Comment by toolz

load isn't what causes degradation, it's heat and as someone who has mined crypto for years I'm aware that there are a lot of things that can be done to run hardware quite hard and keep thermals low. Whether or not that is what is being done, I have no idea. A GPU mining crypto for 5 years kept below 65C (rather easily done) is going to have far more life left than a GPU in some kids gaming PC that spikes frequently to 85C for even a year.