September 22, 2023
Crypto Miners Scam GPU Buyers By Painting Memory Chips, What You Need to Know

yellowed memory chips hero
Why the patrons Caution if they’re contemplating analyzing the used graphics playing cards market. Nonetheless, distributors of used and probably abused previous graphics playing cards have provide you with a brand new method to cheat GPU-hungry individuals: paint reminiscence chips to make them appear like new from the manufacturing facility.
It’s fairly frequent for reminiscence ICs to amass a distinctly yellow tint after extended use and at sustained excessive temperatures. If somebody is skilled graphics card If the customer, having had the chance to rigorously test a board earlier than shopping for, sees yellowed chips on the PCB, this can be a warning signal that the thought-about product is totally not model new. Neither is it prone to have been used for “mild gaming solely”, a “newly opened to take a look at” merchandise, or perhaps a “duplicate reward” and thus an undesirable merchandise.
So what is going to somebody who needs to promote a bunch of previous mining graphics playing cards do to get the perfect value they will get, particularly if samples have yellowing reminiscence ICs? Brazilian YouTubers Iskandar Souza and Paulo Gomes speculate that among the used GPUs imported from China now have reminiscence ICs which might be painted over to forestall yellowing. this video Observed by (Portuguese solely) VideoCardzOne can find that YouTubers are looking for a bought AliExpress (SJF Retailer). GeForce RTX 3060 Ti very cautious. At about minute 18 of the video, you will see a ‘painted’ Samsung reminiscence chip scraped with a scalpel, revealing the yellowish floor beneath.

In fact, graphics card scammers do not use opaque ‘paint’ to recoat the reminiscence IC, as this renders the print unreadable and makes potential patrons much more curious. As a substitute, they utilized a really skinny coating of coloring matter. At about 18 minutes and 20 seconds of the video, you may see this extraordinarily skinny layer eliminated utilizing a sizzling air station and scalpel. It comes out as ultra-fine flakes. At first you would possibly suppose the letters have been scraped as effectively, however a quick polish after the tint has been eliminated exhibits the writing is there and stays extremely readable.

scrape off old paint

All through the video, viewers are given some extra revealing indicators to be careful for relating to used graphics playing cards which will have had a tough life in crypto mines. If the used graphics card has been completely cleaned, there in all probability will not be any mud and dust deposits to test, however you may search for indicators of use akin to; guarantee tag breaks, lacking screws, screw heads with contact put on, oxidized electrical contacts, and apparently the substrate across the GPU might be a a lot darker inexperienced resulting from warmth and getting old (see picture under).

GPU substrate color change with age and temperature

One in all our most up-to-date tales concerning the risks of used and legacy mining GPUs concerned a bunch of used AMD Radeon RX 6900 and 6800 GPUs with a really excessive efficiency ratio. physical GPU silicon failure. Please watch out, readers, and for those who’re drawn to used objects, attempt to purchase them from a company that provides some form of guarantee.

#Crypto #Miners #Rip-off #GPU #Consumers #Portray #Reminiscence #Chips

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *