this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2023
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There are some used options e.g. 5700 XT-s are really cheap because many of them were mining card. For new cards there aren't many options RX 6600 has relatively good value, but it's only worth it if efficiency or features like hw video codecs are important for you.
Is there any issue with buying a card that was previously used for mining?
When you say RX 6600 do you mean that one specifically or the range including 6600XT etc? I don't have a good handle on what the real world differences between the variants are.
If used by a home user who didn't know what they were doing they might have run it hotter for much longer than a typical gamer so the thermal paste might need a redo.
If used by some miner doing it even quasi-professionally or as a side-gig I'd much prefer it over a 2nd hand card from any typical gamer (most miners) they've kept the voltage/temps low and taken care of it far better than a gamer who might be power cycling regularly and definitely thermal cycling even more regularly.
No, there isn't any more risk buying a mining card than any other used card. In both cases you should use a platform/marketplace with buyer protection options. Maybe one additional step is checking the VBIOS when testing.
The non XT is the best value of the 6600 family but depending on local pricing the 6600XT, 6650XT and even the 7600 could make sense. Just keep in mind that these are the same performance class. Some charts show the mentioned GPUs.