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WTF?! It isn’t simply the RTX 5090 that is experiencing excessive demand. Players are nonetheless snapping up Nvidia’s previous-gen RTX 4090, which explains the continued look of pretend variations of the cardboard. One trick is to make use of a die from an RTX 3090 sequence within the Lovelace flagship.
A consumer on Chinese language video-sharing platform Bilibili (through Tom’s Hardware) shared a video of what seems to be an unboxing of a Palit RTX 4090 graphics card.
At first look, the cardboard appears to be like model new. However disassembling it reveals the unlucky reality: it is sporting a GA102 GPU used within the RTX 3090 Ti, RTX 3090, and RTX 3080 Ti sequence, as a substitute of the AD102 discovered within the RTX 4090. The swap is made attainable because the GPUs are pin-compatible and practically equivalent in dimension.
Probably the most apparent warnings that there could be one thing incorrect with this card was the worth. The client paid 3,800 yuan, or round $530, which is nowhere close to what you’d pay for an RTX 4090, particularly on this present market.
As fakes go, this one could be very convincing. The video creator mentioned there have been no seen indicators of injury or any modifications on the outside of the cardboard.
Even the GPU itself had been filed all the way down to take away any present markings and expertly engraved with the identical labeling as an RTX 4090 die.
A component that exposed the tampering was that one of many capacitors adjoining to the GPU was not in the precise place in comparison with an precise AD102 die. Additionally, Uniko’s {Hardware} notes that the MLCCs surrounding the die use the identical structure because the RTX 3090, fairly than the structure utilized by the RTX 4090. There was additionally an absence of labelling on the reminiscence chips.
one other pretend 4090 that used a 3090 die
lapped the die then comment it as 4090 ad102
the mlcc surrounding the die are the structure that 3090 makes use of, or simply verify the situation of the dots at cornershttps://t.co/W2KPJ3ZHUK https://t.co/omimu79x78 pic.twitter.com/VR8Cl6d0C6– UNIKO’s {Hardware}
(@unikoshardware) March 25, 2025
It is not possible that anybody aside from an knowledgeable, fanatic, or somebody who knew what they have been searching for would have observed these alterations. Often, one of the best ways to determine one thing amiss in these pretend playing cards, aside from the efficiency, is by putting in Nvidia’s drivers. Nevertheless, the pretend RTX 4090 on this occasion did not even work.
We have seen loads of situations of those pretend Frankenstein playing cards prior to now. A really related instance appeared final 12 months when a tech restore channel showed what seemed to be an unboxed however model new Asus TUF GeForce RTX 4090, however like this case, it additionally featured a GA102 die.
There have additionally been instances of scammers promoting RTX 4090 playing cards without the GPUs or reminiscence chips, and in January 2024, Amazon sold a fake RTX 4090 with an RTX 4080 GPU and fried elements.
