In recent years, there have been countless high-end graphics card fraud incidents, including exchanging old cards for stickers,memoryAfter disassembly and return, all the way to assembly in the Amazon return pallet GPU, new cases are exposed almost every once in a while. In the past, the methods were relatively crude and easy to detect.graphics cardThere is a problem, but recently there are new reports abroad RTX 4090 The fake goods incident can be said to have raised the level of counterfeiting to another level. Even foreign professional repair shops said, “This is the most powerful fraud we have ever seen.”
The most powerful graphics card scam in history? The repair shop received a fake RTX 4090, and even the GPU and VRAM were re-engraved with lasers
The American GPU repair shop “Northwest Repair” recently shared on YouTube that a consumer bought a second-hand Asus ROG Strix RTX 4090 through eBay. The seller claimed that this picture came from the Amazon return pallet. However, after this consumer installed the computer, the graphics card could not be detected by the system at all, so he sent it to their repair shop to see if it could be repaired. In the end, he found out that it was a fraud.
Northwest Repair said that when it was initially disassembled and inspected, the appearance of the card actually looked normal. There are no traces of welding on the PCB, and there is no oxidation color that has been baked in the oven. The memory particles are still there. The GPU is also a complete large chip. Even the electrical sealing glue is well filled. From the appearance, it is completely impossible to tell that it is a fake:
However, after powering on and doing electrical tests, it was discovered that there was a short circuit in the memory power rail. Logically speaking, injecting 10A of current should burn out a certain heating component to locate the fault point, but nothing burned. This phenomenon was obviously not normal, so I decided to put the graphics card under a microscope for inspection. When I zoom in and check, problems pop up one after another.
First, there is a solder pad around the memory that looks like traces of tin being sucked into it. This means that someone specially pulled the particle out of its original position and put it back again. Next to it, there is a pile of darker-colored filler, which should be Epoxy resin. This is used to cover up the traces of processing:
In addition, the surface of the memory particles has also been polished, cleaned and then re-engraved with the GDDR6X words and model using a laser. It looks almost the same as the original particles:
The GPU core is processed in the same way. It is ground and polished and then laser-engraved with the words AD102-300-A1. This set of numbers is the model used for the RTX 4090. Even the NVIDIA logo is completely reproduced. The model, font, and position are all correct:
They compared this fake chip with a real GA102-300-A1 on hand (the Ampere generation core used in the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3090 series). The results showed that the two chips were almost identical in size. The difference could only be seen from the positions of the chips on the edge of the chip and the arrangement of the surrounding capacitors:
In other words, this RTX 4090 is actually equipped with an old-generation Ampere core, disguised as the Ada Lovelace core of the RTX 4090, and then stuffed back into the 4090’s PCB.
NVIDIA’s AD102 (RTX 4090) and the previous generation GA102 have similar package sizes and compatible pin designs. With the naked eye, there is almost no difference.
Northwest Repair also added in the comment area: “This level of counterfeiting cannot be done by an individual or a general repair shop. Judging from the workmanship, it can only be factory-level mass production.” This means that this is a fake produced by a criminal group with production lines and equipment.
Therefore, when buying high-priced graphics cards such as RTX 4090 and RTX 5090, you must start from the official authorized channels of the original manufacturer, the brand’s official website, or e-commerce and physical stores with good reputation, and avoid picking up bargains on second-hand auctions, eBay, societies and other platforms. It’s also best not to touch the Amazon returns pallet, as you have absolutely no way of tracing the source, and it’s really just a matter of luck.
Source: KOCPC Chinese