Scammers in China sell $222 RTX 4090 with fake GPU die made out of plastic instead of real silicon

Recently, a well-known Chinese hardware dealer, 'Brother Zhang,' discovered a used and broken RTX 4090 sold for around $222, which contained a plastic die instead of real silicon. This scam demonstrat... Read original →

This plastic-die scam reveals a systemic gap in authentication protocols for high-end GPUs in the secondary market. Technically, fraudsters now replicate AD102 packaging and laser markings, forcing repair and recycling firms to adopt X-ray or thermal imaging—dramatically increasing inspection costs. Regulatory bodies across mainland China, Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong, China may accelerate traceability mandates, requiring unique IDs linking GDDR6X VRAM to GPU dies. NVIDIA could leverage this to expand certified refurbished programs, while AMD might gain trust through more transparent die labeling. Within 18 months, third-party verification platforms will emerge, but without industry-wide standards, 'certification arbitrage'—forging inspection reports—could become more profitable than counterfeiting chips themselves.