Testing a SCAM Graphics Card

[@GregSalazar]

Hi, everyone! So I know these kinds of "fake" graphics cards have been circulating the internet for a few years - we've even made videos about them. But in this current climate with new and used cards selling for 2x or even 3x what they were a year or two ago, I feel it's important to not only SAY why they're a bad idea but also to SHOW why they're a bad idea. In desperation, someone may still fancy a Fermi "1050 Ti," and this video serves to demonstrate why you shouldn't. Hope that makes sense. Enjoy!

[@IanB1015]

Wasn’t there a website that guaranteed a “chance” at a “good” GPU? I feel like GN or maybe even you had one of these earlier this year?? 🧐

[@beyondin]

@Fahad Saeed use a modern APU instead, like the ryzen 5X00G apus

[@beyondin]

@Fahad Saeed still better than wasting whatever money on a 450. Even ryzen 3000 apus will run better.

[@DIYTech21]

pufffffffff

[@kavibharathik2228]

1050ti will not have vga🤣😭

[@roei2086]

Video exactly in time! Before a good night sleep.

[@theweasel144]

This video is perfect on time for dinner

[@carlitojones2082]

It’s 5pm?

[@theweasel144]

@@carlitojones2082 you do realize different places have different timezones?

[@have.a.vice.day_]

1.08 am in Bangladesh lol

[@paladinsrecyclebin5763]

I'm watching dis at 2 amo:-)

[@DeerJerky]

I think the VRAM speculation could be correct. Maybe nothing was physically wrong, but the GTS 450 has 1GB of VRAM while the 1050 Ti has 4GB. I'm guessing the game tried to load more than 1GB of data in VRAM at launch, but the VBIOS currently installed let it write all of it into VRAM (since it thinks it has more than 1GB), instead of splitting it into shared system RAM. Basically, the system let the game write the 1025th megabyte of data into VRAM, but since the 1025th megabyte of VRAM doesn't physically exist on the card, it is completely unable to be written to anything and the entire system just has no clue what's going on so it just locks up and dies.

[@arandomhivenoob2030]

This is the same thing I commented bruh

[@blacksta-r]

Its just stupid

[@lijhay2889]

@@arandomhivenoob2030 bruh I saw your comment but @Deer Jerky's comment looks better and can be understood easily

[@arandomhivenoob2030]

@@lijhay2889 yea im russian and im bad at english:/

[@SSJfraz]

It's incredible how these exact graphics cards are still all over ebay and amazon and no matter how many times you warn these platforms of the scam, they proceed to do absolutely nothing about it.

[@shaneeslick]

Kinda like how for every competition Jay ran during November even though he Repeatedly said 'Don't Reply to the What's app comments saying you won, They are a Scam' he was getting messages from people who Sent Money to the Scammers Saying he is responsible & Demanding their Money Back from Him

[@SSJfraz]

@@shaneeslick Yeah, I seen that video. It's incredible just how thick and gullible some people are.

[@shaneeslick]

@@Josh-cw8by He doesn't want all replies Disabled, He wants to be able to disable replies with certain characters so that the Bot What's App ones will be banned, Jay said apparently someone else has enable this for their platform & it works really well stopping most of them getting through.

[@shaneeslick]

@@Josh-cw8by Yes I knew you meant replies on comments like what we are doing here, which is why I said replies not comments because he can just turn all comments off, "Jay wants replies on comments gone." No. He doesn't want to Ban all replies to viewers comments, because that would stop conversations like this one or viewers being able to help answer questions of other viewers, At the moment he has to read every reply to all the comments to find the Bot ones, He wants YT to implement a better way to auto segregate & ban the Bot Comments, as I said he mentioned there is another platform that has a way of Banning Replies with certain Characters (like Numbers with a Background) that the Bots use, "Dislikes are gone." No they are not gone, it has just been changed so only YT & the Creator can see the Count Jay is one of those who was saying that removing the Dislike Count was a Bad Idea because Doesn't want to silence viewers, it is much easier to say "He should just ignore the angry comments" than it is to do because it eats at him, Did you not see how the 'Why are you Building a PC with a GPU' Abuse comments were affecting him also. He is the centre of the J2C Community & he does care about those who are a part of it more than just seeing him as 'a Monkey on the Screen to Entertain', Jay wants people to have an Emotionally Safe Community where people can Learn watching the video content from him, Phil, Nick or get answers in comments from other viewers that may have answers, not like the Toxicity of Reddit Forums

[@shaneeslick]

@@Josh-cw8by "Insulting my intelligence isn't cool." "I didn't do that to you." You did it to me starting this 'Convo', because you are trying to tell me I Don't Understand what Jay was asking for because I focused on the whole Conversation, Where you had a different opinion because you focused on a specific sentence, so... also if you believe "Insulting my intelligence isn't cool" then be offended by yourself, because YOU Blatantly did it to Jay in your first comment, remember "Jay really isn't that bright." Can't get more " Insulting Someone's intelligence" than that so please "Don't continue this convo"

[@stevengershenfeld7705]

It possibly crashed because the bios was reporting it as a 1050 which has more features than the 450. If you reflash it to what it is supposed to be, the older games should probably run.

[@genegtaylor]

This is also what I think. The games wouldn't run because of the modded bios. I have resurrected a card that someone practically gave away as "bad" and the only problem was the bios. A wonky bios causes big issues with the drivers and DX.

[@knownnuisance7512]

you forgot that the 1050ti has 4 gb of vram and the gts 450 not

[@deeg4n000]

its because the bios that is flashed expects more vram which the card does not have.

[@genegtaylor]

I'm not sure it is a 4GB vs the 512mb-2GB a GTS 450 has. In the GPU-Z screenshot the memory amount shows as zero. Having the wrong bios causes many issues including unstable clock speeds, enabled features that aren't present, etc.

[@KillerTacos54]

Great video Greg. Great warning for people who are getting desperate in this awful GPU market of late

[@LadBooboo]

To anyone who's not really knowledgeable about GPUs: GTX 9/10/16 Cards and up have no VGA out. That's a a sign on a fake GPU.

[@sijedevos2376]

Exactly

[@adityaa54]

thanks for the information

[@mikemayo4812]

A card I got back in 2004 had no VGA port. Just two DVI ports which was standard at the time. I remember having to use an adaptor when I still had a monitor that only supported VGA input.

[@vishwajeetpanwar3271]

even 5xx dint have vga I had GTX 560 and had to use dva to vga

[@letto18]

Go through flashing with a proper GTS 450 BIOS, specially a BIOS with the proper VRAM amount. The issues you had regarding memory is the fact that the 1050Ti got 4GB VRAM while the GTS 450 got at most half that though likely even less so it's trying to address non existent VRAM.

[@Dennn90]

Went to the trouble of desoldering bios chip (nvflash refused to work, no matter how long I tried) finding suitable bios for the card, flashing with programmer (it took like 4 or 5 tries to find the one). The card is detected, runs benchmark for 20-200 seconds and freezes, artifacts or black screens (before it black screened immediately), underclocking or undervolting isn't helping, GPU probably was dead prior to bios mod. Got the card for free and done all of this just for fun. Also I've using it for 6 pin PCI-E tester, if I'll burn it, I don't care.

[@djjay7777]

Great video Greg, people need to be more aware and make smarter buying decisions, always do a thorough research on the item, images, specs, I/o ports, etc. If it seems too good to be true, probably a scam or fake item

[@lvc394]

The 450 was a great card when dial-up modems were a thing. If the card has VGA, just stay away.

[@gamerxt333]

Not totally, a 700 series like a 750ti or higher, is still "good" with lower settings, and even more for the previous gen.

[@lvc394]

@@gamerxt333 Hmmm my 750ti (or the one I took out of my daughters system) does not have a VGA port but I believe you because the 730 has one.

[@davapod]

These scam cards have been on ebay for years.. always have an old vga port...always have a twin fan set up with a crap heatsink...A gtx 550 ti if you are lucky.

[@manlikeilyas]

gts 450 ftw

[@lanceripplinger8352]

The scams never cease to amaze. Passing of an ancient GTS 450 as an GTX 1050Ti...who woulda thunk? Merry Christmas!

[@arandomhivenoob2030]

Greg,The reason that the games are crashing a is because the video card’s bios is reporting that it has 4gb vram because the vbios is made and 1050ti has 4gb vram when the game tries to use more than the amount of vram on the p b the card will crash hence windows will crash with it

[@tomr3422]

I have a GTS 750 that I have kept for trouble shooting emergencies( I think I paid $ 65 for it many years ago) I have seen them used for $150 to $210 lately, I always message the seller and offer them one for $75 to $105, they get mad.

[@thegamerfe8751]

Honestly, something like that should cost at most a family of four's worth dinner at a not so fancy restaurant.

[@teamofone1219]

I believe they are charging that much so it can pay for shipping and still net them a little bit of a profit.

[@hansfox]

Greg and family 😍, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 💻🖥⌨🖱 And Greetings from Hans of the Dutch Lowlands NL 😷 🖖

[@lesdoodis121]

At least you got your money back right? Great video as always Greg! Ever think about setting up a VM and clicking on sketchy emails/links so we don't have to?

[@ionamygdalon2263]

Hey, thank you so much! Very important for many trying to get a second hand GPU.

[@Diviance]

I bought one of these off eBay once as a backup card in case something happened on one of my machines and I needed to check if it was the GPU. I did so being fully aware it was a scam card. I got it, made sure it was a fake card... and just did a chargeback through PayPal. Ruled in my favor, got to keep the card and screwed the scammer over a bit. Still got it. Sitting in my closet in the box it came in. To maybe be useful one day.

[@tylerm.9408]

Damn scammers, thanks for looking out Greg!

[@timmanboy1]

Those guys certainly make their money. With youtubers buying those things and showing them off. Which causes more youtubers to keep buying them. I find great entertainment in these videos. With you guys trying to game on them. Or at least trying to get them to run

[@markteeee]

Thumbs up for pointing these out again, sadly people still buying these and getting badly ripped off.

[@gtdirttobgl2535]

:( I have u fortunately been scammed then. I have the exact model and i knew that the price was unreal to be true and had the same issue of it blacking out, thanks for making this video since i now know my 550 is better than the fake.

[@popanda3652]

Now thats installed we can play runescape at max settings! I can see my green party hat in FULL GLORY!

[@jasonbrunskowski2625]

Honestly loving the 5600G that I put in my son’s build. My kids have been able to play the games they like with no issues. It was like $269 when I bought it, which was cheaper than any other viable graphics card I could find.

[@reamoinmcdonachadh9519]

Hi Greg, first off... Happy Holidays, or Merry Christmas. There is ONE thing you could do with that card, dis-assemble it, and mount the board in a frame, and stick a label on the frame "FAKE GT1050Ti" and put on a wall to remind you NOT to buy from scuzzy "surprise auctions"

[@themixgenius1993]

even without opening a "GTX 1050 Ti" or opening it with GPU-Z, you can tell it is fake if it has a VGA port, because the legit GTX 10 series graphics cards even my GT 1030 had no VGA ports..

[@bitelaserkhalif]

Afaik, colorful made gt 1030 with VGA port. Or zotac.

[@mckrackin5324]

I built a new PC and re-used my old graphics card because, well, current pricing is ridiculous. I want to use the old PC for KZbin videos and Amazon Prime and stuff like that. My solution to get a 1080p display was a $15 NVS 310 1GB from eBay. I highly suggest that route instead of gambling on these scammy cards. The little 310 works great. I doubt I own any games that will play on it but that's what the Ryzen 7/ GTX 1070 is for. Hopefully pricing levels out this new year and I can bring my GPU up to my CPU. But yeah, $15 NVS 310 is the way to go if all you want is a working display.

[@fossda]

I believe the freezing during loading games is due to them trying to allocate more VRAM than the card actually has, as the fake BIOS tells the system it has more VRAM than in reality.

[@dhgodzilla1]

What is funny is they have been making scam cards like this since at least 2014 & they look almost exactly the same now as than

[@davapod]

Same crappy look😆

[@dariopiovani5077]

Somewhere, there's a Dawid saying "Oof, could've scored this one for myself instead" - as a self proclaimed scam GTS 450 hoarder lol "Fo fiddy".

[@deadheadwalls]

I unfortunately fell for this scam 😪 from a Facebook market place listing was even from someone the county over they got me for $150 it sucks

[@kairon156]

good advice. I imagine some people just want any videocard if their building a system from scratch.

[@kbotev]

Just try to re flash it with legit BIOS and see what will happen... for science ;)

[@rajaitawil2073]

Unfortunately I bought the same fake card from Amazon. I wouldn't know what the heck was happening every time I update the card driver it turn blank screen then I do not see anything till I reboot and switch to onboard VGA to see the screen again and uninstall any updates. I tried several times to play online virtual game and it keeps on crashing. Thank you Greg for helping.

[@MrDarkcore]

Looks like the junk you get off Wish! lol

[@TronixGuy93]

All windows 10+ problems. EVERY SINGLE GAME would have worked on 7.

[@Twitch_Moderator]

I got a 770ti Classified for $80 when I sold my 2070 Super. Then I sold it for $100 in September 2020 when my RTX 3080 arrived. I wish Nvidia would even crank out the GTX 1650 for people who just want to game. Nvidia should mass produce the 1650 cards without much difficulty. It even uses GDDR5 vram. Old stuff. Not scarce.

[@stevensamphier4934]

I have this gpu but my pc doesn't pick it up anymore im so frustrated because ive had my pc for a year now and cant even use it until i can find another gpu in my budget

[@RANDOMNATION907]

Would make sense in a socket 775 build. GREG!, I have a question. The RX 6600XT has a PCIe Gen4 x8 interface. How bad does performance take a hit on a B450 (PCIe Gen3) Board? Also , Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to everyone! 🎅🎄🎁 Cheers from Alaska 🎅🎄🎁

[@lagginswag]

Iirc pcie 4 x8 is the same as pcie 3 x16

[@RANDOMNATION907]

@@lagginswag Thank you, But the RX 6600XT only has 8 lanes/connections, so it would be connecting at PCIe Gen3x8 on a B450 MoBo. 🎅🎄🎁 Happy Holidays!

[@TheJaniable]

I would not even dare to put that thing into my computer.

[@mistermudpie]

The 450 had 1GB of ram IIRC, the 1050Ti has 4GB, so of course games crash when they try to load something into those nonexistent 3GB of memory, which are falsely reported by the bios.

[@natebaby335]

For anyone looking for a newer card, if it has blue on the rear I/O, don't buy, it's 100% older than the 10 series cards. Dvi is fine, most 10 series and some 16, maybe 20 series cards have them (the white port)

[@shaneeslick]

G'day Greg, So is this the start of a 'Who has the most Fake GPUs' Competition with Dawid? 🤣

[@ConfusionDistortion]

You're brave to even try one of these in a system anymore. They are building these to blow systems now and kill motherboards, as a method of making the buyer think there was something else wrong with their pc.

[@certs743]

The scam cards are garbage but one possible use case for a genuine GTS 450 would be a as a troubleshooting tool just to confirm video output issues on older and newer systems. Just a thought.

[@christosgian.8399]

Joke's on you scammers, I already have my own legit gts450 in my pc. God knows for how much longer 😅

[@KitaPrime]

I bought one of these cards a few years ago when i built my first computer, looked up 4gb graphics card on amazon, seen this one for like $60, bought it and when it arrived, i was trying to game on it and it wouldn't run anything, a lot of artifacting, a lot of lagging in games that it would run. i still have it here with me, i dropped it and it stopped working, i was trying to tinker with it to see what gpu it actually is, but won't even work. valuable lesson learnt though, always read the description and buy from trusted sellers.

[@Wabajck]

The funniest is when you find the etchings on the dye itself have been scratched off to hide the true details

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

A GPU not worthy of PCDC!

[@ai2_tv]

Your ending was inevitable.. 😂

[@helljester8097]

So when are you going to make a round up all the fake cards with their generic coolers up side by side? 😂

[@thailand6388]

Don't forget to report the seller after making content with this fake GPU

[@RyugaHidekiOrRyuzaki]

This thing's so old, it still has Elpida memory, an old Japanese memory maker who went bankrupt and was then bought by Micron.

[@Joe-wk9ow]

I think the reason the card keeps crashing is because the driver says one thing and the bios another. I would try to flash a GTS 450 bios if you really wanted to see what a 450 can do in 2021

[@stephenxs8354]

You can fix these type of cards by re-flashing with a suitable bios and/or downclocking. Downclocking is needed for those crappy memory ones.

[@fluxypoo]

My favorite video to this day was when Greg compared the intel heatsink copper slug vs aluminum.

[@grommy1234]

Did I hear the famed "Wilhelm Scream"? Steven Spielberg would be proud.

[@beasttitan8747]

Greg you better stop fooling around with them Gas Station GPUs before you burn 🔥 that house down.

[@AndyMitchellUK26]

A lot of games won't run correctly or at all due to how old the drivers are. DirectX is well out of date and the architecture is so old that it's just not worth owning any more.

[@shanepearce1629]

one thing you should look out for is listing DDR 5 on the ads of old video cards

[@Kilometers_KPH]

Just seeing a VGA output on the back on a card claiming to be a GTX 1050ti is huge red flag

[@ChristmasCrustacean1]

at least no gpu manufacturers are selling GT730's which are rebadged 630's which are rebadged 430's... right MSI, right?

[@TBomb85]

"I've seen this same exact video several times, i know exactly what's going to happen... Right? Right? ... Hmmm, better watch it and make sure" 👀

[@cortesacrawford]

Don't forget that new Igpus have many non performance related features that old gpus just dont support.

[@seansollars70]

Yeah, I ordered a 1060 6gb from Walmart and it is actually a 460 one gb card. I paid 180 for the bad bad graphics card

[@Hr1s7i]

I wouldn't be able to justify it. With 1GB if vram it can't really do much. The moment we step into 1080p, territory or above, this gpu is out of it's league for basically anything that's not watching movies, although even that might be moot at this point. I had to get a 2GB gt 220 over the 1GB model for my living room multimedia simply because I had significant problems dealing with blu-ray decoding. Yikes on all fronts for this gpu tbh.

[@XBEAST321]

Very Nice Bro Keep It Up

[@michaeloneill1360]

Thanks again, Buyer Beware & always buy from a 'Trusted Source'!

[@kagon01]

"You're just unlucky". That is what those scammers always say when they screw you.

[@d.b.8684]

Hey Greg, I wanted to get your opinion on the off brand RX 580-590 GPUs being sold on Aliexpress. They are priced pretty much the same as the name brand cards being sold.

[@Troglodytemtg]

I would be curious to see if the vram issue goes away if you flash the fake card with the appropriate firmware. Or buy a real 450 and compare the 2

[@spidermanrulez2]

The awkward silence when you asked me to subscribe, but already been subscribed lmao

[@GregSalazar]

LOL I never really thought of that 😅

[@Rman0712]

Since the CPU I have in my TrueNAS system doesn't have an IGP, I have an old fermi card in there (think it's a 560) exclusively for video out, for accessing bios or the command line. I think that's really the only use case left for these old cards now.

[@LordAtrocities]

My friend was so desperate for a video card that he ignored my advice and bought a card from a shady site. He was gloating that he scored a 3090 Ti FTW Extreme Gaming RGB Boosted (ya never heard of it either). When it arrived in a plain brown box, and it was literally a used 8800 GT series card. It was so bad that the fans were encrusted in dirt. He refused to believe he was scammed, though... He is one of those guys who often falls for scams. You can't save people from themselves. I just laugh and move on.

[@wildkatzgaming]

So he believes that the 8800GT was a 3090ti? Lol 😆

[@LordAtrocities]

@@wildkatzgaming He didn't know until it arrived and couldn't get it too work. I drive over and am just stunned. Keep in mind this is the guy who bought a B450 and tried to install a 10100 on it because ... Muh Cheap.

[@wildkatzgaming]

@@LordAtrocities Really? Poor guy, I hope he actually gets to know a bit more about tech. Installing a 10100 on an AM4 board is not really a professional builders mistake.

[@LordAtrocities]

@@wildkatzgaming He lucked out and won the Newegg Suffle and got a good card. My only concern is hey might sell it thinking he can win again and make some money.

[@wildkatzgaming]

@@LordAtrocities I hope he doesn't. Getting a decent card these days is a real blessing.

[@alekpo2000]

they get this cards for free, are trash cards discarded by the factory for reasons... thats why it crashes, even if u fix it got hardware issues more likely

[@Betonoszlop]

Its a Frakenstein videocard creation from old recycled parts. Just look how much bigger the fans are compared to the actual circuit panel

[@TheGeeMan]

It might be okay in a DIY Plex server transcoding videos to 720p or 1080p, or in a basic computer for browsing the internet/checking emails.

[@LunarSmack]

Hey Greg, I got one of these in a prebuilt off Amazon, is there anything i could do about it?

[@markkilley2683]

You can also tell by the numbers on the board. I bought a card from a business that said I have a GTX 55OTI. It was actually a GTS450 board. Your board, printed on it says p106, which tells me it's a GTS450.

[@szaito6180]

man im still running an ancient relic from 2008 which is GeForce 9400 GT and still wondering how it holds up to this day

[@Kristofferjohn]

If somebody ends up buying this card can it still be use only to explore the internet?

[@djordjemajkopronalazac5428]

It might be scam, but it's still better than mine :D

[@MurdocAV]

I dare you to find a use for this on your fix or flop series. It would probably ruin the client's day.

[@paulraysupan3283]

Great video greg! These scam cards are more rampant nowadays because of the high price of legit GPU everywhere. As far as I know the VGA port was discontinued after the gtx 500 series lineup. Buyer's beware! If you see a card not only claiming as GTX 1050 and has a vga port? 1 word - AUTOPASS!

[@Wilksey75]

Mutton dressed up as lamb if I ever see it

[@AbdullaSulaimani]

Some people modify the bios of these scam graphics cards. I don't know how they do it but they modify them.

[@14thgate]

Got this exact card from Walmart a few months ago. Luckily I got the refund, and a good lesson hahaha.

[@RonnieMcNutt666]

i recently bought a "4gb" tablet from amazon that, big shock was actually.. wait for it.. a 1gb ddr2 tablet that the makers were so kind as to include A FAKE HWINFO ON THE TABLET THAT SAID IT HAD 4GB! LOL!

[@aronfisker9537]

Few years ago I was almost buying one of these in wish. The price back then was tempting but glad I didn’t

[@RaimaNd]

If you want to buy a really cheap but good GPU just buy a GTX 960. Even the 2GB version is slightly better than the 1050Ti 4GB version and those can be bought on ebay for 50-60 euro.

[@seven5oul]

The first thing I noticed when you open GPUZ was GPU clock 650 MHz & memory 750 MHz loool

[@meglovoid1638]

Okay this is a long shot but this is my last resort, but would you know what would cause a 2070 super to black screen every time I install the latest drivers? When I boot the pc into safe mode the gpu works just fine and I’m able to install all the drivers I need but the second I try to boot my pc normally I get a black screen until the pc restarts itself and starts windows recovery. (Sorry about the punctuation I hope anybody can help because I can’t find anything online)

[@chester3087]

People are making scams out of everything

[@marcc5768]

I'd use that card as a GPU testing card to see if the PCI-E slot works, or alternatively use it in a Linux build, web surfer or office machine..non-gamer build. I still have a used GTx 460 I got from a Kijiji sale back in early 2020...just to swap out a 8600GT Palit 1GB card. Said Palit 1GB 8600GT I have running inside a hybrid new/used Xeon e5-2650 v2 build I just assembled in Oct 2021.

[@1976axerhand]

? What is the name of your program that you use for CPU and memory useage? I have one but it locks up my screen after 30 minutes.

[@mayrebap]

How do I understand the GPU model after removing heatsink from the processor?

[@n8than26]

I almost buy this using my first paycheck when i was a pc newbie.. But it kinda fishy so i buy other gpu instead.. i really really proud about that life choice until this day...

[@ConfusedRaccoon]

Could any of the coolers be harvested and slapped to the back of a 3090 to help cool those back memory chips? And are you at least reporting them for scams?

[@teamofone1219]

Reporting a product does very little to help the situation.

[@COMRADEALPHA]

In the Philippines a lot of people are falling for this and buying them for $100. Which is 5k Php.

[@JDM-Chaser]

Looks like the one I bought from eBay , even shipped in a OG box , sent it back and got a Rx 570 sapphire 8gb oc edition from a different seller for £100 was a absolute bargain wish I never sold my old setup