Heatpipes partially melted?

[Yukii]

So I bought this used graphics card from ebay(with the warranty). I just noticed that the smaller ends of the heatpipes were melted. The original owner of the graphics card said that he/she wanted to return it because they wanted a different one.

My friend said it couldve been used for mining or something... but I decided to mention it because it could be a possibility - here are some pics

(GPU IS R9 280X VAPOR-X 3GB)

 

[InvalidError]

Heat pipes are pipes partially filled with some phase-change fluid. To seal the fluid in, the pipes have to be welded or soldered shut once they have been filled. If you cannot see holes through the solder joints, the pipes are most likely fine.

Even low temperature solders have melting points over 130C, so it is extremely unlikely that coin-mining could ever get the heatsink hot enough to melt the solder.

 

[Karadjgne]

Many heatpipes have a liquid core, they aren't pure metal. What it looks to me from the pic, you are looking at the soldered end of the pipe. To melt a heatpipes would require temps much hotter than what is possible from a gpu and have it able to still run.

 

[DarkSable]

Well, that's not good, but it shouldn't be significantly affecting the performance of the card...

 

[Yukii]

Well, that's not good, but it shouldn't be significantly affecting the performance of the card...

it's just the ends, not the main heatpipe. The main heatpipes are undamaged.

 

[photonboy]

Well, that's not good, but it shouldn't be significantly affecting the performance of the card...

it's just the ends, not the main heatpipe. The main heatpipes are undamaged.

Agreed.
While I can't tell from the picture, I do know that heatpipes are closed by melting when manufactured. And as said there's simply no way you could melt this metal without a much hotter source.

It's NOT an issue.

 

[nottheking]

To lay it out, heat-pipes, since they are a PASSIVE form of cooling, really only have two methods that they could fail:

■The pipes are breached somewhere, allowing the coolant within to escape.
■The pipes break away and cease to hold contact to the device they're supposed to cool.

Since neither of them appears to be the case here, (they're both pretty obvious and easy to spot) there's no damage or failure here, simply put.