Are 'end of life' GPU's fine to use?

[jamspls]

I have just realized that the GPU I am planning on buying at the end of the year will be sold at its 'end of life' phase. It is a factory overclocked R9 390.
http://cplonline.com.au/gigabyte-radeon-r9-390-g1-gaming-8gb-graphic-card.html

For that matter, there is a 980 Ti for a huge price drop, but it too is 'end of life' http://cplonline.com.au/asus-rog-matrix-gtx-980-ti-6gb-graphics-card-matrix-gtx980ti-p-6gd5-gaming.html

Is there a downside to buying an 'end of life' GPU? Will it 'die' sooner?

For reference, these are my specs and I plan on using the PC for gaming http://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/bvxxsJ

 

[4745454b]

End of life in this case simply means they aren't being made anymore. AMD isn't making R9 3xx GPUs anymore, they are moving onto the newer R9 4xx GPUs. Same with Nvidia. They aren't making the GTX 9xx GPUs anymore. They are making the newer GTX10xx GPUs. (both might make a few more of some of the older ones for people who can't use the newer cards, but the "old" R9 3xx and GTX 9xx cards are end of life.)

You might have heard this term with OSes. XP has reached it's end of life, and Win7 will in <24mo. It's not that they aren't usable or will die if you try to use it. It's just old tech and everyone is moving on.

 

[inanition02]

End of life in this case means that it's not being actively produced by the manufacturer any more. If you're buying a new in box GPU, it shouldn't impact much from a quality standpoint and you should get the same life expectancy/performance out of it that you would have during it's production.

That said, the reason those GPUs are seeing massive price drops is because they aren't being produced anymore - the manufacturers have started producing something newer and better. In this case, the RX 480 for AMD and the GTX 1070/1080 for nVidia. So while your "end of life" product will still have the same performance it always did, there are now much better options out there.

Sort of like buying a "brand new" Windows XP computer from 2005. Sure, it may still work as well as it did the first day from the factory and last you a number of years. But there are newer better things out there - and while it's a deal, you'll find yourself falling behind faster than if you'd sprung for the newer model.