Little by little, crooks are improving their methods to offer ever more realistic counterfeits. This time, an RTX 4090 with a GPU featuring realistic laser engraving was discovered in a service center. Of course, there’s nothing functional about it – the GPU isn’t functional – but it’s enough to fool an initial visual analysis.
Realistic laser engraving to fool an initial visual inspection!
An RTX 4090 with an RTX 3080 Ti GPU:
At an after-sales service center, a technician came across a very unusual 4090. Indeed, the card in question had realistic markings that matched the original. However, the technician was alerted to a number of details, such as strange soldering points, traces of resin, etc.
Upon closer inspection, he discovered that the memory chips had been sanded and laser-engraved to display Micron markings, for example. Interestingly, the GPU in question had nothing to do with an AD102, but was a GA102 (found on the RTX 3080(Ti)/3090) which had also been re-engraved. Inevitably, the engravings included credible markings consistent with those found on a 4090.
Towards fakes that are harder to spot?
Obviously, as a buyer, if you take the card apart and see it marked: “NVIDIA, AD102-300-A1”, at the outset you won’t wonder. However, if you look into the details (where the devil always lurks), you’ll notice a capacitor line that runs a little too high, or some poorly positioned pads. What’s more, with the methods used, the authors of this fake card have the means, and it’s not impossible that professionals in the sector could also be fooled, such as resellers for example.
While there are scams that are easy to spot, these are more difficult, and the consequences on the second-hand market could be significant. In this kind of situation, to avoid trouble, the best thing to do is to go and see the equipment in operation, which limits the risks, especially as top-of-the-range equipment is a prime target for crooks because of its high profitability.
