The rest of the video serves as a cautionary tale, with the host constantly reminding people to remain vigilant during these times. The shortages birthed by the ongoing AI boom have made people desperate on both sides — the customers yearn for a good deal while the scammers know the market is vulnerable, and they can't leave a golden opportunity like that vacant.
"This is the best scam I've ever seen," says Northwest Repair when comparing a real RTX 3080 core to the fake one larping as an RTX 4090. Ada Lovelace GPUs have a slightly different layout for the MLCCs laid around the perimeter of the core. When you look at them side-by-side, it's pretty easy to distinguish between the two, but you'd need to know this beforehand to catch it. Also, it's not exactly practical to expect that a customer would open up their card to specifically check for this either.
In the pinned comment, the YouTuber said that they don't think something like this could be pulled off by an individual or even a professional workshop. Instead, this is a factory-level job that likely stems from those illicit underground vendors that convert gaming GPUs to AI workhorses with VRAM upgrades. Another viewer jokingly remarked that perhaps this "factory" sent in the fake so they could identify what to improve for free.
Too often, scams like these are just let go of. Northwest Repair recommends filing a police report so the perpetrators can be brought to justice through an official investigation. We've covered similar cases before, but we've never seen the scammers go to such lengths to hide a counterfeit. Usually, opening up the card immediately gives it away , but clearly, the grift is getting increasingly creative.
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Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he\u2019s not working, you\u2019ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-22/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Hassam Nasir Social Links Navigation Contributing Writer Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.
abufrejoval At this level of sophistication, the perpetrators might just have been professional repair-people, who got unexpectedly cut off from regular repair supplies… Maintaining an honest family feeding job in this PC economy on a (non-European) hire & fire labour market, could just be beyond reach! I can see those guys making drones next, and not for warring nations, but blackmail… against AI data centers? Reply
USAFRet abufrejoval said: I can see those guys making drones next, and not for warring nations, but blackmail… against AI data centers? ????? This makes zero sense. Reply
thisisaname Factory level scam my behind. All it takes is access to a hot air work station, ultrasonic cleaner and some fake chips. I would not take much skill to remove the chips. However it would take a whole lot more to put chips on that would work, but seeing that put fake chips on skill would not be a factor. Indeed with sighs of the solder pads had been wicked shows poor skills. Buy card >> remove chips >> replace with fakes >> ???? > Profit. Reply
Key considerations
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/rtx-4090-sent-for-repair-is-a-sophisticated-fake-with-laser-etched-vram-and-core-this-is-the-best-scam-ive-ever-seen-scammers-pulled-a-factory-level-job-to-sell-a-dud-to-unsuspecting-customer#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/subscription
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- AMD's memory-boosting EXPO 1.2 is here, adds support for three Chinese memory vendors — performance gains could be muted until Zen 6
- SpaceX says it is going to begin manufacturing GPUs — $1.75 trillion IPO listing reportedly includes in-house GPU production
- Steam Controller leaked review points to $99 MSRP — more expensive than PS5 and Xbox controllers and Nintendo Joy-Cons
Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.