card was damaged by mining and could fail prematurely if, for example, its cooling was insufficient due to poor cabling.
This question cannot be answered clearly because it is unclear what specifications the card was used for mining. Many miners downclock their graphics cards and ensure that the components are well cooled in order to operate them as energy-saving and efficiently as possible.
If this is the case, an even utilization of the video memory during mining ensures less wear and tear on the hardware than during conventional gaming, in which a graphics card is subjected to different levels of stress.
If GmVik3 wants to be on the safe side, he could keep his 1650 Super and install it again if the 1070 unexpectedly fails.
The player can consider himself lucky to have been given a graphics card that is faster than his own model. Regardless of its mining past, the GTX 1070 represents a free upgrade. But if you invest a lot of money in a new graphics card, you shouldn’t save on accessories either: Gamers buy a graphics card for $500 and then use it with half a pencil for a few cents