Got stung on ebay with fake 1050ti. Seems I can get a refund and do not have to send to china. Will find out if true or not.

Bios was modded to report 1050ti and they removed the 6 pin power connector which caused the full draw of 100+ watts through the motherboard (msi-7593) and a shutdown time of 2-3 minutes barely enough to get a photograph of gpu-z report. Another motherboard did not shut down as I had this card on a powered riser so there was not problem with the power. It seems to be a gtx-400 but cant even function as one in a normal motherboard setup.




vendor
https://www.ebay.com/itm/123841608733

yup, been a problem for several years now.

basically don't buy the unbranded GPUs. they're all fake.

stick to known brands like EVGA/MSI/Gigabyte/Zotac/ASUS/etc.

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Seti@Home classic workunits: 29,492 CPU time: 134,419 hours

It seems to be a gtx-400 but cant even function as one in a normal motherboard setup.

I happened across a video on You tube where someone brought one of these to see what they got

He couldn't load the drivers for a 1050 ti and as you say the BIOS reported a 1050 ti. However when he had a look the chip was from a GTS 450!!

If it has no makers name on the card/fan it is a fake, they all are which is why they sell so cheaply,

Apparently you can re-flash the BIOS back to the original and it will function as a GTS 450.

If it seems to good to be true.......

I returned it using free ebay postage. However, the address was a warehouse on a dock in New Jersey which is not promising.

One of my kids visited Beijing about 7-8 years ago and bought a 256gb flash drive from a seller off the street. Typical flash was 2gb and a 64gb was almost unheard of so he gave the seller an SD from his camera and asked him to copy a picture to this huge 256gb flash to prove it was not a fake. The seller used his "store" PC to copy the SD and showed the picture was on the flash but when he got back to the hotel room and tried to use it on his own PC it was a fake. The picture showed up but nothing else could be written to the device.

No worries... eBay (and Amazon) will cover if you bought fake merchandise. Make sure to initiate a return with "Doesn't seem genuine" and open a case with eBay if there are any issues. eBay and Amazon got as large as they are for a reason. :^) (OK, many reasons, but this is one of them!)

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You would think that if you were making a fake VGA card you would at least make one that would "work" in some way, Then 90% of your sales might not notice that that they actually had a GT630 for example.

They might wonder why their game frame rate or RAC was a bit sad, but the card would at least "work" as a display adaptor.

You would think that if you were making a fake VGA card you would at least make one that would "work" in some way, Then 90% of your sales might not notice that that they actually had a GT630 for example.

They might wonder why their game frame rate or RAC was a bit sad, but the card would at least "work" as a display adaptor.

The fake gtx 1060's I got all "worked" but wouldn't run a Linux Tbar's All-in-one gpu task that insisted on higher chip levels. So it is possible to get "higher quality" fakes.....

Tom

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A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association).

Some tips to avoid buying counterfeit items on Ebay:

If you're in the US, set a search filter to include "US Only" or "North America" only items. This will remove the majority of knock-off results directly from China, but many Chinese merchants are now somehow able to list their location as being in the US when they are not, and some actually have warehouses over here.

Look for broken english (or chinglish) in the item description, however slight. You'll get good at noticing the slight syntax variations they use, and be able to identify chinglish words and phrasing as compared to just poor english.

Many counterfeit sellers are starting to use much better english in their listings, and I suspect this is because they are having a third party write the stock listing for them. However, if you send them a message through Ebay asking questions about a suspected product, this will normally fall apart and their response will abound with chinglish.

Look through their other active auction listings for other items which seem like they may be knockoffs. Normally these trolls will have many different fake items for sale, and this is a good place to spot red flags.

Look through their recent feedback; both feedback they have received and feedback they have left for others. Keep an eye out here for both customer complaints about poor quality and unusually slow shipping (because that item listed in California is actually coming from China). Also look here for more chinglish in the feedback they are leaving.

Note the product photos they are using. If they appear generic and are identical to the photos being used by many other sellers, this is a red flag.

If an item is listed as "new" while also being noticeably cheaper than even the "used" items which are authentic, then it is most likely a fake.

Make sure the seller has stated that they accept returns in the listing if you have any doubts. Many do not. Most likely this will easily allow Ebay and Paypal to protect you, otherwise it may be a long battle for you to get your money back, if you are able to get it back at all.

Do your research. If it sounds to good to be true, then it is.

Worked out OK for me. Seller accepted the return and refunded my money when I promised "seller good communicator" with positive feedback. There were 9 other boards sold and I checked before buying and it looked ok. What thru me off was the price was actually about right for a used board.