GoKawiilWTF?! With the AI boom driving GPU prices to record highs, scammers are capitalizing by flooding the market with counterfeit graphics cards. A new report from China suggests that fraudsters are now gluing fake plastic GPU shells onto PCBs and selling them as genuine RTX 4090 graphics cards to unsuspecting buyers.
In a video posted on the Chinese social media platform Bilibili, well-known PC hardware dealer Brother Zhang claimed that he was recently scammed into buying a counterfeit second-hand RTX 4090 for 1,500 yuan (around $221). According to Zhang, the card appeared to be a normal RTX 4090 at first glance, with the die markings reading "AD102-300-A1," which refers to the actual GPU used in the 4090.
However, upon further investigation, he found that other markings on the die were inconsistent with original RTX GPUs, such as the font style, which did not match Nvidia's official design. The die also had "TW 3043E2" engraved on it, suggesting it was manufactured in 2030 – an error Nvidia and its official board partners are unlikely to make.
Zhang immediately suspected that the card was not authentic, or at least that some components may have been swapped out before being sold. Once he disassembled the card for further inspection, his suspicions were confirmed: the GPU die was made of plastic rather than silicon. The memory dies were not real either.
Zhang compared the fake RTX 4090 die with photographs of an original RTX 4090 board, confirming his suspicion that nearly every part of the card was counterfeit and had been glued onto the PCB to fill empty space. Other discrepancies included misplaced capacitors and a missing QR code that would have been etched onto the die had it been authentic.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time reports have surfaced of fake graphics cards being sold to unsuspecting buyers. Earlier this year, a repair shop owner came across a "near-perfect" fake RTX 4090 with laser-etched VRAM and a fake GPU core. Last year, a technician in China found that three out of four RTX 4090 cards he received for repair were fitted with RTX 3090 or RTX 3080 dies.