Five used graphics cards that will give your computer a second life for little money

If you’re looking to give your computer a second life without spending a lot of money, buying a used graphics card is one of the best ways to do so. There is an abundance of used graphics cards currently available that offer excellent value for the price you pay. Below, we list five used graphics cards that will provide you with plenty of performance to give your computer a speed boost and new life.

Used graphics cards are an excellent choice if we need to upgrade our PC but have a tight budget.Today we can find models that offer a really good level of performance at very reasonable prices, and without having to exceed the barrier of 200 euros.

I know that one of the doubts that always leads you to question whether it is worth buying second-hand graphics cards is. its useful life, the possible problems that this type of components can cause and the fact that they do not have the same warranty as a new product, although we must contextualize this from the beginning and be clear that we are not making the same economic investment, i.e., we are not spending the same money as when buying a new product.

I understand all this perfectly, but the truth is that there are ways to deal with these problems. Ideally, we should always try to test the product before buying it to make sure that everything is OK, and also keep in mind that we can complain to the seller in case something goes wrong, even if it is a private individual. For this we have at our disposal a period of six months after the purchase of a second-hand product.and in each Autonomous Community there are different regulations that may reinforce the rights of the second-hand buyer.

Personally, I have resorted to the second-hand market on more than one occasion.mainly to help other people to upgrade their PCs or to assemble “new” equipment with a very tight budget, and I can tell you that the almost 25 years that I have been resorting to the second hand in the technological world I have only had one disappointmentand it was with a motherboard that according to the seller was updated at BIOS level to support new CPUs but in reality it had the original BIOS. I was able to get out of it by using a compatible CPU to upgrade it.

In the end we can save so much money that it is very easy to be compensated, and if we have doubts or we are afraid to make a mistake always we can turn to stores specializing in second-hand products. which, depending on the product and each retailer in particular, offer up to three years warranty, i.e. the same as we would have when buying a new product.

used graphics cards

Five second-hand graphics cards worth buying

In this guide, we’re going to focus on the used graphics card market, and discover five models that offer excellent value for money performance. To better illustrate their value, and to understand why they are a good choice, I will show you in each case which graphics card we could buy, new, for the money that the second-hand option would cost us, and I will also indicate the level of performance we can expect.

Before getting into the subject I want to remind you something very important, and that is that the second hand market. is something alive and dynamic, and that prices can change a lot. even in short periods of time. By this I mean that each of the five graphics cards below may cost a little more, or a little less, when you start reading this guide, and it will be quite normal for their prices to change over the next few weeks.

As always, if you have any doubts you can leave them in the comments and I will help you to solve it. Now yes, make yourselves comfortable and we will begin.

1.-GeForce GTX 970

second hand graphics cards

It remains one of the best second-hand graphics cards that we can buy for its excellent price-performance ratio, and is that except for very specific cases can still move games in 1080p with high qualities while maintaining a more than acceptable level of fluidity. Works with DirectX 12_1which means that at API level it has such an advanced support that we will not have compatibility problems.

In demanding triple-A games from a few years ago, the performance offered by the GeForce GTX 970 is so good that it we will be able to move them even in maximum quality with total fluidity. The Division 2 is an excellent example, as it is a game that has nothing to envy in graphic quality to more current games, and that runs smoothly with that graphics card in 1080p and ultra quality under DirectX 12. Depending on the processor we have we can expect about 40 FPS on average.

Specifications

  • Second generation Maxwell architecture.
  • 1,664 shaders.
  • 104 texturing units.
  • 56 raster units.
  • 224-bit + 32-bit bus.
  • 1,050 MHz-1,178 MHz GPU.
  • 3.5 GB of GDDR5 on a 224-bit bus and 0.5 GB on a 32-bit bus, both at 7 GHz.
  • Power supply: one 500 watt with two 6-pin connectors.
  • Price: from €60.

With what the second-hand GeForce GTX 970 costs. we couldn’t even buy a brand new GeForce GT 1030and this one performs much, much less, in fact it is unfeasible for 1080p gaming, and it crawls even in 720p with demanding games.

Alternatives: the 4GB Radeon RX 570 would be an interesting alternative.

2.-Radeon RX 580 8 GB

second hand graphics cards

The 8GB Radeon RX 580 is a real gem. It is true that it does not support DirectX 12_1, but its performance is still so good and its price so affordable that it in this case we can forgive it this lackespecially considering that at the moment the only game that we could not use with this graphics card would be Forspoken, and as I told you at the time is nothing from the other Thursday, in fact it is rather “a Monday”.

It performs better than the GeForce GTX 970 and actually outperforms the 6GB GeForce GTX 1060, so with the 8GB Radeon RX 580 we will be able to play current demanding titles in 1080p with high or very high quality, depending on the demand of each title, e we will even be able to run games from a few years ago in 1440p with guarantees.. For example, The Division 2 runs in 1440p and ultra quality with averages above 40 FPS, and Dying Light 2 moves in ultra quality and 1080p above 40 FPS.

Specifications

  • Polaris 20 architecture.
  • 2,304 shaders.
  • 144 texturing units.
  • 32 raster units.
  • 256-bit bus.
  • GPU at 1,257 MHz-1,266 MHz.
  • 8 GB of GDDR5 at 8 GHz effective.
  • 500 watt power supply and an additional 6-pin power connector.
  • Price: from 100 euros.

For 100 euros we could not buy on the market nothing above a GeForce GT 1030so everything I told you in the GeForce GTX 970 section applies.

Alternatives: the 6GB GeForce GTX 1060 would be an option, but as it performs less and is difficult to find for the same price as the 8GB Radeon RX 580 it is not really recommended.

3.-GeForce GTX 1660 Ti

This graphics card was a very curious model, since in terms of performance it was more or less at the level of a GeForce GTX 1070, but thanks to the support it has received at the driver level and its architecture, which is more modern, it has aged quite well and we can say that it is, on average, a tad more powerful than that one. In terms of raw performance under rasterization, and without taking DLSS into account, the closest thing to this would be a GeForce RTX 3050.

With the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti we will be able to play without problems to any current title in 1080p and maximum quality, although the final performance will depend on the processor we use, and we can even play in 1440p with guarantees to many titles, as long as we adjust the quality level a little to maintain a good level of fluidity. Continuing with the previous examples, The Division 2 would move at an average of 50 FPS in 1440p and ultra quality, and Dying Light 2 would run at an average of 37 FPS at 1440p and ultra quality.

Specs

  • Turing Architecture.
  • 1,536 shaders.
  • 96 texturing units.
  • 48 raster units.
  • 192-bit bus.
  • GPU at 1,500 MHz-1,770 MHz.
  • 6 GB of GDDR6 at 12 GHz.
  • Power supply: a 450 watt with a 6-pin connector.
  • Price: from 130 euros.

The price-performance value offered by the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is so good that it is one of my favorite second-hand graphics cards. It also has a fairly contained power consumptionand this means that it does not require a particularly powerful power supply, making it an ideal choice for equipment that may be limited by such a component.

With what it costs we could only get, with a lot of luck and if we find some punctual offer, to buy a Radeon RX 6400, although this is usually more expensive and is around 160 euros at least. The GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is much more powerful.so there is no color.

Alternatives: the Radeon RX 590 would be the closest option on the AMD side, but it performs less than the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, has a higher power consumption and I have not managed to find it at a really interesting price to make it worth choosing it over the NVIDIA model.

4.-GeForce RTX 2060 6GB.

The best thing about this graphics card is not so much in its raw power, since in the end it is only 15% more powerful (on average) than the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, but in the technologies it supports. It also uses the Turing architecture, but comes with RT cores and tensor cores, which means it accelerates hardware ray tracing and supports DLSS 2.

It is more powerful than the GeForce RTX 3050.and with it we can run any current game in 1080p with maximum quality, and we can also enjoy a very good experience in 1440p. In this sense we must highlight the value of DLSS 2, since by activating it in quality mode we can significantly improve performance, and if we use it in balanced mode with 1440p resolution the performance-image quality ratio is simply perfect.

Continuing with the previous examples, the GeForce RTX 2060 can move The Division 2 in 1440p and ultra quality with a stable average of 60 FPS, and in Dying Light 2 we will have averages of 44 FPS in 1440p with ultra quality. If we activate the DLSS 2 in the latter and set it to balanced mode we will move above 60 FPS.

Specifications

  • Turing Architecture.
  • 1,920 shaders.
  • 120 texturing units.
  • 48 raster units.
  • 240 tenor cores for artificial intelligence.
  • 30 RT cores for ray tracing.
  • 192-bit bus.
  • 1,365 MHz-1,680 MHz GPU.
  • 6 GB of GDDR6 at 14 GHz.
  • Power supply: one 500 watt and an additional 8-pin power connector.
  • Price: from 175 euros, although it is going up in price and it is complicated to find it for that money.

As I said above, the DLSS 2 is what makes the 6GB GeForce RTX 2060 still so valuable, and one of the best used graphics cards, a reality that the used market seems to have realized.I have been able to confirm an upward trend in the selling price of this graphics card in the last few weeks.

For what it costs we could only aspire to a Radeon RX 6500 XTwhich is usually a bit more expensive (around 189 euros) and has a much lower performance (it performs 34% less on average excluding DLSS 2). In fact the Radeon RX 6500 XT is a graphics card that you should not buy, as we told you at the time.

Alternatives: the closest would be a Radeon RX 5700, although I would opt for the GeForce RTX 2060 for a simple matter of efficiency (requires less power supply), price (tends to be a bit cheaper) and technologies (DLSS 2 makes too big a difference to ignore).

5.-Radeon RX 6700

Incredible as it may seem, second hand units have already started to appear. at a very good price. This has an explanation, and it is a direct consequence of the gradual saturation that has been occurring in the second-hand graphics card market, where we can also already find GeForce RTX 30 units at a good price.

The Radeon RX 6700 is a graphics card that needs no introduction, as we have chosen it on previous occasions as one of the best in its class for price-performance value, and it is so powerful that it can even move current games in 4K with guarantees, provided we adjust the graphics quality level. In terms of performance this model slightly outperforms the mythical NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080so you can imagine how far ahead of the GeForce RTX 2060 it is.

Its greatest virtue lies in its raw power, but it is also a model that has a fairly contained consumption, and enjoys good support at the driver level. For what it costs, it is undoubtedly the best we can find today in its price range (I have seen it from 250 euros in the second hand market.).

Specifications

  • RDNA2 architecture.
  • 2,304 shaders.
  • 144 texturing units.
  • 64 raster units.
  • 36 cores for accelerating ray tracing.
  • 160-bit bus.
  • 10 GB of GDDR6 memory at 16 GHz.
  • 1,941 MHz-2,495 MHz GPU.
  • 80 MB infinite cache.
  • Power supply: one 450 watt and one 8-pin power connector.
  • Price: from 250 euros.

With what this second-hand graphics card costs. we could only aspire to a Radeon RX 6600a model that usually costs between 260 and 289 euros, and that performs on average 25% less. The new Radeon RX 6700 is around 339 euros, so the savings are considerable, and that’s what makes it so worthwhile. Keep in mind, moreover, that it would be normal that when you buy it second-hand it still has a warranty.

Alternatives: the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti would be an interesting option, especially now that we are starting to see units priced between €300 and €350. It is more expensive, but also more powerful than the Radeon RX 6700, and has DLSS 2 in its favor.

Click to rate this entry!
(Votes: 0 Average: 0)
Share!

Leave a Comment