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

The ongoing DRAM shortage has driven the best graphics card prices to new heights for gamers and also created a perfect storm for fraud. In a revealing YouTube video, Brother Zhang, a renowned graphics card technician in China, exposes how scammers are using the old switcheroo tactic on Nvidia’s last-generation GeForce RTX 40-series (codename Ada Lovelace) graphics cards to scam unsuspecting buyers in the second-hand market.

In one case, the graphics card in question was the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4080 16GB Aero OC, a custom variant of the GeForce RTX 4080 that retailed for around $1,199 at launch. The seller claimed the graphics card was not functional and wanted to offload it for just $143.50 on Xianyu, a popular second-hand marketplace in China. The suspiciously low price, approximately 12% of the graphics card’s original retail value, would raise a red flag among potential buyers.

However, the asking price seemed reasonable at first glance because of the graphics card’s supposedly damaged condition. It would be an opportunity of a lifetime for anyone with repair skills or access to a skilled technician like Brother Zhang. The buyer, hoping to score a bargain on premium hardware, pulled the trigger and made the purchase. However, it may be his greatest regret after Brother Zhang took a look at it.

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.

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.

Graphics card scams have always been around, and they flourish during hard times, such as the COVID era or the cryptocurrency mining boom. If you're considering purchasing a second-hand graphics card from Facebook Marketplace or eBay to save money during this shortage, do your due diligence and proceed with extreme caution. Even supposedly “new” graphics cards from questionable sellers have turned out to be elaborate swindles nowadays.

Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.