It appears that the GPU might have been sent to one of those Chinese Labs, where they rip the GPU and VRAM chips from the RTX 5090s.
Redditor Orders MSI RTX 5090 Ventus 3X From Amazon but Finds No Tamper Seal; Further Investigation Revealed Ripped GPU Chip and VRAM From the PCB
Once again, we are witnessing the supply of Fake GeForce RTX 5090 GPUs. It shouldn’t be surprising since we have seen and reported such fraud multiple times, but this one looks somewhat familiar with what we reported recently. The GeForce RTX 5090 has a huge demand, particularly for AI in Chinese markets. Due to an official ban in the country, the only way the GPU gets there is by smuggling.
This Redditor seems to be a victim of such fraud, as his GPU didn’t have the components, which are usually ripped from the PCB in China. Reddit user u/Nice-Screen-4193 says that he bought a brand new GPU from Amazon FR, “sold and shipped by Amazon”, not just by any third-party seller. However, he became skeptical when he saw no tamper seal on one of the screws at the back. This means the GPU was opened before.
The user still tried to give it a go before investigating further and reported a non-operational state of the GPU. He also states that the PCIe gold finger was looking dull and used. Using a flashlight, he was able to peek underneath the heatsink to find no memory chips under the thermal pads. So, after the disassembly, it was confirmed that not only was it missing the memory chips, but the entire GPU substrate was gone as well. What remained were just the soldering points on the PCB.
This is a classic fraud, which could be linked to the Chinese labs where thousands of RTX 5090 go under transformation. They remove the GPU die and the VRAM chips to solder on another custom PCB for deployment in the AI servers. It appears that the empty GPU was sent back in the supply chain cleverly, and ended up with the Reddit user. So, apparently, not even the GPUs, which are sold and shipped by Amazon, are safe from such fraud, but it also shows how common it is.
The GeForce RTX 5090 reportedly doesn’t have any problems in being smuggled to China, and while it’s one thing to see RTX 5090 being converted into AI GPUs, it’s even a more serious problem to see fake RTX 5090s getting back into the supply chain.
News Source: Reddit