Luckily, the demand for crypto-mining has decreased, and GPU prices are now stable (albeit higher than before the cryptocurrency bubble). The constant demand on the internal parts, the heat this generates, plus the heat and often poor ventilation of a crypto-mining rig can severely damage the GPU. The GPU market was suddenly awash with second-hand GPUs that had been in use at full speed, 24/7, for months on end. Cryptocurrency miners rushed to buy the best graphics cards for the Bitcoin era, creating a graphics card price bubble.

The cryptocurrency boom of 2017 saw GPU prices skyrocket.

Q: Can I Buy a Cryptocurrency Mining GPU? Whereas, no such protection exists for a second-hand GPU unless you're buying a refurbished model. If anything goes wrong with your new GPU, you can return it. The other consideration is that with a new purchase, you have the guarantee of a warranty. For instance, can the seller verify the GPU works, or how they used the GPU? However, there are some things to consider before making your purchase. Picking up a second-hand GPU seems like a great idea. The 980 Ti still outscores some of the modern GPUs on this list. Within a couple of years, this will be a way to get features like real-time ray tracing or the super-powerful 12GB GPUs (and rumored 16GB GPUs) for a reasonable price.Īt the time of writing, the Nvidia GTX 980 and 980 Ti, and the AMD RX 480 8GB and R9 Fury X are powerful gaming GPUs that will play most games on very high settings. The other option for gamers on a budget is buying a top-end card from a previous GPU generation. Read MoreįAQ Q: Should You Buy a Second-Hand Graphics Card? You'll save some money on your power supply unit purchase and long-term power use, too.

The GTX 1050 Ti has another advantage over the RX 580-4GB-it uses half of the power 75W vs. You can fit the GTX 1050 Ti into any case and design, perfect for small builds. However, 30 FPS and above should be achievable-again, depending on the rest of the system hardware.Īnother plus for the Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti is the single fan design. Although it is a 4GB card, the 1050 Ti will struggle to play the latest games on the highest settings at a solid 60 FPS. The UserBenchmark FPS estimates that the GTX 1050 Ti will achieve an average of 72 FPS, depending on the game and the hardware.

Despite the GTX 1050 Ti hitting the market six months after the RX 580-4GB, it is the latter that retains the edge, offering faster overall memory and memory bandwidth. Still, the GTX 1050 Ti is a powerful single fan GPU that competes with the similarly specced AMD RX 580-4GB (not the 8GB version above!). The Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti is the successor to the GTX 1050, which itself is superseded by the Nvidia GTX 1650.

Best graphics card for the money