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Matty_TypeR

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 1, 2016
641
555
UK
Was thinking of buying myself one of these cards again for my mac pro 5.1 but reading around the net it seems these cards are failure prone with Code 43 hardware failure. some even selling failed cards for silly money on ebay. crazy stuff who would want to buy a bricked card.

has anyone else noticed this with the radeon VII cards, or experience of it happening to them?
 
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startergo

macrumors 603
Sep 20, 2018
5,022
2,283
Yep. I bought in the past Radeon VII card reported by the seller as code 43 error. Well, that was not the case. The card did not even initialize let alone to give me any code whatsoever.
 
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mikas

macrumors 6502a
Sep 14, 2017
898
648
Finland
I am in the beliefe that they are mostly mining cards. It is still one of the best ones with its pwr/hash ratio I think. There are a lot those on eBay, I've seen it too. No way to recover from code 43 I believe, and prices are still crazy, go figure.

I don't do mining myself though. I've got three, and would make a little short of 10€ per day if tweaked them with linux to their ultimate set-up for mining. That would be approximately 300€ per month, but I would risk them to fail with that treaded code 43. So I dont think it's worth it, not to me. I'll rather use them in my Mac Pros and PCs, and eGPU too. Or as a spare on the shelf.

edit. very mixed google results of code 43 and VII today though. Not sure about the real problem.
 
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startergo

macrumors 603
Sep 20, 2018
5,022
2,283
Code 43 in general is fixable, the problem is the sellers are lying as most of the time that is not the problem with the card they sell.
 
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Matty_TypeR

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 1, 2016
641
555
UK
I think Ebay VII cards are to avoid at all costs, and yes i could well imagine alot say code 43 but in reality its sold as spares or repairs so no come back if its a brick. when the electric costs go up next month i expect alot of miners will throw in the towel and be selling there gear on Ebay. so be ware everyone!
 
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Eschers

macrumors member
Oct 27, 2015
86
35
ch
I have used mine for 8 months before it failed in October 2020, got in contact with the manufacturer (I think XFX) and literally was begging them to send me a replacement or have it repaired, instead I got a refund from the shop I bought it..

Still sad about it, was the last and best compatible with our cMPs :(

ps: not a single minute I mined on it, played games a few hours every second weekend or so
 

Matty_TypeR

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 1, 2016
641
555
UK
They seem to have quite a high failure rate the radeon VII's , think i will stick to my sapphire vega 64 nitro plus.
 
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