Laser-engraved RTX 4090 fake shows how far GPU scams have gone
I guess we are back to reporting on laser-engraving scams, but this one is much better than before.
A second-hand ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 sent to Northwest Repair turned out to be a fake card. The seller reportedly claimed it came from an Amazon pallet, but the card did not work on any test bench. Once opened, the PCB looked clean, with no clear signs of a failed repair or obvious tampering.
GPU and memory
The scam was harder to spot than usual. The GPU package and GDDR6X memory chips had their original markings shaved off, then laser-engraved with fake RTX 4090 labels. The markings included correct-looking part numbers and logos, which made the card look convincing even under close inspection. The repair shop only found clear signs after checking the card under a microscope.
Source: Northwestrepair
Interestingly, it wasn’t just the GPU, the fake memory packages showed signs of surface removal, while the GPU was also covered by compound that made direct inspection harder. Northwest Repair said the card used a fake core marked as AD102-300-A1, the same label used by real RTX 4090 GPUs. The actual GPU and memory beneath the markings could not be identified from the outside.
Laser engraving is a known and old scam, but usually it is not as good quality as this instance. Such methods are made to trick return inspection, rather than end user, who will notice the card doesn’t work anyway. This is why buying anything for a PC from return pallets is a very bad idea.
RTX 3090Ti and 4090 switchero
This type of scam is possible because high-end GA102-based cards such as the RTX 3090 Ti and AD102-based RTX 4090 share a similar package and pin layout, which gives scammers room to move older or modified chips onto RTX 4090 PCBs. Complete RTX 3090 Ti boards are not drop-in RTX 4090 replacements, but the shared layout has still been enough for illegal operators to build convincing fakes. We covered many of these scams and I guess they are not going away anytime soon.
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