NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20 Series GPUs Sold On AliExpress Have Painted Memory Dies To Fool Consumers
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20 Series GPUs Sold On AliExpress Have Painted Memory Dies To Fool Consumers
AliExpress sellers attempt to dupe customers by painting memory modules on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20 series graphics cards. The Turing architecture GPUs were notorious for issues in the past, with users believing that the Micron memory was at fault. This assumption was increased once the company switched the Micron memory to Samsung GDDR6 memory modules for the GPUs. Sellers appear to worry that customers will not buy the Micron-based cards, leading them to paint over distinguishing logos and information.
During the original launch of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card, users noticed that artifacts on the screen would appear. Other users reported that their GPUs immediately stopped working. Shortly after these reports, NVIDIA shipped the same GPUs, but this time with Samsung GDDR6 memory in place of the Micron series. NVIDIA never commented that the Micron memory was faulty and the reason for the company to make the changes. The company only acknowledged the increased defective nature of some NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition GPUs.
Limited test escapes from early boards caused the issues some customers have experienced with RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition. We stand ready to help any customers who are experiencing problems. Please visit www.nvidia.com/support(opens in new tab) to chat live with the Nvidia tech support team (or to send us an email) and we'll take care of it.
— a representative from NVIDIA
Micron chips were not entirely found faulty, as the Samsung chips also had similar issues. It was never verified as the root of the overarching problem and has been dismissed since the initial reports and findings.
Paulo Gomes, YouTube content creator, and tech specialist, recently found that some GPUs used for crypto mining were painted to appear newer by third-party resellers. In his most recent video, he reveals that the AliExpress graphics cards sold on the website (specifically the NVIDIA RTX 20 series cards) were being painted over to hide that they are Micron brand memory modules. The graphics cards were advertised as using 9XB77 D9WCW memory chips.
Still, after carefully removing the thermal adhesive, the Youtuber discovered that the memory was indeed the 8RA77 D9WCW which was part of the initial defective GPU batch, with some also labeled as the 8PA77 variant of the memory module.
It is unknown what the seller is trying to hide from consumers and if AliExpress intends to halt the seller's activities, but the website has a long-standing reputation for having sellers selling faulty or "not as advertised" products. Recently, crypto miners have also started painting memory modules on overly used graphics cards to fool customers, more on that here.
News Sources: Tom's Hardware, Paulo Gomes on YouTube
What's Your Reaction?
