Ask HN: What to Do with an Old GPU?

#1

Post by jupiterelastica » Sun, Mar 13, 2022, 9:56 AM UTC

Hello all,

for many months my custom bulit gaming PC from 2014 has been sitting around my appartment, not finding any use. I am working mostly on my laptop from work nowadays and I stopped playing games for the most part. The GPU is a Nvidia GTX 780.

Recently, I started using machine learning tools on my work laptop and realized I have a reasonably strong GPU sitting around - or so I thought. Looking up the requirements for pytorch I found that the GTX780's CUDA version has long since lost support and now I wonder what to do with the GPU, or even the whole system, as gaming is not important to me anymore and for an ML box it's too old apparently.

I know I could sell it, but I'm wondering if anybody might have ideas on what such old hardware could still be used for?

Cheers, - V

Edit: spelling

Re: Ask HN: What to Do with an Old GPU?

#2

Post by Procedural » Sun, Mar 13, 2022, 10:49 AM UTC

Donate it to a kid in Yemen.

Re: Ask HN: What to Do with an Old GPU?

#3

Post by PaulHoule » Sun, Mar 13, 2022, 11:12 AM UTC

So far a GPGPU is concerned that is not a ‘powerful’ GPU at all.

Re: Ask HN: What to Do with an Old GPU?

#4

Post by fancyfredbot » Sun, Mar 13, 2022, 12:44 PM UTC

I'd suggest installing an old version of CUDA and pytorch using it for machine learning anyway? It's still possible to learn the principles with an older GPU like this, although you'll get less than half the performance of a bottom of the range Ampere.

Re: Ask HN: What to Do with an Old GPU?

#5

Post by speedgoose » Sun, Mar 13, 2022, 12:49 PM UTC

To be honest, you can put it in the electronic items bin at your local recycling centre.

Re: Ask HN: What to Do with an Old GPU?

#6

Post by smoldesu » Sun, Mar 13, 2022, 1:40 PM UTC

Sell it? There will never be a better time to get rid of garbage GPUs at unreasonable prices. Dump it on Ebay, pop the popcorn, and watch the desperate bidders roll in!

Re: Ask HN: What to Do with an Old GPU?

#7

Post by gtirloni » Sun, Mar 13, 2022, 2:04 PM UTC

smoldesu wrote: post #6

Sell it? There will never be a better time to get rid of garbage GPUs at unreasonable prices. Dump it on Ebay, pop the popcorn, and watch the desperate bidders roll in!

I really doubt it. People that want to play recent games will be looking for 900-series at least and mining on a 780 is nonexistent.

Re: Ask HN: What to Do with an Old GPU?

#8

Post by idonotknowwhy » Sun, Mar 13, 2022, 2:12 PM UTC

I sold a 750ti for $70 recently. Just ebay it.

Also, I think that's the most powerful gpu with analogue video output. Some Vga CRT geeks would want it, to avoid the additional lag using an hdmi/usbc/dp to vga adapter.

Re: Ask HN: What to Do with an Old GPU?

#9

Post by guard0g » Sun, Mar 13, 2022, 2:28 PM UTC

Use it for a multi-monitor setup? I've got 8 monitors connected to my desktop thru two old GPUs.

Re: Ask HN: What to Do with an Old GPU?

#10

Post by khoobid_shoma » Sun, Mar 13, 2022, 3:00 PM UTC

What happens to the next GPUs you buy?

I have wasted a lot of money buying nVidia GPUs. They used to be quickly outdated for different reasons (e.g. unsupported by the next versions of CUDA). I decided to stop buying new ones until I really really need a modern GPU. Now, that's around 7 years, I am happily away from nVidia GPUs. If needed, I would get a GPU instance on cloud. The same issue is with Apple iPads (my iPad One still looks new but software upgrade is not supported anymore).