This is just a short page about problems and identifying counterfeit Chinese video cards...
This is a story and my replies to a Chinaman selling counterfeit video cards. The real ones are made in China anyway, so you would not think this were a problem that might come up often...
Parts of my discussion with the counterfeiter...
I'm not sure what you're asking me for.
So I will explain to you, my problems with the card. And also, your problems
with the card as being counterfeit.
First, a few notes. The bios in the card, does little more than identifying the card and type to the operating system . It is not fast enough to do any actual work itself, so it is just used the same as the front of the box in telling you that it is a video card type XXX with so many gigabytes of memory. The video card model cannot be changed by reprogramming the bios, but it can be lied about.
What is important is that the parts on the board match the statement made by the bios. Programs ask the bios what board it is when they start, and make adjustments to their programming in order to take advantage of the information they get back . If the information they'd get is not matching the actual parts on the board there is problems.
Problems for me, the card will not work at all...
For instance, if I open too many tabs in a browser, the card cannot handle so much video information and it crashes in resets the driver. I lose information, and have to start again.
If I'm working on a video project , it quite often runs out of memory and crashes the entire computer with a blue screen. This is disastrous for both my programming and computer. This happens because Nero asks the video card what kind of card and how much memory contains. The video card lies back to Nero and tells it a GTX 960 with four GB. When Nero tries to use the four GB and it ONLY HAS ONE, the computer crashes big time.
Problems for you, the card is counterfeit...
If you will look the picture fake 2, this is a screen shot of an information utility in windows called msinfo32, a program used to identify PARTS and system facts. You will see that that the bios identifies the card incorrectly as a 960. But Windows asks THE BOARD for parts information, and finds it only has 1 GB of adapter ram.
This is an example of the fake information loaded to the bios by your supplier that causes problems.
If you will look at picture Fake 3, this is a shot of a very good video card utility GPU-Z, in front of the NVIDIA specs sheet for the GTX 960. Notice the card name (and GB memory) has indeed been changed. But PARTS and thier specs CANNOT be changed. Everything after and below Device ID except memory size (which is really part of the card's name) CANNOT be changed. GPU-Z will ask the board and parts for specs.
Note that shaders (cuda cores) REALLY ARE 192, but it is supposed to have from NVIDIA spec sheet 1024.
Note the bandwidth REALLY IS 57.7, but is supposed to be 112.
The bus REALLY IS type 1.1 (not in use anymore for years), but is supposed to be 3.0
The base GPU clock REALLY IS 783, but is supposed to be 1127.
And on and on and on…
So, what kind of card is this really? Look at the picture Fake 4. You will see that all the parts and speeds of YOUR card analyzed by GPU-Z and msinfo32 match the spec sheet from NVIDIA exactly.
This card is a GTS 450 with a flashed bios to fool customers. Flashed with a different name. (GTX 960 4GB). And a different memory size (4GB). A COUNTERFEIT GTX 960 4GB...
But then the thieving pig wants me to make a movie of the proof and problems, and send it to him.
When asked what he wants a movie of, he cannot answer this question. So I send him this. Good info for you if you ever need to really ID a card...
Fake?
yes, I can show you...
Follow these steps and see for yourself.
A: Look at Pix 1. This is the card you sent me.
B: Look at pix 2. This is the card with heat sink removed. Easy to do...
C: Look at Pix 3. This is a close up of the main chip for the board.
Note and write down the chip-set number. That number is GF116-200-KA-A1
D: Go to any search engine (any old yahoo is good enough) and type in the
chip-set number. It will tell you what the board type and series it actually is,
within the first 3 answers...
It is as YOU can see, it a GTS 450 board designed 7 or 8 years ago..
It has been reprogrammed to say it is something else, but the chip numbers
cannot lie. It is this reprogramming that makes it not work. The computer is
told to work with a GTX 960, and when it sends data to the card that it can't
handle because it is really something else, it all crashes...
Two other quick things I can mention to all you readers.
1. The box has a certified for Windows 7 symbol/sticker on it. The real 650 should say Windows 10...
2. You can see from the pictures it has a VGA plug on one of the card outputs. NVIDIA stopped using and putting these connectors on many MANY years ago...
I hope this helps the curious, and saves someone from the overwhelming amount of Chinese counterfeits...