GPU scam resells RTX 3090 as a 4090 — complete with a fake 'AD102' label on a lapped GPU

Yet another fake RTX 4090 has been uncovered, this time sporting an older GA102 GPU die. Bilibili user 在当下里 (In the present moment) showed off a seemingly pristine Palit RTX 4090 graphics card that had no visible signs of modification or damage. However, after tearing the card apart, the card was not in fact packing a RTX 4090 die. Instead, it had a previous generation GA102 die used in GPUs including the RTX 3090 Ti, RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 Ti.

It appears the card was non-functional, and it ended up in the hands of the creator to determine what was wrong. Dismantling the card was required, as booting up the card likely didn't work — otherwise, installing Nvidia's drivers is a much easier way to determine what's under the hood. Still, it's interesting to see just how far scammers will go to attempt to dupe potential buyers.

The fake RTX 4090 was initially sold to someone for a mere ¥3,800 (around $530), well below the RTX 4090's MSRP (let alone its current real-world market price). The price should have been more than enough to suggest foul play, but the victim apparently didn't know enough about RTX 4090 pricing, or perhaps they just had faith that the seller was providing one of the best deals ever on an RTX 4090.

Click see more, to see images of the fake RTX 4090 GPU.

Visually, it would have been almost impossible for the owner to detect any foul play. Footage of the fake RTX 4090 showed impressive attention to detail, with the Bilibili channel saying there was no visible damage or signs of modification on the card's exterior.

Even tearing the card apart, the signs of foul play would have been difficult for anyone but a computer expert or enthusiast to detect. The GPU die itself was lapped (filed down to remove the existing marketing) and carefully engraved with the same labeling format as a typical AD102 die. However, there were signs of modification around the GPU die itself.

The Bilibilli user notes that the die's placement adjacent to one of the capacitors was not in the right position compared to an actual AD102 die. Additionally, the MLCC's surrounding the die area (the sea of little capacitors bordering the die itself) matched the same layout as the RTX 3090 Ti, 3090, and 3080 Ti's GA102 die.

The memory chips were also suspect, featuring no visible labeling whatsoever. We can only assume the card wasn't even functional, instead it was a "Frankenstein" card that was supposed to look the part and then fail to work.

This is the second RTX 4090 scam we've seen where someone (or a team of people) modified an Ampere-based AD102 GPU to sell it as an RTX 4090. This type of modification is allegedly very easy to do, as GA102 has the same pin layout as AD102, allowing people with the know-how to swap in GA102 dies into RTX 4090 graphics card PCBs.

Either way, going to the effort of lapping and relabeling just the GPU die while using unmarked GDDR6X memory seems unnecessary. Presumably the scammer was long gone before the buyer could determine that the GPU in question wasn't what it claimed to be.