Devastated PC builder orders DDR5 RAM from Amazon, receives DDR2 and some weights — counterfeit 32GB kit a worrying sign of rising return and sales fraud
The initial anomalies were a damaged PCIe connector, a partially cracked PCB, and loose screws. The latter suggests that someone had already opened the graphics card previously. Nonetheless, the graphics card is still salvageable because you can transplant the silicon and memory chips to a new PCB, provided they are legitimate and functional. The bad news just kept pouring in as Brother Zhang continued his inspection.
Watch On Closer examination revealed the true extent of the scam. The silicon wasn’t the Ada Lovelace AD103 die powering GeForce RTX 4080 graphics cards. Instead, Brother Zhang discovered an Ampere GA106 die, specifically the variant used in the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile . Scammers have really improved their tactics as the engravings on the counterfeit AD103 die were obviously fake. It doesn't surprise us, as Chinese factories were repurposing these mobile Ampere dies into desktop graphics cards a couple of years ago.
The sham didn’t stop there, though. The GDDR6X memory chips were also highly suspicious. Brother Zhang suspected they were either fake, defective, or salvaged chips from donor graphics cards. Therefore, the poor buyer struck out as both the silicon and memory chips are useless for anything.
Consumers are already feeling the impact of the ongoing DRAM crisis as graphics card prices have surged substantially across both the retail and second-hand markets. Nvidia has reportedly slashed supply to its board partners by up to 20% . The aggressive reduction will only further tighten the supply of graphics cards and push prices even higher. Meanwhile, AMD has publicly committed to keeping pricing as close to MSRP as possible. Still, realistically, it's only a matter of time before it has to resort to a more significant price increase.
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/dram-shortage-fuels-fake-gpu-scams-as-china-based-fraudsters-exploit-the-supply-crisis-rtx-4080-gpu-sold-at-cut-price-was-actually-an-rtx-3060-mobile-chip-with-fake-vram#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.