Chip fraud is widespread in the computer component market. The Northwestrepair repair service showed an ASUS NVIDIA RTX 4090 TUF video card with a GPU from a less powerful model of the previous generation.
Some attempts at fraud with memory spoofing or processors are easy to spot right away, but in this case, the cooling system and false labeling hid the chip mismatch. The product, which looked like a brand new RTX 4090 graphics card with a protective film on it, had a processor from an RTX 3080 Ti.
After removing the GPU and examining it closely, it became clear that the processor labeled AD102 was actually a GA102 chip, which is almost the same size (628 mm² vs. 608 mm²), so the fake is not immediately obvious. The processor had been polished and new engraving had been lasered on it.
It also turned out that at least one of the memory modules was not 2 GB, but 256 MB, which means that it was not GDDR6X memory. The reason why the GA102 was used is that this processor is compatible with the AD102. The same GPU is used in the RTX 3090 Ti, which is often considered the test version of the RTX 4090 graphics cards.
So why do scammers go to so much trouble to fake the RTX 4090 and sell the card? Depending on where it was purchased, buyers may find themselves at a disadvantage when challenging the purchase. In addition, sellers can rely on uninformed buyers to blame them for the video card’s malfunction, which leads to paid repairs on their own.
Source: VideoCardz